Political Prisoners of South Africa Documentation Project
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WILTON MKWAYI
Imprisoned for Life
(Original biographical information included with his bracelet in 1985)

            Wilton Mkwayi was charged with four others in October 1964, in the Rand Criminal Court under the Sabotage and Suppression of Communism Acts, with furthering the aims of communism and conspiring to bring about a violent revolution, allegedly as a member of the new High Command of Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation).  Umkhonto we Sizwe is the military wing of the ANC.

            Mkwayi was convicted and sentenced in December 1964 to life imprisonment which he is serving on Robben Island.

            During the trial, Mkwayi told the court that, like his leader Nelson Mandela, he was prepared to die for his ‘ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities’. 

            Before being brought to court, Mkwayi had been detained in solitary confinement for months, and subjected to torture.  Those who saw him at his trial reported that he was unrecognizable. 

            Mkwayi was born in the Eastern Cape.  He left school at an early age to work to support his brothers and sisters.  He joined the ANC at the age of 17 and became active in the trade union movement as organizer with African textile workers in Port Elizabeth, and SACTU treasurer.  He was Volunteer-in-Chief for the whole of the Eastern Province during the Defiance Campaign Against Unjust Laws in 1952.  He was arrested in 1956 with 156 others and tried in the “Treason Trial”.  All the accused were acquitted after a four-year trial.  In 1960, during the State of Emergency, he left South Africa and travelled overseas visiting various countries including China.

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The source of this biographical information is International Defence and Aid Fund’s book, Prisoners of Apartheid, 1978.  We appreciate their permission to use this material.

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