1926 - 1995

Chief of Staff of uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) (1985—1987), Lawyer, Founding member of the Congress of Democrats, 1956 Treason Trialist, General-Secretary of the South African Communist Party (SACP), Member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress (ANC)

Joe Slovo was a key personality in South Africas revolutionary politics for over four decades. He was a long-serving leader of the SACP and a founding member of the ANCs armed wing MK. He returned from exile in 1990 and played a key role in South Africas transition to democracy.

Lithuanian-born Joe Slovo came to South Africa aged 9. He joined the Communist Party of South Africa (later the SACP) in 1942. He served with the South African forces during World War II and later benefitted from a scholarship for White war veterans and qualified as an advocate.

Following Sharpeville in 1960, the SACP and ANC turned to armed struggle. Slovo was put in charge of establishing the first fighting units of MK, the ANCs military wing, and quickly acquired a reputation as a tactician. In exile from 1963, he led MKs Special Operations Units, responsible for attacks on strategic economic and military targets in South Africa. The Apartheid state would label him Public Enemy Number One'. Slovo returned from exile in 1990 to play a central role in the negotiations and transitional government that ended Apartheid.

Did You Know?

In December 1994 Slovo received the ANCs highest award, Isitwalandwe. The following year his funeral procession wound through Soweto in what would be post-Apartheid South Africas first state funeral.