1881 - 1971

3rd and 6th President-General of the African National Congress (ANC) (1924—1927 and 1936—1940), Teacher, Interpreter, Methodist Minister, Vice President of the All African Convention, President of the Non-European Unity Movement

Reverend Mahabane would serve as third ANC president during a period of the organisations struggling modernization. Energetic, dedicated and diplomatic, he was a moderate who believed that Christian ethics would eventually shape South Africas race politics.

He was very outspoken against the 1935 Hertzog Bills, which disenfranchised African voters in the Cape, and helped form the All African Convention (AAC), a group of Africans opposed to the bills. He became AAC vice-president in 1937, a year after he had been re-elected as ANC president-general for a second term.

As a leader in both the ANC and the AAC he tried to reconcile both organisations but failed. In 1940 he was replaced in the ANC by Dr A.B. Xuma, a more radical leader who eventually overhauled ANC structures.

In 1943 Mahabane was elected president of the Non-European Unity Movement, which united the All African Convention and the Anti-Coloured Affairs Department (Anti-CAD) in a federal body. From the late 1940s Mahabane concentrated on church-related activities and withdrew from active politics after 1958. He died in Kroonstad, Free State, where he had lived and worked most of his life.

Did You Know?

The sculpture of Mahabane is carrying an article drafted by him for the pamphlet Criticisms of the Native Bills, a critique of the 1935 Hertzog bills, which disenfranchised African voters in the Cape.