President Cyril Ramaphosa has posthumously awarded struggle veteran human rights lawyer, Advocate Dumalisile (Duma) Philemon Pearce Nokwe, the honorary title of Senior Counsel (SC or Silk) for the Republic of South Africa.

Nokwe passed away in 1978 while in exile in Zambia.

"The posthumous honour bestowed on the first African advocate of the Supreme Court is a high honour that recognises Advocate Nokwe's expertise and contribution to the legal profession.

"President Ramaphosa has conferred the status of Senior Counsel on Adv Nokwe in line with the provisions of the Legal Practice Act of 2014, which governs this status and sets out the criteria for its conferral.

"In this instance, the Legal Practice Council and the Duma Nokwe Group of Advocates made an application to the President for Advocate Nokwe's posthumous appointment as a Senior Counsel," the Presidency said in a statement.

Nokwe's remains were repatriated to South Africa in 2024 and his reburial will be held on Saturday.

"The President has bestowed this conferral on the late Adv Nokwe on the eve of the esteemed legal practitioner's reburial in West Park Cemetery, Johannesburg, tomorrow, Saturday, 17 May 2025. He will be reburied along with his wife, Mrs Vuyiswa Malangabi-Nokwe who passed away in 2008.

"President Ramaphosa has accorded Advocate Nokwe a Special Provincial Official Funeral and the President will deliver a tribute at tomorrow's ceremony," the statement read.

Nokwe held a BSc degree from the University of Fort Hare and a diploma in education, which he used to foray into teaching in Krugersdorp.

However, his political activities led his imprisonment during the Defiance Campaign aimed at the apartheid government in 1952.

He was banned and restricted in 1953 by the racist government following his participation in the World Youth Festival and visits to the then Soviet Union, China and Britain.

"He subsequently studied law, obtained an LLB degree and became the first black advocate to be admitted to the Johannesburg Society of Advocates. The Native Affairs Department of the time debarred him from taking chambers with his white colleagues in the Johannesburg city centre and this development led to Adv Nokwe devoting himself to the liberation struggle.

"He was put on trial for treason and was subjected to banning orders, arrests and assault by the police," the presidency said.

His political activism and fight for the freedom of South Africans led to him having to leave the country.

"He was elected Secretary-General of the African National Congress in 1958 and mobilised communities against apartheid until the underground leadership directed him to leave South Africa in January 1963.

"Advocate Nokwe campaigned against the apartheid state on global platforms including those of the Organisation of African Unity and African Union and remained an activist until he passed in Lusaka in January 1978," the statement concluded.