Walter Sisulu

Walter Sisulu Max Ulyate ( born May 18, 1912 in Qutubeni in Engcobo district, Transkei; † 5 May 2003 in Johannesburg ) was a South African anti- apartheid fighter and politician.

Life and work

Born Walter Sisulu in Qutubeni, a village in the Transkei, in the mainly Xhosa live. His mother was a farmer's wife, his father, Mr. Dickenson, a white official, who did not care about his son. The first six years of childhood he lived with his mother, then with his grandmother and an uncle. He received his education at the Anglican Missionary Institute of Engcobo, which he left after the death of his uncle at the age of 15 years.

In 1928, Walter Sisulu went to Johannesburg, where he worked to support his family in a dairy. He returned to his home country to undergo the initiation rites of his people. Then in 1929 he returned back to Johannesburg and worked in a gold mine. Shortly thereafter, he moved to his mother, who had found as a domestic worker in East London for work. During this time he was with Clements Kadalie contact, who led the influential union Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU ). The experience from his work in the gold mine and the acquaintance with Kadalie have decisively shaped by his own admission his political consciousness. Later, he moved with his mother back to Johannesburg, where he worked in several elementary jobs. Here he attended night school at the Bantu Men's Social Centre and engaged as a secretary in the Orlando Brotherly Society, a Xhosa organization. His living he earned in multiple jobs. Because of the organization of a strike for higher wages, he was terminated from a bakery. After various types of occupations, including as a part-time cashier at the Union Bank of South Africa, he went into self-employment and after 1938 was a partner in a white agent. As a result of these activities, the self-taught artist acquired a reputation as a real estate broker.

In 1940 Sisulu was a member of the African National Congress ( ANC). Founded in 1944, Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Sisulu and other ANC Youth League, the youth wing of the African National Congress. Sisulu organized the first illegal strike. After 1948, the National Party won the elections of the white population and immediately presented a program, which provided for the introduction of a total racial segregation, Mandela, Tambo and Sisulu first organized mass demonstrations against this policy.

From 1949 to 1954, Sisulu Secretary General of the ANC, where he enjoyed a high reputation. He was regarded as an organizational genius of the ANC and as a mentor of Nelson Mandela in his youth. In 1956 were 156 people who had been a year previously involved in the adoption of the Freedom Charter, arrested for treason, including Sisulu. In Treason Trial, a five -year process, all the accused were acquitted. However, since 1958 Sisulu was under indefinite house arrest. In the same year he was elected to the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party, of which he was also.

In June 1964, Sisulu, Mandela and six other companions in so-called Rivonia Trial were sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island prison off Cape Town Iceland. During this time he earned a bachelor of art history and anthropology ( bachelor's degree in art history and anthropology ). It was not until 25 years later, on October 15, 1989, he was released from prison. Two years later elected him, the ANC deputy president, which office he held until his retirement in 1994.

With his wife Albertina Sisulu Thetiwa even dedicated freedom fighter, he was married 58 years. From this marriage five biological children were born, they also adopted four more children. After his death in 2003 Sisulu was buried as the first non - white South Africans with a special official state funeral.

His daughter Lindiwe Sisulu was from 2004 to 2009 Minister of Housing and since 2009 Verteidungsministerin South Africa. His son Max Sisulu is speaker of the National Assembly since 2009, his son Zwelakhe Sisulu editor of the New Nation and 1994 to 1997 Head of the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

Tributes and honors

In 1998 he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan award Indian state.

The Witwatersrand University awarded him and his wife in a ceremony on 24 June 1999, respectively a Doctor of Law ( honoris causa ).

Since 2004, the Botanical Garden in Roodepoort bears the name Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden since 2005 and is the Walter Sisulu University, based in East London.