Joe Modise

John "Joe" Modise (* May 23, 1929 in Doornfontein, † 26 November 2001 Pretoria) was a South African resistance fighter and MK- army commander and later Defence Minister of his country.

Life

Modise grew up in the Johannesburg district of Alexandra. He was already active in the 1950s as a young man in the fight against apartheid. First he followed the concept of nonviolent resistance. He was convicted of these activities along with Nelson Mandela. In the wake of the Sharpeville massacre in 1960 substantiated he and other members of the ANC, the Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the ANC. In 1964 he went to the establishment of guerrilla cells in South Africa in exile. As a result, he was military training in countries of the Eastern bloc. He himself founded Umkhonto we Sizwe operational bases of Tanzania, Angola and Uganda, also directed the training of fighters in Cuba, Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia and the People's Republic of China. Nevertheless, he was a member of the delegation of the ANC in 1990 the first negotiations to replace the apartheid led.

He was from 1994 to 1999 the first black South African defense minister after the replacement of apartheid. A particular problem during his tenure presented the integration of some 27,000 members of the military arm of the ANC and the PAC in the South African armed forces dar. This task he entrusted the former MK commander Solly Shoke.

They criticized arms deals during his tenure, which was suspected of corruption.