Peter Nchabeleng

Peter Mampogoane Nchabeleng (7 March 1928 – 11 April 1986) was a South African trade unionist and anti-apartheid activist who died in police detention in the Lebowa bantustan in April 1986. At the time of his death, he was the inaugural chairperson of the United Democratic Front in the Northern Transvaal and head of the underground African National Congress (ANC) in the same region.

Nchabeleng rose to political prominence in the 1950s in Pretoria, where he was active in the ANC, the South African Communist Party, the South African Congress of Trade Unions, and the Sebatakgomo movement of his native Sekhukhuneland. He was imprisoned on Robben Island for eight years from 1964 to 1972 on charges related to his activism as an early recruit to Umkhonto we Sizwe. In the decade after his release, he was banished to his birthplace at Apel, Northern Transvaal, where he remained active in ANC networks and where he continued to face police attention. He died on 11 April 1986 after being severely beaten by police officers who had arrested him earlier the same day. His death attracted national attention and he remains an iconic figure in the ANC.

Early life and education Nchabeleng was born on 7 March 1928 in Apel, a village in rural Sekhukhuneland in the former Northern Transvaal. He was the sixth child of Zebulon and Salome Nchabeleng As a child, he was a herd boy and completed primary school nearby; he later attended high school in Pretoria. ''' The Nchabeleng home in Abel became a key hub for ANC-affiliated political activists as Nchabeleng, his sons, and some friends "kept alive something of an ANC tradition"; for example, Nchabeleng kept a collection of political documents, including an illegal copy of the Freedom Charter, buried under the goats' kraal behind his house.

In 1983, after the United Democratic Front (UDF) was founded, Nchabeleng became an early member and was appointed to the coordinating committee established to prepare for the launch of the front's Northern Transvaal branch. At the same time, Nchabeleng remained active in the ANC underground; he was the overall head of the underground throughout the Northern Transvaal. As Ineke van Kessel later observed, the Northern Transvaal was one of the few regions in which the ANC's political and military activities were well integrated and well coordinated. causing subcutaneous bleeding that had caused him to lose consciousness and then to suffocate.

Personal life He was married to Gertrude Nchabeleng, with whom he had several children.