Nyameko Barney Pityana FKC GCOB (born 7 August 1945) is a human rights lawyer and theologian in South Africa.

He was one of the founding members of the South African Students' Organisation of the Black Consciousness Movement with Steve Biko and Harry Ranwedzi Nenwekhulu.

[2] He was also a member of the African National Congress Youth League,[citation needed] and was suspended for challenging the authority of the Afrikaans teachers and the apartheid principles of "Bantu education".

[citation needed] Pityana received a degree from the University of South Africa in 1976 but was barred from practicing law in Port Elizabeth by the apartheid government.

Those former ANC members and leaders included Allan Aubrey Boesak, Mosiuoa Gerard Patrick Lekota, Smuts Ngonyama, William Mothipa Madisha, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and many others who worked for the formation of COPE secretly.