C. S. Ramohanoe

C. S Ramohanoe was a provincial President of the Transvaal African National Congress (ANC) from 1944 to 1950 and later head of the faction known as the National-minded Bloc. He was active as a young man in efforts to revive the ANC in the late 1930s, was chosen Transvaal provincial secretary in 1938, and later served several terms as ANC Transvaal president. In the mid-1940s he was a leading organiser of the National Anti-Pass campaign and an emotional proponent of the boycott principle. In early 1950 he became a member of the ANC's five-man Council of Action, charged with planning the implementation of the Programme of Action, but the council played only a minor role. For as long as he remained provincial president, Ramohanoe succeeded in accommodating himself to the strong left-wing elements in the Transvaal; after losing a controversial election to J. B. Marks in late 1950, however, he joined Selope Thema in launching the National-minded Bloc, a group within the ANC that denounced "foreign ideologies" and cooperation with Indians. Ramohanoe became leader of the National-minded Bloc, then existing in little but name, when Selope Thema died in 1955.