David Sibeko

David Sibeko (1969)

David Maphumzana Sibeko (26 August 1938 in Johannesburg, South Africa – 12 June 1979 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania), was known as the "Malcolm X of South Africa" and began his political career as a journalist for the black South African Magazine Drum. During his tenure with that magazine, he became a leading figure within the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (South Africa). David Maphumzana Sibeko was born on the 26th August 1938 in the Sophiatown district of Johannesburg. As the son of a successful dairy farmer and business man, David’s early years were structured in the first hand knowledge and experience steeped in the discipline of work ethic, retail and a intuitive grasp of the importance of community. Being a child in Sophiatown also exposed David to the “school of hard knocks” as it were, because of the way of life that dictated the ebb and flow of existence was a vicious as it was instructive. Not an environment for the faint of heart, a young David learned that survival was imperative number one and everything else fed off that reality. A young David also saw firsthand the viciousness of the Apartheid state’s policy of forced removal of black Africans from Sophiatown and how the destruction of the community he knew as his only dwelling environment was simply feature of Apartheid’s true nature to pursue and enforce white supremacy at all costs. This racist oppression designed to subjugate Africans in each area of their lives was as impacting as it was a source of rage for David and others and would feed a fire for true freedom that burned inside him for the rest of his life. It would leave an indelible impression on young David’s psyche, and govern his actions for his path to be that of a “difference maker”. This deep imprint of the cruel nature of Apartheid spurned David into a life of activism that saw it result in him joining the newly formed Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) as a founding member and entrench himself in the pursuit of armed revolution upon the PAC’s banning after the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960 by joining Poqo – the armed wing of the PAC. David was soon selected by the underground leadership of the PAC to become the Poqo commander in chief of the Vaal Triangle, south of Johannesburg and bordering the Orange Free State. The flurry of activity had gripped the country and arrests were made en masse of PAC members nationwide, which also resulted in the summary execution of more than 200 of its members. David himself was arrested and charged under the infamous Sabotage Act; and within the charges a plot to kill the then South African Minister of police, John Balthazar Vorster (who would later become Prime Minister and his crony, Jimmy Kruger). Released from jail after spending close to a year in custody, David was given instructions by the underground leadership of the PAC to leave the country and go into Africa and subsequently the rest of the world and build the PAC exile capacity and use his other talent – broadcast, publicize and mobilize support for the liberation of South Africa from the tyranny of an Apartheid regime bent on violence and systematic suppression of the African majority. The winds of change were blowing on the African continent and South Africa was another flashpoint. After escaping the Special Branch of the South African police and into neighbouring Bechuanaland (Present Day Botswana), David, joined his family and began a sojourn up through Zambia and eventually established the Dar es Salaam branch of the PAC in Tanzania as its external headquarters in 1964 and suddenly, the seeds of a robust revolutionary exile presence on the African continent had taken root and changed the strategic calculation of the liberation struggle of South Africa. This historic progress would initiate a path of representation and commitment to the revolution that David Sibeko and his compatriots saw as the only feasible option for regime change in South Africa; the revolutionary tactic of armed struggle with the uncompromising backing of a newly independent African state throwing its weight behind the PAC and its supreme aim. After having establishing the headquarters in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, David went for military training in Egypt and Algeria and became instrumental in the transformation of Poqo into the Azanian People’s Liberation Army (APLA) and spearheading the international awareness on the evils of the Apartheid government throughout and beyond the African continent. His travels took him to the People’s Republic of China, Vietnam, Albania and a host of other countries in an effort to galvanize the necessary support to assist the PAC in the liberation of his mother land. In 1969, the PAC office in the UK was established in London and it served as a springboard for greater awareness and travel on the European Continent, The United States and the world to highlight the plight of the indigenous African under the crushing rule of a fascist Apartheid Government. Taking the lead in establishing vital connections within the United Nations, The Non Aligned Movement, The Commonwealth group of nations, The Organization of African Unity(OAU) and other global bodies, David’s consistent efforts to present the case of his people’s oppression allowed him to create milestones and meet individuals that were decisive allies of a vanquished people. Among them were: Ho Chi Minh, Yasser Arafat, Marshall Tito, Sekou Toure, Julius Nyerere and Samora Machel to name just a few. This was followed up when David was able to establish a PAC presence at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. Subsequently in 1973 saw one of the most decisive victories against the South