Raymond Mhlaba

Raymond Mhlaba (12 February 1920 – 20 February 2005) was an anti-apartheid activist and leader of the African National Congress (ANC). Mhlaba spent 25 years of his life in prison. Well known for being sentenced, along with Nelson Mandela, in the Rivonia Trial, he was an active member of the ANC and the South African Communist Party (SACP) all his adult life. His kindly manner brought him the nickname "Oom Ray".

He was born in Mazoka village in the Fort Beaufort district and was educated at Healdtown secondary school. He started working at a laundry in Port Elizabeth after leaving school. There he was introduced to trade unionism through the Non European Laundry Workers Union. In 1943 he joined the South African Communist Party, and in 1944 became a member of the African National Congress. He met and married his first wife, Joyce Meke, who was also from the Fort Beaufort area. In their 17 years together, before her death in a car accident in 1960, they had three children.

He was one of the ANC leaders arrested during the transport boycott of 1952 when he led a group of volunteers into the "Europeans Only" entrance of the New Brighton police station in Port Elizabeth.

He was the district secretary of the Communist Party from 1946 until it was banned in 1950. He was chairman of the Port Elizabeth branch of the ANC from 1947 to 1953, and was then elected to the Cape Executive committee.

After the ANC was banned he joined other exiles in obtaining military training in China. Returning to South Africa in 1962, he commanded Umkhonto we Sizwe until 1963, when he was arrested along with other key members at a farm in Rivonia.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rivonia Trial, and served time on Robben Island. In 1982 he was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison. By special permission he married his common-law wife Dedika Heliso in 1986, with whom he had three children.

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