Self Mampuru

Self Mampuru was born in 1908 into the leading family of chiefs of Sekhukhuneland. In the 1930s in Johannesburg he met William Ballinger, who helped him go to Britain where he studied the management of cooperatives at Manchester from 1937 to 1939. He was unsuccessful in organising cooperatives on his return to South Africa. In 1943, critical of the inaction of the African National Congress's (ANC's) leaders, he campaigned for the presidency of the ANC in the Transvaal and was briefly involved with some of the organisers of the ANC Youth League. But as a moderate who was disposed to cooperate with white liberals, he did not appeal to the young militants. Instead, he became a founder of the African Democratic Party in September 1943 and its secretary. The ADP welcomed the cooperation of all racial groups and sought to cooperate with the ANC but was attacked as divisive. It existed for only about five years. Mampuru became politically inactive and died in 1964.