Nimrod Sejake (8 August 1920 – 27 May 2004) was a labour leader in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

in the 1950s. He was a leading member of the

Congress of South African Trade Unions The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is a trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions ...

, initially as secretary of the Iron Steel Workers, and became active in the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a Social democracy, social-democratic political party in Republic of South Africa, South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when ...

(ANC) in

Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...

in the 1950s. He was one of the defendants at the

Treason Trial The Treason Trial was a trial in Johannesburg in which 156 people, including Nelson Mandela, were arrested in a raid and accused of treason in South Africa in 1956. The main trial lasted until 1961, when all of the defendants were found not gu ...

, and on his arrest shared a cell with

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...

. For safety reasons, he sought exile in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. Later, he became a prominent figure in the

Marxist Workers Tendency of the ANC The Workers and Socialist Party (WASP) is a Marxism, Marxist and Trotskyism, Trotskyist political party in South Africa affiliated to International Socialist Alternative. History Marxist Workers Tendency WASP began life as the Marxist Workers ...

. While in exile, he was presumed dead by the ANC. In the 1980s, he was featured on the front cover of an official history of SACTU, the ANC trade union. At the time, the authors and the ANC mistakenly listed Nimrod as being already dead. He was an early and key supporter of the

Dunnes Stores Strike On 19 July 1984, Mary Manning, a shop worker in the Henry Street, Dublin (Ireland) outlet of Dunnes Stores, refused to handle the sale of grapefruit from South Africa. Her union, IDATU, had issued directions to its members not to handle South Afr ...

from 1984 to 1987. After his return from exile, he established a socialist reading groups in his township, Evaton.

References

External links

Nimrod Sejake Archive
at

marxists.org Marxists Internet Archive (also known as MIA or Marxists.org) is a non-profit online encyclopedia that hosts a multilingual library (created in 1990) of the works of communist, anarchist, and socialist writers, such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Enge ...

* * Interviewed by Laurence Coates Offensiv 385 (10 February 2000) {{DEFAULTSORT:Sejake, Nimrod 1920 births 2004 deaths Committee for a Workers' International South African socialists South African Trotskyists South African trade unionists Members of the African National Congress South African expatriates in Ireland