VUNDLA, Philip Qipu (1901-1969)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0101 ICS 105
Held at	: Institute of Commonwealth Studies   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://commonwealth.sas.ac.uk/resources/library ›
Full title	: VUNDLA, Philip Qipu (1901-1969)
Date(s)	: 1958 (covers 1901-1958)
Level of description	: Collection (Fonds)
Extent	: 1 file
Name of creator(s)	: Vundla | Philip Qipu | 1901-1969 | journalist, trade unionist and political activist in South Africa
Detailed catalogue	: Click here to view repository detailed catalogue

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Philip Qipu Vundla was born in Healdtown, Cape Province, South Africa in 1901. His father was one of the first registered African voters in Cape Province. After leaving school he worked as a domestic servant in East London for a short time, before he was recruited to work as a clerk in the gold mines in Johannesburg. He left the mines after giving evidence to a Commission of Inquiry into native mine wages and working conditions, and became a full time organiser of the African Mineworkers Union. After a strike in 1946 the South African Government passed a law prohibiting Africans from holding gatherings on mine ground, Vundla joined the Defiance Campaign, and the African National Congress. In 1948 he was Chairman of the Anti-Tram Fare Increase Committee, and organised a major boycott of tram system. He was later a member of the National Executive and Chairmman of the Western Region of the ANC, 1952-1955. He left active politics in 1953 and became a journalist. He died in 1969.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Memoir dictated by Philip Qipu Vundla, trade unionist and political activist in South Africa, 1958: covering his childhood and family background and details on South African politics, trade unions and moral rearmament, 1901-1958; including account of strike by African mineworkers in 1946, the tram boycott in the native townships of Johannesburg, in 1948, a demonstration by African teachers for higher wages and better working conditions, the School Boycott and protests against the Bantu Education Act, 1953-1955, and the bus boycott by Africans in Johannesburg in 1957.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Single item

Conditions governing access:

Open although advance notice should be given. Access to individual items may be restricted under the Data Protection Act or the Freedom of Information Act.

Conditions governing reproduction:

A photocopying service is available, at the discretion of the Library staff. Copies are supplied solely for research or private study. Requests to publish, or to quote from original material should be submitted to the Information Resources Manager.

Finding aids:

None

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

The source of acquisition by ICS is not known.

Allied Materials

Related material:

The ICS holds a large number of collections relating to South African politics, including African National Congress (ICS 1), Mary Benson (ICS 6), Ruth First (ICS 117), Marion Friedmann (ICS 20), Ruth Hayman (ICS 30), Baruch Hirson (ICS 32), Mandela Trials papers (ICS 52), Josie Palmer (ICS 57), Edward Roux (ICS 67), South African Institute of Race Relations (ICS 95), and University of Transkei (ICS 19).

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Alan Kucia as part of the RSLP AIM25 Project.

Rules or conventions:
General International Standard Archival Description ISAD(G), 2nd edition 2000. National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Oct 2001.