The Presidential Years

Anti-apartheid and political activist. Member of the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) from the age of fifteen. He also joined the SACP. Member and eventually head of MK. He was active in the ANC underground in the Eastern and Western Capes, and eventually went into exile, where he rose through the ranks of MK. Returned to South Africa in 1990. General secretary of the SACP from 1991. Assassinated outside his home in Johannesburg in 1993 by Janusz Walus. Posthumously awarded the ANC’s highest honour, Isitwalandwe Seaparankoe, in 2008.