Thomas Nkobi

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Thomas Titus Nkobi ("Comrade T.G.) was a senior leader of the South African ANC and a key figure in the anti-apartheid movement. Until his death he was the Treasurer General of the ANC and also its Member of Parliament.

He was born on 22 October 1922 in Southern Matabeleland. He grew up and was educated in South Africa, where his father was working in the mines as a migrant labourer. He was at Adams College with Joshua Nkomo and Bernard Chidzero . After completing high school he went to Roma College in Lesotho, pursuing a B Comm degree.

His initial political involvement was in 1944 during the Alexandra bus boycott. He formally joined the organisation in the 1950 s and played a leading role in the 1952 Defiance Campaign. He was one of the main volunteers who travelled from village to village collecting demands that were incorporated into the Freedom Charter. He attended the 1995 Kliptown Congress that drew up the Freedom Charter as a delegate from Alexandra.

The soft spoken Nkobi shot to prominence in 1957 when he chaired the Second Alexandra People s Transport Committee which was co- ordinating the bus boycott. In the same year he was arrested for participating in the potato boycott, which was organised to highlight the plight of black prisoners. In 1958 he became the National Organiser of the ANC and was charged with task of implementing the M-Plan .

During the 1960 State of Emergency, Nkobi was amongst the thousands of political activists who were detained. After his release he continued working for the ANC as National Organiser and was also prominent in the underground.

He was banned in 1961, and his orders were extended to 24 hour house arrest the following year. In 1963 Nkobi was instructed to leave South Africa for exile, where he became actively involved in mobilising international public opinion against the apartheid regime.

From 1968 to 1973 he served as deputy to then Treasurer General of the ANC, Moses Kotane. He was elected Treasurer General of the ANC in 1973, a post to which he was re-elected at all subsequent national conferences of the organisation. He was a tireless Treasurer General and travelled extensively throughout the world, soliciting funds for the various political activities and campaigns of the ANC.

After the congress was legalized and he returned to South Africa. He then oversaw the group's budget for South Africa's first all-race election, which brought the ANC to power.

Mr. Nkobi was re-elected treasurer in party elections in 1991, one of several elders with moderate views who retained leadership positions.

He died on 25 September 1994, in Johannesburg after suffering a fatal stroke.