Zephania Lekoane Mothopeng

1. Sources:
2. Gastrow, S. (1985). Who's Who in South African Politics, Johannesburg: Ravan Press.

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Zephania Lekoane Mothopeng, affectionately known as Zeph, was born in the Free State near the town of Vrede. He was born on 10 September 1913. Shortly after his birth, his family moved to the Transvaal where his father had bought land. It was there that he completed his primary schooling at the St. Mary's Anglican School and then went to St Chatswold Training College. In 1933, he moved to Johannesburg and continued his studies until matriculation in 1937.

After working for a short while in Johannesburg. He enrolled with the Adams College, Amanzimtoti in Natal. After completing his studies he was awarded a Post Matric Teachers Certificate.

Mothopeng started teaching at Orlando Secondary School in 1941. By that time the school was still developing having only two teachers. During his time as a teacher, he held various positions in teachers associations including the presidency of the Transvaal Teachers Association in 1950. Mothopeng became the Vice Principal but lost his job for opposing the introduction of Bantu Education. After losing his job, he moved to Maseru, Lesotho where he continued teaching until returning to Transvaal in 1955. By this time Mothopeng was no longer working as a teacher. He was articled to a firm of attorneys in Johannesburg.

Mothopeng's political life began as early as 1940 when he was a member of the African National Congress Youth League. He later aligned himself with the party's Africanist section, which was critical of the party's policies of engagement with White ‘liberals'. They formed their own magazine called the Africanist to voice their opinion within the African National Congress (ANC). In 1959 the Africanists broke away from the ANC and formed the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) in 1959. Mothopeng was elected member of the PAC's national executive and National Working Committee, which was instrumental in the organisation of the PAC campaign.

In 1960 Mothopeng was arrested and sentenced to two years for his role in organising PAC campaigns, under the suppression of communism Act. After his release he was rearrested in 1963 and convicted in 1964 for promoting the aims of the PAC. Whilst in detention, Mothopeng spent time in several prisons such as the Boksburg and Robben Island prisons. He was released in 1967 and immediately served with a banning order. He was banished to Witsieshoek, in the Free State. By the end of the year his banning orders were amended to permit him to live in his Phomolong home in Soweto.

In the 1970s Mothopeng continued doing underground work for the PAC. He visited Robert Sobukwe who was banished to Kimberly. Together with former Robben Island inmates a recruitment programme was established with the PAC in Swaziland. He was arrested again in 1976 and his trial commenced in 1978. He was charged with promoting the aims of the PAC and, together with his co-accused, refused to plea arguing that the court was illegitimate and it did not have a mandate from the African people. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

President F W De Klerk released Mothopeng from prison in 1989. In February 1990, Mothopeng rejected calls from former president Nelson Mandela and Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe to join other liberation leaders in the multiracial negotiations with the government. His position was that the power and control of all the major government institutions should be given to Black people. On 23 October 1990 Mothopeng died at the age of 77.