Joe Slovo
Yossel Mashel Slovo (23 May 1926 – 6 January 1995), commonly known as
Joe Slovo, was a South African politician, and an opponent of the
apartheid system. A
Marxist-Leninist, he was a long-time leader and theorist in the
South African Communist Party (SACP), a leading member of the
African National Congress (ANC), and a commander of the ANC's military wing
uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK).
Slovo was a delegate to the multiracial
Congress of the People of June 1955 which drew up the
Freedom Charter. He was imprisoned for six months in 1960, and emerged as a leader of uMkhonto we Sizwe the following year. He lived in exile from 1963 to 1990, conducting operations against the apartheid régime from the United Kingdom,
Angola,
Mozambique, and
Zambia. In 1990, he returned to South Africa, and took part in the negotiations that ended apartheid. He became known for proposing the "sunset clauses" covering the 5 years following a democratic election, including guarantees and concessions to all sides, and his fierce
non-racialist stance. After the elections of 1994, he became Minister for Housing in
Nelson Mandela's government. He died of
cancer in 1995.
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