23 Facts About Walter Sisulu

Walter Max Ulyate Sisulu was a South African anti-apartheid activist and member of the African National Congress.

Walter Sisulu had a close partnership with Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela, with whom he played a key role in organising the 1952 Defiance Campaign and the establishment of the ANC Youth League and Umkhonto we Sizwe.

Walter Sisulu was on the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party.

Walter Sisulu was born in 1912 in the town of Ngcobo in the Union of South Africa, part of what is the Eastern Cape province.

Dickinson did not play a part in his son's upbringing: Walter Sisulu reportedly met him only once, in the 1940s, before he died in the 1970s.

Walter Sisulu was close with his uncle, Dyantyi Hlakula, who was passionate about Xhosa culture and who oversaw his initiation.

Walter Sisulu was fired from the bakery for trying to organise his co-workers.

Walter Sisulu was one of the first ANC leaders to push for a non-racial alliance, leading to cooperation with white and Indian activists like Joe Slovo and Ahmed Kathrada.

In 1940, Walter Sisulu joined the African National Congress, which had been founded in the year of his birth.

Walter Sisulu encouraged Mandela to join the ANC, occasionally contributed to his law school tuition, and introduced him to his first wife, Evelyn Mase, who was Walter Sisulu's maternal relative.

In 1943, together with Mandela and Oliver Tambo, he joined the ANC Youth League, founded by Anton Lembede, of which Walter Sisulu was initially the treasurer.

Walter Sisulu later distanced himself from Lembede after Lembede, who died in 1947, had ridiculed his parentage.

Walter Sisulu was on the planning council for the campaign and was arrested for his participation.

When Umkhonto we Sizwe was established in 1961, Walter Sisulu served on its High Command.

Walter Sisulu went underground in 1963, resulting in his wife, Albertina Sisulu, becoming the first woman to be arrested under the so-called 90 Day Act, the General Laws Amendment Act of 1963, which allowed the state to detain suspects for up to 90 days without charging them.

In July 1991, at the ANC's first national conference since its unbanning the year before, Walter Sisulu was elected ANC Deputy President.

Walter Sisulu believed his role was to support, not seek personal power.

In 1994, the ANC won a majority in South Africa's first democratic elections and formed a government headed by Mandela, but Walter Sisulu, weakened by age and his long imprisonment, declined to serve in public office.

Walter Sisulu died at his home in Linden, Johannesburg on the evening of 5 May 2003, just shy of his 91st birthday, in the presence of his wife.

Walter Sisulu was given a "special official funeral" on 17 May 2003.

In 1944, Walter Sisulu married Albertina, a nurse, whom he had met in 1942 in Johannesburg; Mandela was his best man at their wedding.

In 1992, Walter Sisulu was awarded Isitwalandwe Medal, the highest honour granted by the ANC, for his contribution to the liberation struggle in South Africa.

In 2004, Walter Sisulu was ranked 33rd on SABC 3's list of Great South Africans.