Sefako Mapogo Makgatho

Sefako Mapogo Makgatho (* 1861 in Mphatlhele in Pietersburg, † May 23, 1951 in Pretoria) was a South African politician. He was 1917-1924 President of the South African Native National Congress ( SANNC ) and African National Congress ( ANC).

Life

Makgatho was born as the son of Pedi - Chiefs Kgorutlhe Josiah Makgatho. He received his education near Pretoria in the Transvaal province. In 1882 he went to a school in Ealing in England, where he attended educational science and theology. He experienced the Berlin Conference to the partition of Africa among the European powers with and took to a critical attitude. In 1885, he returned and began working as a teacher at Kilnerton Training Institute in Pretoria. From 1887 to 1930 Makgatho was also a Methodist minister.

With other black teachers Makgatho founded in 1906 the Transvaal African Teachers' Association ( TATA ), the same conditions for all teachers and students demanded, regardless of skin color. At the same time he finished his career as a teacher. Makgatho was 1906-1908 president of the African Political Union and 1908-1912 President of the Transvaal Native successor organization, which merged in 1912 in the South African Native National Congress ( SANNC ), whose founding member was Makgatho. He was SANNC president for the province of Transvaal and remained so until 1930. Between 1912 and 1917 he was also a Vice President of the SANNC. In 1912 he founded the newspaper The Native Advocate that existed for about a year. In 1912 he founded with Pixley ka Isaka Seme later ANC newspaper Abantu Batho. In the same year he came to realize a railway carriage, which was reserved for whites, and was beaten for it. In Pretoria, he led a campaign that blacks should allow for you to use the sidewalk instead of having to go on the road will need.

In 1917, he was the successor of John Dube Langalibalele second president of the SANNC. Under his leadership, the organization named in 1923 by the African National Congress. As President Makgatho campaigns initiated against the discriminatory Natives Land Act, won several processes in which it came to the rights of the black majority and successfully went against the run of the White government to court to complain against the poll tax in the Transvaal. After the end of World War I, he sent to the British King George V in a petition in which he successfully begged that the British territories in southern Africa as Bechuanaland, Swaziland and Basutoland should not be affiliated with South Africa. A delegation to London to intervene against the Natives Land Act, but returned unsuccessful back to South Africa.

While other early SANNC and ANC President Pixley ka Isaka Seme as Sol Plaatje and had a strengthening of the Chiefs and the blacks formed the goal Makgatho recognized that the interests of the lower class had to be promoted. So strikes and nonviolent action against the pass laws were under his direction rather than in the Transvaal, in which 700 people were arrested. Under his leadership, the number of paying members rose to around 3,000.

The end of 1924 Makgatho resigned and was replaced by Zaccheus Richard Mahabane. 1930 to 1933 he was treasurer of the ANC. He was voted out in the wake of emerging ethnic divisions of the ANC, but remained until the 1940s, particularly in the Transvaal an active politician.

Honors

• The second son of Nelson Mandela received the name Makhatho, in honor of the then 89 -year-old Sefako Mapogo Makhatho.
• The Sefako Mapogo Makgatho Memorial Foundation is dedicated to the memory of Makhatho.
• South African President Jacob Zuma held on 23 February 2012 to mark the 100th anniversary of the ANC, a memorial lecture at Makgatho.
• The guest house of the President of South Africa was named in 2012 after Makhatho.