South African Students' Organisation
In the 1970s, Nkomo was active in opposition to the apartheid system in South Africa. He was a student leader in the South African Students' Organisation (SASO), which broke away from the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS), and a national organiser of the Black People's Convention. He and eight other SASO leaders (known as the "SASO nine") were arrested in 1974 and charged with "conspiring to overturn the state by unconstitutional means". The Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko testified at length in his defence, a year before Biko was beaten to death by security policemen. The accused (including Strini Moodley and Mosiuoa Lekota) were convicted and sentenced to prison. Nkomo spent two years in prison while on trial and six years on Robben Island, in the same prison as Nelson Mandela and many other anti-apartheid leaders.
Read more about this topic: Nkwenkwe Nkomo
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