Peter Nchabeleng

Peter Mampogoane Nchabeleng (7 March 1928 – 11 April 1986) was a South African trade unionist and anti-apartheid activist who died in police detention in the Lebowa bantustan in April 1986. At the time of his death, he was the inaugural chairperson of the United Democratic Front in the Northern Transvaal and head of the underground African National Congress (ANC) in the same region.

Nchabeleng rose to political prominence in the 1950s in Pretoria, where he was active in the ANC, the South African Communist Party, the South African Congress of Trade Unions, and the Sebatakgomo movement of his native Sekhukhuneland. He was imprisoned on Robben Island for eight years from 1964 to 1972 on charges related to his activism as an early recruit to Umkhonto we Sizwe. In the decade after his release, he was banished to his birthplace at Apel, Northern Transvaal, where he remained active in ANC networks and where he continued to face police attention. He died on 11 April 1986 after being severely beaten by police officers who had arrested him earlier the same day. His death attracted national attention and he remains an iconic figure in the ANC.