Jafta K. Masemola
Japhta Masemola's prison cell
Born
Jafta Kgalabi Masemola

(1929-12-12)12 December 1929
Pretoria, Union of South Africa
Died17 April 1990(1990-04-17) (aged 60)
Johannesburg, South Africa
NationalitySouth African
CitizenshipSouth Africa
Occupation(s)Teacher and politi ian
Political partyPan Africanist Congress (PAC)

Jafta Kgalabi Masemola OLS (12 December 1931 – 17 April 1990), also known as The Tiger of Azania and Bra Jeff,[1][2] was a South African anti-apartheid activist, teacher, and founder of the armed wing of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC).[1] He spent 27 years in South African prison during the apartheid era in South Africa, and was released in October 1989, shortly before the legalization of the PAC and the African National Congress by F. W. de Klerk. He served the longest sentence of any political prisoner in Robben Island prison in South Africa.[2]

Masemola was a teacher in Atteridgeville township in Pretoria in the 1950s.[3]

Together with Robert Sobukwe, Masemola co-founded PAC in 1959 in Soweto.[4] Subsequently, he worked for PAC's youth organization in Atteridgeville and then headed PAC's military wing, Poqo.[5]

In 1962 Masemola was arrested and convicted on the charge of smuggling individuals out of the country for military training and blowing up power lines.[2] He was imprisoned at Robben Island.[5]

He was released from the prison on 15 October 1989 together with ANC members Ahmed Kathrada, Raymond Mhlaba, Wilton Mkwayi, Andrew Mlangeni, Oscar Mpetha, Elias Motsoaledi and Walter Sisulu.

Masemola was killed in a car accident shortly after his release in 1990.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 Mandela, Nelson; Langa, Mandla (24 October 2017). Dare Not Linger: The Presidential Years. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p. 308. ISBN 9780374134716. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Jafta Masemola, 58; Began Armed Wing Of Pan-Africanists". The New York Times. 19 April 1990. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  3. ↑ Sekese, Mosiuoa (16 May 2013). Twenty-Twenty Hindsight: Memoirs of the Old and New South Africa. AuthorHouseUK. p. 14. ISBN 978-1481794848. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  4. ↑ Mandela, Nelson; Langa, Mandla (24 October 2017). Dare Not Linger: The Presidential Years. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. pp. 4–5. ISBN 9780374134716. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  5. 1 2 Alexander, Neville (1994). Robben Island prison dossier: 1964-1974. University of Cape Town. p. 110. ISBN 9780799214888. Retrieved 8 January 2018.


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