Born 18 May 1912 in Engcobo, Eastern Cape
Died 5 May 2003
“It is a law of life that problems arise when conditions are there for their solution.”
Walter Sisulu has both a Xhosa and western background, having been born to a Xhosa mother and white father. After working in Johannesburg on a number of manual jobs, Sisulu joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1940 and went on to co-found the ANC Youth League along with Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo.
Later, Sisulu joined the South African Communist Party and in 1952, he was arrested for taking part in planning the Defiance Campaign. Following his suspended sentence, Sisulu travelled through Europe, the USSR, Israel and China as an ANC representative. After going underground in 1963, Sisulu was caught and sentenced to life imprisonment at the Rivonia Trial in 1964, serving the majority of his sentence on Robben Island along with other ANC figures.
Released in October 1989, Sisulu was elected as ANC deputy president at the ANC’s first national conference after its unbanning in 1988. Sisulu held this position till after the 1994 elections.
In 1992, Sisulu was granted the highest order by the ANC for his contribution to the liberation struggle through the Isitwalandwe Seaparankoe award. Both the Walter Sisulu University and Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden are named after him.
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