"For the wretched of the earth, the 90 percent of humanity living in capitalist society, socialism is the only answer, history has not ended . . . we will mold a new, just society."
Chris Hani | On the Land Struggle
Chris Hani, born on 28 June 1942, in Cofimvaba, Transkei. General-Secretary of the SACP since December 1991 and ANC NEC member since 1974. Matriculated at Lovedale, 1958; Universities Rhodes and Fort Hare - 1959/61, BA Latin and English. Joined ANC Youth League 1957. Active in Eastern and Western Cape ANC before leaving SA in 1962. Commissar in the Luthuli Detachment joint ANC/ZAPU military campaign 1967, escaped to Botswana, returned from Botswana to Zambia 1968, infiltrated SA in 1973 and then based in Lesotho. Left Maseru for Lusaka in 1982 after several unsuccessful assassination attempts. Commissar and Deputy Commander of Umkhonto we Sizwe, armed wing of ANC. Chief of Staff, MK 1987.
After Nelson Mandela, Chris Hani was the most popular leader of the ANC, particularly among the poorest communities. Known as the tireless organizer of the ANC underground during the darkest years of resistance, the leader of the Umkhonto we sizwe, the armed wing of the ANC, whose presence and struggle brought the apartheid regime to the negotiating table, Chris Hani was also the dynamic leader of the South African Communist Party and active in the struggles of the workers and the poor.
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