History Matters Blog :

Archibald Mncedisi Sebeko

Names: Sebeko, Archibald Mncedisi

Born: 3 March 1928, Kwezana Village, Eastern Cape

In summary: Agricultural officer, trade union organiser, National Executive Committee member of SACTU, member of the African National Congress, 1956 Treason Trialist.

Archibald “Archie” Sibeko (aka Zola Zembe) was born on  3 March 1928 in Kwezana Village, near Alice in the Eastern Cape. Sibeko attended Lovedale in the 1940s. After obtaining a diploma in Agriculture, he moved to Cape Town where he began working in a laundry. It was here that  he became deeply involved in the trade union movement and worked alongside Oscar Mpetha and Ray Alexander Simons among others. In 1954 he joined the African Laundry Workers' Union. He also joined the South African Railway and Harbours Workers' Union (SARHWU) rising to become its Secretary.In 1955, Sibeko became a founder member of the South African Congress of Trade Unions(SACTU), the first non-racial trade union federation in South Africa.

In 1953 he joined the African National Congress(ANC) and the South African Communist Party and as a consequence became involved in its political activities. His involvemnt attracted the attention of the security police leading to his arrest and trial. Together with Nelson Mandela and 154 other leaders of the ANC and Congress Alliance, he was tried in the infamous 1956 Treason Trial. After his acquittal, he was permanently banned and together with other defendants continued to face increased state harassment. As a result he was forced to go underground operating as Zola Zembe, a name he adopted and by which he is more commonly known.

After the formation of uMkontho we Sizwe (MK) the armed wing of the ANC in 1961, Sibeko joined and became part of the armed struggle.  In 1961 Sibeko was detained with Chris Hani but before the finalisation of the trial, the Western Cape ANC region instructed him and his comrades to go abroad for military training. In 1963 the security police raided his house and detained his pregnant wife in solitary confinement for five months while searching for him. That same year he left the country and travelled to Botswana, Zambia and Tanzania, before going to the Soviet Union and Cuba for military training in 1964. Sibeko left behind his five young children and his expectant first wife, whom he never saw again, since she died a few years after he left.

On his return to Tanzania, MK's first camp was opened in Kongwa, where he was a Camp Commander. He was later deployed to Western Europe. Sibeko engaged international trade unions in the battle against apartheid and to call for democracy, freedom, and better working and living conditions for the South African people. As the National Treasurer and later the Co-ordinator for Western Europe, he travelled widely in Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia and the former Socialist countries coordinating the solidarity work for his organization, SACTU. It was through this work that he came to know and respect Canadian unions for their support for the liberation struggle.

Sibeko returned to South Africa in 1990 after spending 25 years in exile, he was elected Honorary President of SARHWU and Deputy Chairperson of the ANC in the Western Cape.  In 1994, during the first democratic election he worked at a voting station in Khayelitsha, Cape Town.  After suffering a minor stroke, he returned to the United Kingdom to join his wife, Dr. Joyce Leeson. He has written three books and is currently working on a documentary. Sibeko has maintained contact with many of his old comrades, some of whom are senior figures in the new South Africa.

In April 2005 Sibeko was awarded the Order of Luthuli by the South African government for excellent contribution to the struggle for liberation, workers rights and a non-racial and non-sexist South Africa. He was also awarded with the Stanley Knowles Award for his spirit and dedication to social justice by the Ontario Public Service Union (OPSEU).

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