Johannes Phungula

Johannes Phumani Phungula (15 March 1932 – 9 August 2009) was a South African politician and former anti-apartheid activist who represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the National Assembly from 2004 to 2009. A veteran of the Defiance Campaign, he joined the ANC in 1952 and spent several decades as an underground operative for Umkhonto we Sizwe in rural Natal, working closely with Jacob Zuma. He was awarded the Order of Luthuli in Gold posthumously in December 2009.

Early life and activism Phungula was born on 15 March 1932. He grew up in Hlokozi near Ixopo on the South Coast of the former Natal Province. He joined the ANC in 1952 at the height of the Defiance Campaign, which he joined as a volunteer while working at Joko Tea in Durban. He was a union organiser at his workplace and in 1959 was deployed by the ANC to his hometown, where he was tasked with carrying out political education and recruitment among rural communities. During that period he helped mobilise women to protest against the pass laws and other apartheid legislation. In 1960, he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for his political activity, particularly his opposition to the new Bantu Authorities in the South Coast.

Umkhonto we Sizwe: 1962–1993 Upon his release in 1962, he resumed his political activity – although the ANC had by then been banned by the government – and was recruited into Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK). Among his ANC comrades, he was known as "Pass Four" – either in reference to the knock-off time for workers who sought to avoid the attention of policemen coming on duty,

Parliament: 2004–2009 In the 2004 general election, Phungula was elected to an ANC seat in the National Assembly. He served a full term in the legislature, retiring after the 2009 general election. In 2022, the council of Ubuhlebezwe Local Municipality, which subsumed Ixopo after apartheid, announced that it had decided to rename the municipality after Phungula.