The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

given authorisation to describe himself as the President of the Unity Movement. In 1963
when the application for recognition was made to the OAU, Tabata was the president of
APDUSA and the “leader of the delegation”, 179 but this did not carry the authority of the
presidency of the movement as a whole.
There is an element of ambiguity over how the presidency passed from Leo Sihlali to
Tabata in August 1964. Sihlali had been elected NEUM president 1959, replacing Tsotsi
who had been acting president. 180 In Dar‐es‐Salaam and Lusaka difficulties had arisen
around the cumbersome and archaic name of the organisation and over the fact that the
movement was not represented by its president in the rough‐and‐tumble of diplomacy
and international relations. At a Head Unity Committee (HUC) meeting in South Africa,
the exiled section was given the go‐ahead to describe itself as the Unity Movement
(UM), which was changed a few months later to UMSA. This decision was made,
according to then joint secretary, Alie Fataar, for the sake of “convenience”. The
argument was also presented that Sihlali’s house arrest and constant police surveillance
made the performance of presidential functions difficult. As a result Sihlali
“relinquished the position”. Fataar’s recollection was that following the request that had
come from Lusaka, “Tabata was allowed to be regarded as the president outside”. At the
time, Sihlali had been ill and banned. Some thought it might not have been the most
appropriate thing to “demote” someone in this position. 181
179 ‘South Africa: A Memorandum submitted to Committee of Nine by the All‐African Convention and
Non‐European Unity Movement’.
180 Ikhwezi Lomso, Vol 3, No 1, February 1960; Wycliffe Tsotsi to I.B. Tabata, 24 & 29 December 1959; I.B.
Tabata to Leo Sihlali, 17 February 1960, I.B. Tabata Collection, BC 925. Wycliffe Tsotsi had expressed
his dissatisfaction at being unseated as president of the NEUM by what he understood as “plotting”
behind his back, and “a whispering campaign”. He expressed his relief that “the mantle of political
organisation, which ha[d] all these years sent me up and down the country at great personal cost,
ha[d] fallen on other shoulders”. Tsotsi was made Acting President of the NEUM in 1956 and held on
to this position until Sihlali was made NEUM President in December 1959 at the Ninth Unity
Conference. Livingstone Mqotsi and Alie Fataar were made Joint Secretaries.
181 I.B Tabata to Dora Taylor, 11 August 1964, I.B. Tabata Collection, BC 925; interview with Alie and
Ursula Fataar, 19 July 1991; L Mqotsi to All Members of the Unity Movement, the All‐African
Convention, the African People’s Democratic Union of Southern Africa and other affiliated
organisations and bodies, May 1966, Livingstone Mqotsi Papers; Tom Karis, Notes based on taped
transcript of interview with I.B. Tabata and Jane Gool, Harare, 19 March 1989 (I am grateful to Tom
Karis for forwarding me a copy of these notes). It is interesting that on its letterheads, the movement
styled itself as the more overtly nationalist sounding ‘All‐African Convention (AAC) & Unity
388