Sibusiso Elias Mkhwanazi
Lovingly known as “Baba Sbu”
12 October 1946 — 28 June 2021 · aged 74
Gold miner turned NUM organiser who taught a thousand shop stewards to stand their ground
Johannesburg, South Africa Born in Msinga, KwaZulu-Natal Resting at Family homestead, Msinga, KwaZulu-NatalAbout Sibusiso
Baba Sbu Mkhwanazi used to say he had spent half his life underground and the other half arguing, and that only one of those had ever frightened him.
Born in the dry hills of Msinga in 1946, Sibusiso left school after Standard Six to herd his father's cattle. At twenty-one he was recruited to Vaal Reefs gold mine near Orkney, where he spent the next two decades as a rock-drill operator, two and a half kilometres below the surface. He wrote letters home in a careful hand, learned fanagalo from men from six countries, and watched too many friends carried out of the cage.
When the National Union of Mineworkers was formed in 1982, he was among the first to sign up. A year later he was elected shop steward. He became known for his preparation: he read every safety regulation, memorised the clauses, and brought a hand-written list to each negotiation. Dismissed in the great mineworkers' strike of 1987, along with tens of thousands of others, he was taken on by the union itself in 1988 as an organiser, and spent twenty years visiting mine hostels across Gauteng, training stewards, and insisting that a rockfall was never an act of God but a failure of planning.
He studied labour law at night at the University of the Witwatersrand, married Gladys Ndlovu in 1972, and raised four children in a rented house in Jeppestown. He loved amasi with phuthu, Zulu maskandi on a Sunday radio, and Kaizer Chiefs, whose gold-and-black scarf he wore to every union meeting that fell on a match day.
Baba Sbu died in June 2021, after a short illness, during the dark months of the third wave. He leaves his wife, three children, and thirteen grandchildren, and a generation of miners who still say, 'Baba Sbu taught me to read the clause.'
“A rockfall is never an act of God. It is a failure of planning.”
- Faith
- Christian
- Place of birth
- Msinga, KwaZulu-Natal
- Resting place
- Family homestead, Msinga, KwaZulu-Natal
- Passed away
- 28 June 2021, Johannesburg
Funeral Service
Tuesday, 6 July 2021 at 07:00 UTC
Add to calendarLife journey
Rock-drill operator
Vaal Reefs Gold Mine (Anglo American)1967 – 1987 · Orkney
Worked 2.5 kilometres below ground for twenty years.
Married Gladys Ndlovu
1972 · Msinga
A marriage of forty-nine years.
Shop Steward
National Union of Mineworkers1983 – 1987 · Orkney
Elected a year after the union was founded.
Regional Organiser
National Union of Mineworkers1988 – 2008 · Johannesburg
Trained shop stewards across Gauteng's mine hostels.
Certificate in Labour Law (evening classes)
University of the Witwatersrand1994 – 1996 · Johannesburg
Completed alongside a full working week.
Medal for Long Service and Courage
National Union of Mineworkers2008 · Johannesburg
On his retirement after twenty-five years of union work.
Tap an organisation to find others who studied or worked there.
Family & connections
Sibusiso is survived by
- Gladys Mkhwanazi· Spouse
- Nomvula Mkhwanazi-Dlamini· Daughter
- Sipho Mkhwanazi· Son
- Lindani Mkhwanazi· Son
- 13 grandchildren· Grandchildren
Tributes & memories
6 people have shared a memory of Sibusiso.
Knew Sibusiso? Share a memory with the family and everyone who loved them.
Sign in to write a tribute- JN
Nephew, London
Uncle Sbu paid for my first term at technical college when my father could not. He said the mines had taken enough from our family and he would be the one to give something back. I am now a qualified electrician in Croydon.
- SM
Son
My father worked underground for twenty years so that I could work in an office. He told me every payday that the gold was not his, only the wages. Now that I manage a team of my own, I remember who taught me what fairness meant.
- MZ
Fellow Kaizer Chiefs supporter, Jeppestown
We watched the 1992 league decider together on a borrowed television, forty men crowded into a hostel room. When Amakhosi scored he lifted me off the floor. I have never been so happy to be briefly airborne. Hamba kahle, Baba.
- PV
Former shift boss, Vaal Reefs
We sat on opposite sides of the table for twenty years. He never once raised his voice and he never once lost an argument. I was a young shift boss and he taught me more about safety than any official course. I salute him.
- TD
Shop steward he trained, Driefontein
I was twenty-three when I was elected. I did not know a single clause. He sat with me in a hostel room for three weekends in a row and made me read the Mine Health and Safety Act aloud. I still carry the pages he marked.
- TN
NUM colleague, Johannesburg regional office
Baba Sbu arrived at every negotiation with a hand-written list and a flask of rooibos. Management always underestimated the quiet man with the notebook. They stopped after the first meeting. He taught me that preparation is a kind of respect.
