Alpheus Maliba

Alpheus Maliba, leader of rural and peasant resistance, was born in 1901 in Nzhelele in the Northem Transvaal. He went to Johannesburg in 1935, became a factory worker and enrolled in classes at a Party-run night school. He joined the CPSA in 1936, and from 1939 to 1950 served on the Johannesburg District Committee. He was a founder member of the Zoutpansberg Cultural Association, and a leader of the associated Zoutpansberg Balemi Association in the Reserves. He also became the editor of Mbofolowo, the Venda language section of Inkululeko. In 1939 he became a leader of the Non-European United Front.

One of the main areas of Party work was in the northern Transvaal. Despite the banning of the Communist Party and the ANC, Alpheus Maliba stuck to his post and continued to mobilise and organise against the apartheid regime. He was banned in 1953 and in late August of 1967 he was detained by the security police under the Terrorism Act and taken to Pretoria Central Prison for interrogation.

Three weeks later, on September 19, 1967, he was reported to have committed suicide in his cell. The police chief, Colonel F van Niekerk, reported that he had died from asphyxia due to hanging. His comrades have no doubt that he was one of the many political prisoners tortured to death by the security police.