William Frederick Nkomo

The community of Atteridgeville annually celebrates WF Nkomo Day in his honour. Today a secondary school in Atteridgeville is named after him as well as WF Nkomo Street, formerly Church Street, running from historic Church Square in Pretoria central to Atteridgeville (City of Tshwane). The new shopping centre, Nkomo Village in Atteridgeville was dedicated to his memory in 2018.

Nelson Mandela mentioned Nkomo in 1998, in a speech given at the installation of the University of the Witwatersrand's Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Colin Bundy. Mandela is quoted as saying the following: "This evening brings many memories from the past and many hopes for the future. I remember my own days as a student and I honour some of my fellows who studied, debated and agitated on this campus. Their names are legend: Joe Slovo, Ismael Meer, Harold Wolpe, J N Singh, William Nkomo and Ruth First. They count amongst those who set forth a message and an ethos in direct contrast to the fear, oppression and subservience which legislation of the time sought to impose and inculcate. They represent one of the proud strands in the tradition of Wits, a strand which the university will undoubtedly seek to build upon as it grapples with its role in the development of a new kind of South African society".

Nkomo died in 1972, following cardiac arrest at HF Verwoerd Hospital, now Steve Biko Academic Hospital. He is buried alongside his wife, Susan who predeceased him at the Rebecca Street Cemetery in Pretoria.

14 August 1968, Nkomo was invited to speak at the University of Cape Town's Day of Affirmation of Academic and Human Freedom. His address, The Courage to Think followed in a series after that of Robert Kennedy's Ripple of Hope speech in June 1966. In his speech he said, "The idea of a common patriotism and nationalism was always recognised by all. It was only in recent times with the emergence of apartheid theoreticians that the country definitely deviated from the path of a common nationalism."

Following the Sharpeville massacre in 1961, Nkomo was a mediator between the government and the victims. He was one of the leaders who discussed the political situation in South Africa with Dag Hammarskjöld who was Secretary General of the United Nations during his visit to this country in January 1961.

In pursuance of the strategy of non-violence he became a member of the Moral Re-Armament movement after attending its conference in Caux, Switzerland in 1953. To promote peace, he featured in two films (one on him, called A Man For All People) and another with leaders like Kwame Nkrumah, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Jomo Kenyatta and Manase Moerane.

Nkomo studied at the South African Native College (University of Fort Hare) and obtained a BA degree from the University of South Africa. He studied medicine on a scholarship at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1941 and did his internship at McCords Hospital in Durban. He practiced in Lady Selborne and Atteridgeville in Pretoria.

Nkomo joined the African National Congress in the early 1940s. In 1944, he helped found the ANC Youth League with Nelson Mandela, Anton Lembede, Ashley Peter Mda, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo. He later relinquished his position as provisional chairman of the league to complete his medical studies. In 1956, due to his militance, he was summarily expelled by the party. In the 1960s he became associated with the Black Consciousness Movement.

William Frederick Nkomo (1915–1972) was a South African medical doctor, community leader, political activist and teacher from Pretoria. He was the founding chairman of the African National Congress Youth League. While at the University of the Witwatersrand, Nkomo was the first black student to serve on the Students Representative Committee.

William Frederick Nkomo was born in Makapanstad, Transvaal in 1915. He was the son of a Methodist Minister, Reverend Abraham Nkomo. Nkomo attended primary school in Mahikeng and Klerksdorp, studied for his secondary education at St Peter's School in Rosettenville and matriculated at Healdtown Institute in the Eastern Cape.