JOHN TOBIN

The Stone meetings---so-called because they were held in the vicinity of a large boulder on the slopes of Table Mountain above District Six---were started in May 1901 by John Tobin, a local café owner and leading personality within the coloured community. He called these open-air political meetings on Sunday mornings, weather permitting, to create a forum for the discussion of political issues affecting coloured people. Because there was no political organization representing coloured interests, this initiative proved to be highly successful during the first year of its existence, drawing large crowds of people. Tobim continued to call Stone meetings after his election as APO vice-president in 1902 and his subsequent expulsion from the organization in 1905. Meetings continued to be called sporadically, especially at election time, as late as 1919.

-Mohamed Adhikari, Straatpraatjes (1996).