African National Congress stalwart Walter Sisulu will celebrate his 90th birthday on Saturday.
Sisulu was born in the same year that the ANC was founded and came to Johannesburg from Engcobo, Transkei in 1929.
He worked as a labourer, miner, kitchen assistant and did a series of factory jobs. He was only able to attend school until Standard Four (Grade Six), after which he studied on his own to improve his education.
Sisulu joined the ANC in 1940 and was among the group of radicals who formed the Youth League in 1943/44.
Sisulu was instrumental in bringing the ANC to the watershed 1949 conference, where he was elected secretary general, a post he held until 1954 when banning orders forced him to resign the position.
He served on the joint planning council for the Defiance Campaign, and led one of the first batches of passive resisters when the campaign began in 1952.
Sisulu was one of the 156 people arrested, many of whom were accused in the Treason Trial from 1956 to 1961, he was detained in the 1960 post-Sharpeville state of emergency, and was captured in 1963 at Rivonia and held under the 90-day detention law. He was sentenced to life imprisonment after the Rivonia Trial and released in October 1989.
He was elected ANC deputy president at its national conference of July 1991 and remained in that position until after the country’s first democratic election in 1994.
The SA Communist Party (SACP) in a statement on Thursday wished him a happy birthday.
”He sacrificed the prime of his life, risking death and was incarcerated on Robben Island for 25 years. This is the kind of dedication and sacrifice we need today in order to build a better life for all our people,” the SACP said.
The party said the democratic South Africa was the best birthday present Sisulu could wish for.
”In Comrade Walter we also celebrate the vision of non-racialism, non-sexism which draws deeply from the experiences and traditions of our people’s struggle.”
The Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) also sent him a birthday message.
”He is indeed a hero of our people and the working class in particular. He also symbolises principled commitment to freedom, justice and equality,” a Cosatu statement said on Thursday.
”Despite the personal victimisation he had to endure comrade Walter has never wavered. The apartheid regime worked tirelessly to break his spirit but comrade Walter steadfastly stood his ground.”
Cosatu said Sisulu had outlived the architects of apartheid and was privileged to be able to witness the fruits of his sacrifices.
”South Africa is today a free society because of the gallant work of the people’s movement, the ANC and leaders such as comrade Walter,” Cosatu said. – Sapa