Nkosinathi Christopher ‘Nko’ Mbuyabo

Nkosinathi Christopher Mbuyabo was born at eCintas in East London on the 23 December 1967. Nko as he was popularly known was the fourth out of six children of Nokuna and Kanana Mbuyabo. He received his early education at Msundulu Primary School and Nkwenkwezi Secondary School respectively.

At Nkwenkwezi Secondary School, Nko was at the forefront in the struggle to get the Students Representative Council established and recognised in the school. In and outside school he fought gallantly against the homeland regime. After the unbanning of political organizations, Mbuyabo established a branch of the African Congress Youth League (ANCYL) in Welcomewood.  He was elected as the chairperson, a position that he reluctantly accepted, as he wanted to focus on the establishment of more progressive structures in the area.

Mbuyabo left the Easten Cape in 1993 for Cape Town. He resided in Khayelitsha and continued his involvement with progressive structures such as the African National Congress (ANC), South African Communist Party (SACP) and community development organisations.

In 1992, the Khayelitsha Education Resource and Information Centre (KERIC) was established. This project found it difficult to take off the ground. In 1993, Mbuyabo was deployed, strategically, in KERIC. In 1994, a development process started to unfold in Khayelitsha and Mbuyabo played an outstanding role in that process. He became one of the first community liaison officers to coordinate the developmental activities especially in Macassar.

Mbuyabo was identified as the person to administer the ANC constituency office. From the outset, Mbuyabo was central in the Khayelitsha Development Forum (KDF).  He became the secretary of one of the strongest affiliates of the KDF called the Macassar Development Forum (MDF). He did not find it difficult to link politics with development, as he simultaneously became the coordinator of the Independent Development Trust (IDT). He also put his efforts into adult basic education and training (ABET). In 1997, he became a member of the governing body of the Mpumalanga Learning Centre.

After the SACP’s Red October campaign in 1999, the SACP in the Western Cape, Mbuyabo was appointed as an administrator in the provincial office. At the time of his premature death, he was still an administrator of the SACP in the Western Cape.