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This resource is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, but was compiled and authored by Padraig O’Malley. It is the product of almost two decades of research and includes analyses, chronologies, historical documents, and interviews from the apartheid and post-apartheid eras.

Morobe, Murphy

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Morobe was born in Soweto on 2 October 1956. He joined the South African Students' Movement (SASM) in 1972. Morobe's first experience of demonstrating was the march on 16 June 1976, which led to the Soweto uprising.

The Soweto Students' Representative Council (SSRC), which represented nearly all of Soweto's high schools, was formed in August 1976, with Morobe as deputy head. He was detained in terms of Section 6 of the Terrorism Act in 1976 and served time at various prisons until June 1978. He was charged with conspiracy to commit sedition and when his trial ended in May 1979 he was sentenced to seven years, four years suspended for five years. He was released in 1982 after serving three years on Robben Island.

He became involved in the Congress of South African Students (COSAS), the Soweto Youth Congress (SOYCO) and the General Allied Workers' Union (GAWU). Morobe was active in the formation of the United Democratic Front (UDF) structures in the Transvaal and attended the launch in Cape Town as part of the Transvaal delegation. In 1984 he served on the UDF executive.

In late 1984 Morobe was held under Section 29 of the Internal Security Act in connection with the Delmas trial. He was detained again in 1986 in terms of emergency regulations.

In 1985 he was elected to the UDF's Transvaal regional executive as rural secretary, but, after the arrest of Terror Lekota, took over as acting publicity secretary. He served on the UDF executive committee of the Southern Transvaal and on the UDF national committee.

Morobe was involved in the Natal peace initiative as a member of the UDF/COSATU delegation in 1989. He assisted in preparing for the Defiance Campaign and for CODESA.

In 1994 Morobe became the Chairperson and CEO of the Financial and Fiscal Commission in South Africa. He was part of the Council on Higher Education (CHE), which was established as part of the Higher Education Act of South Africa. He left this post in 1999. He has also been the Chairman of the South African National Parks Board (SANP) and the International Fundraising Consortium, an organisation that provides grants to the non-governmental sector. Morobe has also been appointed as Director on the board of Old Mutual South Africa, and has filled the role of Chairman of Ernst & Young South Africa.

He has now been appointed to serve in the President's Office AD deputy Director General.

Sources: Shelagh Gastrow, 1990. Who's who in South African Politics, Number 3. Johannesburg: Ravan Press.

http://www.osf.org.za/OSF_board_members.htm (Brief notes on the Board members of the Open Society Foundation)

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