Vuyisile Mini

Vuyisile Mini (1920-1964) was a unionist, activist, singer and one of the first ANC members to be executed by apartheid South Africa. He was born in 1920 in Tsomo, rural Transkei. After completing Std 6, the highest education open to him, he went to the mines and then, in 1945, he moved to Port Elizabeth. At 17, he took part in bus fare and rent increase protests and was also active in campaigns against forced removals of Black people from Korsten to Kwazakhele. At one stage, Mini was the Metal Workers' Union Secretary. He was a founding member of the Port Elizabeth Stevedoring and Dockworkers Union and together with another activist, Stephen Tobia, they also founded the African Painting and Building Union. In the 1950s the Stevedoring and Dockworkers Union embarked on the protest for wage increase and fought against the use of convicts for strike breaking. In 1951, he joined the ANC. Mini participated in the 'Campaign of Defiance against Unjust Laws' and in 1952, he was sent to the North End Prison (also referred to as 'Red Hell') for three months with Govan Mbeki and Raymond Mhlaba. When he was released from prison, he combined his trade union work with political activism and was subsequently elected as secretary of the ANC Cape region. In 1956 he was one of the 156 defendants in the famous Treason Trial. When there wasn't enough evidence for the state's case, he was discharged on 20 April 1959. In 1960 Mini became secretary of the Eastern Cape branch of SACTU. On 30 March 1960, he was arrested and detained along with a large group of people as a result of the State of Emergency that was declared under the Pubic Safety Act. In 1961, Mini was recruited into the MK and became a member of the Eastern Cape High Command. Starting 16 December 1961, MK implemented 58 acts of sabotage in PE, more than any other place in South Africa. On 10 May 1963, Mini and prominent ANC members Wilson Khayinga and Zinakile Mkaba were arrested and charged with sabotage and political crimes which included involvement in the January 1963 death of Sipho Mange (alleged police informer). The three were sentenced to death in March 1964. On 6 November 1964, they were hanged in the Pretoria Central Prison. It is known that they went to their deaths singing ‘Bhasopha, nants’indod’emnyama, Verwoerd.’