Eric "Stalin" Mtshali was a South African politician, trade unionist, and anti-apartheid activist.
16 Facts About Eric Mtshali
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Eric Mtshali was a founding member both of the South African Congress of Trade Unions in 1955 and of Umkhonto we Sizwe in 1961.
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Eric Mtshali was a stalwart of the South African Communist Party.
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Eric Mtshali was born on 20 November 1933 in Durban in the former Natal province, where he was educated and where he became involved in the anti-apartheid movement.
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Eric Mtshali rose to prominence as a young trade union organiser among Natal's dockworkers and textile workers, and he was a founding member of the South African Congress of Trade Unions in 1955.
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Eric Mtshali was recruited into the South African Communist Party in 1957, during a period in which the party was banned and operating underground.
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Eric Mtshali earned the nickname "Stalin" for his admiration for Joseph Stalin, the former leader of the Soviet Union.
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In 1961, after the African National Congress founded Umkhonto we Sizwe, Eric Mtshali was among the first cohort of recruits to its underground command structure in Natal.
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Eric Mtshali went into exile with MK in 1962 and received military and intelligence training in Cuba and the Soviet Union.
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Eric Mtshali held that position during the Wankie and Sepolilo campaigns.
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Eric Mtshali was first elected to the Central Committee of the SACP in 1971.
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In 1991, during the negotiations to end apartheid, Eric Mtshali returned to South Africa, where he became a member of the regional executive committee of the ANC's branch in Southern Natal.
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Eric Mtshali was elected to represent the ANC as a local councillor in eThekwini in the 2000 local elections.
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Eric Mtshali served two consecutive terms, gaining re-election in 2009, and left after the 2014 general election.
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In 2011, he was one of several MPs who appeared to defy a three-line whip by skipping a parliamentary vote on the ANC's controversial Secrecy Bill, although it was not clear whether Eric Mtshali's absence had been excused by the party.
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Eric Mtshali died on 12 October 2018 at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital in Durban after a long illness.