Political activist and lawyer A. P. Mda is born

Political activist, teacher and lawyer, co-founder of the African National Youth League (ANCYL) and its president in 1947, Ashby Peter (A.P.) Solomzi Mda, was born in Herschel, Eastern Cape. Under Mda's leadership the Youth League presented the Programme of Action (PA) at the ANC's Cape Provincial Conference held in Port Elizabeth in June 1949. He was also part of the breakaway group from the African National Congress (ANC) that formed the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC). Mda made his debut in politics when he attended the All-African Convention in Bloemfontein in mid-1936.