African government in the United Nations, when David successfully spearheaded the charge to have the racist regime kicked out of the Security Council at the UN headquarters in New York. Within less than years, he had established and got the PAC observer status at the United Nations and was along with being the Permanent Representative of the PAC to the UN, had elevated himself to becoming the Director of Foreign Affairs for the PAC. This essentially meant that David was in charge of establishing PAC offices throughout the world and the appointment of the personnel to man those respective offices. It was a considerable responsibility, however it was needed because the liberation movement in South Africa had its context within an even larger global struggle between superpowers, as the Cold War was at its height in the mid 1970’s. The victorious armed struggle won in Guinea Bissau, Mozambique and Angola meant that the momentum for similar armed struggle was inevitable in South Africa. The point was driven home because of the guerrilla wars in South West Africa (Current day Namibia) and the former Rhodesia (Current Day Zimbabwe) had drawn the South African government into armed conflicts that put a strain on the Apartheid government in terms of its military and economic resources. The stakes grew higher by the day and the involvement of the South African military in an Angola had only upped the stakes. The flurry of activity David Sibeko found himself embroiled in on behalf of the PAC saw him become a virtual globe trotter in his effort to articulate the implications these events had on the liberation of the disposed masses of South Africa. However, David’s activities on behalf of the PAC were not limited to his role as the Director of Foreign Affairs. He was also actively involved in galvanizing support across the United States in building a robust Anti-Apartheid movement on the college campuses, and within city and state legislatures and amongst communities and organizations to use the leverage that they had to intensify the embargoes needed to strangle the Apartheid government financially and politically. On top of that, he was tasked with keeping a very involved hand in sharpening the military decision of the PAC as a member of its Central Committee and APLA high command. June 16th 1976 changed the dimensions of the liberation struggle permanently for David as the uprising that spread across the country demanded that his efforts had to be redoubled as the exodus of young people that had been involved in the countless massacres and confrontation with the Apartheid military machinery sought military training so they could in turn go back and fight the racist regime. The momentum after June 16th 1976 picked up a deadly speed and would see the training and arming of the PAC’s military wing APLA for confrontation with the Apartheid regime accelerate with irreversible thrust. The OAU had thrown their weight behind armed struggle with its Liberation Committee and the lines were drawn. The armed struggle in South Africa, just like in South West Africa and Rhodesia had taken precedence and David found himself in the middle of this development, however, a sinister development had occurred within the matrix of liberation politics. The increased acts of guerrilla warfare and sabotage in South Africa was met with increased violence as the Apartheid government took the war beyond its borders on to African soil and killed activists and members of the liberation movements with impunity. The Apartheid state’s Bureau of State Security (BOSS) also put into play an ambitious espionage campaign that infiltrated the PAC and other liberation movements with one distinct aim. To kill any individual it deemed a threat to its existence. David Sibeko, as his influence and imprint were on so many of the activities of the PAC, his close relationship up until his death to the founding President of the PAC, Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe and his ascension into a full blown threat to the Apartheid regime with his drive to have an effective APLA operational in a full scale guerrilla war in South Africa, made him target number one for the Prime Minister P.W. Botha and his intelligence apparatus. The trend of influence had become characteristic of the life of David Sibeko, as he had come to forge close relationships with revolutionaries and statesmen alike, along with an array of like minded individuals from different walks of life that shared his revolutionary outlook. These included the late Tsietsi Mashinini, Kwame Toure (Formerly known as, Stokely Carmichael) Huey P, Newton, Andrew Young, Presidents Julius Nyere, Ahmed Sékou Touré, Lewis Farrakhan, legendary singers “Mama Africa” The late Miriam Makeba, Caiphus Semenya, Letta Mbulu, legendary poet, Don Matera and so many more. On June 12th 1979 after having being appointed as one of three members of the Presidential Council for the PAC- (The leadership structure of the liberation movement), David Maphumzana Sibeko was assassinated by gunmen in Dar Es Salaam Tanzania. The pretext given was that the assassins were disaffected members of a faction of the PAC, the reality is that the fingerprints of that operation had its origins in the intelligence structures of the Apartheid regime that David Sibeko had threatened with consistency throughout his entire adult natural life. He was two months short of his 41st Birthday. David Sibeko was buried in Gaborone Botswana in 1979. David Sibeko left behind his wife Elizabeth Rejoice Sibeko, who passed away in January 1999 and their four children. The remains of David Sibeko were taken to his final resting place in Evaton in the Vaal. David Sibeko is survived by his four children and seven grand children.

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