John Nyathi Pokela
John Nyathi "Poks" Pokela (1922 or 1923 – 30 June 1985) was a South African political activist and Chairman of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC). Early life Born in Herschel in the Transkei region, he was educated at Healdtown Comprehensive School and the University of Fort Hare. Graduating as a teacher he would teach in Standerton. Originally a member of the African National Congress Youth League where he was a member of the Africanist wing which rejected contact with other racial groups in the ANC. He left the African National Congress in November 1958 and helped found the PAC in the late 1950s becoming its Acting Secretary-general. He would leave South Africa in 1963, leading the organisation in exile from Lesotho. Incarceration on Robben Island In 1966, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison on Robben Island on charges of sabotage related to the Azanian People's Liberation Army (APLA), the militant wing of the Pan Africanist Congress; he had helped found the APLA (originally known as Poqo) in 1961, along Z. B. Molete and Clarence Makwetu. While incarcerated, Pokela worked towards uniting the various factions of the PAC. In 1980, having served his sentence, Pokela was released from Robben