This Day in History: May 12, 1968
Additional Date: May 12, 1968
On 12 May 1968, South African academic, African National Congress (ANC) politician, and Botswana's first ambassador to the USA and envoy to the UN, Zachariah Keodirelang (ZK) Matthews, died in Washington, USA. He was buried in Gaborone, Botswana. "Bridging the gap between the old guard and the more militant younger members of the African National Congress in the late 1940s and 1950s, Zachariah Keodirelang Matthews exercised a major guiding and moderating influence on African political history in its most crucial period. He was at the same time South Africa's, and perhaps the continent's, most distinguished African intellectual"