On 3 September 1905 Johannes Nkosi, martyr for the Communist Party of South Africa, was born in Natal. In 1926 he joined the CPSA, he impressed the party leadership with his intelligence and dynamic personalityand was appointed as organizer in Durban in February 1929.

The CPSA started a country-wide campaign to burn passbooks on 16 December 1930, the Day of the Covenant. It was only in Durban that the campaign achieved relative success. It was during the burning of passbooks in Durban that there was a bloody clash between the protesters and the Durban city police. Nkosi and several other protestors were seriously injured. After an emergency operation Nkosi died on 19 December of shock and haemorrhage of the cerebrum and the abdominal cavity. Rumours stated that he was struck down by a single bullet in the head, but an autopsy showed that his skull was fractured and that he had severe stab wounds over his body.

Nkosi's death was one of the few overt proofs of communist activity in South Africa in an otherwise disappointing year for the CPSA. This created a martyr's role for Nkosi, with an additional mythologizing of the story of his death and an honorary position as a revolutionary martyr in the black freedom struggle. His death is annually commemorated by the ANC and the SACP during their Heroes Day on 16 December. In July 1953 a memorial to Nkosi was unveiled at the Stellawood Cemetery in Durban.

Sources:

1. Verwey, E.J (1995). New Dictionary of South African Biography. HSRC publishers, Pretoria, vol 1, p 204.