Tributes to campaigner who shared a cell with Mandela then made his home in North East
Reporter TRIBUTES have been paid to an equal rights campaigner who once shared a cell with Nelson Mandela.
Archie Sibeko, also known as Zola Zembe, was a trade union organiser in South Africa for the African National Congress who went on to become a leading figure in the fight against apartheid.
He was imprisoned without charge for a year alongside the future President after being accused of high treason and arrested along with 155 others.
In his later years, he moved to Tynemouth following a health scare and became an active member of the local community in North Tyneside.
And following his death on Tuesday aged 90, Archie’s wife Joyce has led the tributes to her husband who inspired millions as an author and an activist. She said: “Archie was extremely well known in the North East and was liked and admired by people from Tynemouth and further afield. “He was never afraid of raising difficult political issues and he was honoured when he received an Honorary Doctorate from Newcastle University last year. “He made more of a difference to this area and the people who live here than anyone realised at the time. “I know that he will be very much missed not just by myself and our family and friends but by a great many people.” Born in the Tyume Valley on the Eastern Cape of South Africa on March 3, 1928, Archie joined the ANC in 1953. He met his second wife Joyce Leeson while working in Tanzania and Zambia, and mobilised the Trade Union movement while living in Britain in the 1970s and 80s. Archie went on to be elected as the Deputy Chair of the ANC in the Western Cape and Honorary President of