Memoir dictated by Philip Qipu Vundla, trade unionist and political activist in South Africa, 1958: covering his childhood and family background and details on South African politics, trade unions and moral rearmament, 1901-1958; including account of strike by African mineworkers in 1946, the tram boycott in the native townships of Johannesburg, in 1948, a demonstration by African teachers for higher wages and better working conditions, the School Boycott and protests against the Bantu Education Act, 1953-1955, and the bus boycott by Africans in Johannesburg in 1957.
VUNDLA, Philip Qipu (1901-1969)
This material is held atInstitute of Commonwealth Studies Library, University of London
- Reference
- GB 101 ICS 105
- Dates of Creation
- 1958 (covers 1901-1958)
- Name of Creator
- Language of Material
- English
- Physical Description
- 1 file
Scope and Content
Administrative / Biographical History
Philip Qipu Vundla was born in Healdtown, Cape Province, South Africa in 1901. His father was one of the first registered African voters in Cape Province. After leaving school he worked as a domestic servant in East London for a short time, before he was recruited to work as a clerk in the gold mines in Johannesburg. He left the mines after giving evidence to a Commission of Inquiry into native mine wages and working conditions, and became a full time organiser of the African Mineworkers Union. After a strike in 1946 the South African Government passed a law prohibiting Africans from holding gatherings on mine ground, Vundla joined the Defiance Campaign, and the African National Congress. In 1948 he was Chairman of the Anti-Tram Fare Increase Committee, and organised a major boycott of tram system. He was later a member of the National Executive and Chairmman of the Western Region of the ANC, 1952-1955. He left active politics in 1953 and became a journalist. He died in 1969.
Arrangement
Single item
Access Information
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Acquisition Information
The source of acquisition by ICS is not known.
Other Finding Aids
None
Archivist's Note
Compiled by Alan Kucia as part of the RSLP AIM25 Project.
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