1. Thomas Titus Nkobi was a senior leader of the South African African National Congress and a key figure in the Anti-Apartheid movement.
12 Facts About Thomas Nkobi
1. 2.
Thomas Nkobi grew up and was educated in South Africa, where his father was working in the mines as a migrant labourer.
3.
Thomas Nkobi was at Adams College of Education in KwaZulu Natal with Joshua Nkomo, the Zimbabwean Vice-President and Bernard Chidzero, the Zimbabwean Minister of Finance and Dr Ntsu Mokhehle, the Prime Minister of Lesotho.
4.
Thomas Nkobi was one of the main volunteers who travelled from village to village collecting demands of the African population that were incorporated into the ANC Freedom Charter; he attended the 1955 Congress of the People in Kliptown that drew up the Freedom Charter as a delegate from Alexandra.
5.
In 1957 Thomas Nkobi shot to prominence when he chaired the Second Alexandra Peoples Transport Committee which was co-ordinating a bus boycott in the Johannesburg and Pretoria townships following a 25 per cent increase in bus fares.
6.
In 1958 Thomas Nkobi became the National Organizer of the ANC and was charged with the task of implementing the M-Plan, an action plan, named after Nelson Mandela, to decentralise the ANCs organizational branches and communication channels to avoid public meetings and announcements and increase effectiveness of their political and social campaign.
7.
Thomas Nkobi was banned in 1961, and in 1962 placed under a 24-hour house arrest.
8.
Thomas Nkobi 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.
9.
Thomas Nkobi was re-elected as Treasurer General at the party's 48th National Conference in 1991 and elected as Member of Parliament, member of the ANC National Executive Committee and member of the ANC's National Working Committee ; one of several elders with moderate views who retained leadership positions.
10.
Thomas Nkobi died on 25 September 1994, in Johannesburg after suffering a fatal stroke.
11.
Thomas Nkobi is buried at Thomas Titus Nkobi Memorial Park in Johannesburg.
12.
In 2004, Thomas Nkobi posthumously received the Order of Luthuli in Gold for his "exceptional and selfless contribution to the struggle for a non-racial, non-sexist, free and democratic South Africa".