Martin Thembisile (Chris) Hani was born on 28 June 1942 in Comfimvaba, Transkei, 200 km from East London, the fifth of six children. His father was a semi-literate migrant worker in the Transvaal mines, and mother, held back by her illiteracy worked on a subsistence farm to supplement the family income.

Hani and his siblings had to walk 25 km to school, and then the same distance to church on Sundays. Hani became an altar boy at the age of eight and was a devout Catholic. He wanted to become a priest but his father refused to allow him to pursue this life choice.

When the South African government introduced the Black Education Act (1953), which formalised the segregation of black schooling and laid the foundation for "Bantu Education", Hani became angered because of the limitations this imposed upon his future. This was one of the motivating factors in his decision to join the African National Congress (ANC).

In 1956, at the start of the Treason Trial, he joined the (ANC). His father already an ANC activist – and in 1957 he joined the ANC Youth League (ANCYL)

Hani matriculated from Lovedale High School in 1959 and went to university at Fort Hare to study modern and classical literature in English, Greek, and Latin. Fort Hare had a reputation as a liberal campus, and it was here that Hani was first exposed to Marxist philosophy which later influenced him. He graduated in 1961 with a BA in Classics and English.

Hani's uncle had been active in the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), an organisation founded in 1921 but which had dissolved itself in response to the Suppression of Communism Act (1950). Ex-Communist Party members had to operate in secret, and had re-formed themselves as the underground South African Communist Party (SACP) in 1953.

In 1961, after moving to Cape Town, Hani joined the SACP. The following year he joined Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the militant wing of the ANC. With his high level of education, he quickly rose through the ranks; and within months was a member of the leadership cadre, the Committee of Seven. In 1962, Hani was arrested under the Suppression of Communism Act. In 1963, having exhausted all legal appeals against conviction, he went into exile in Lesotho.

Hani was then sent to the Soviet Union for military training and returned in 1967 to take an active role in the Rhodesian bush war, acting as a Political Commissar in the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA).

Although this campaign provided propaganda for the struggle in Rhodesia and South Africa, in military terms it was a failure. In early 1967 Hani narrowly escaped to Botswana, only to be arrested and detained in prison for two years for weapons possession. Hani returned to Zambia at the end of 1968 to continue his work with ZIPRA.

In 1973 Hani went back to Lesotho. Here he organised units of MK for guerrilla operations in South Africa. By 1982, Hani had become prominent enough in the ANC to be the focus of several assassination attempts, including at least one car bomb. He was then transferred from the Lesotho capital, Maseru, to the centre of the ANC political leadership in Lusaka, Zambia.

That year he was elected to the membership of the ANC National Executive Committee, and by 1983 he had been promoted to Political Commissar of the MK.

When dissident ANC members, who were being held in detention camps in Angola, mutinied against their harsh treatment in 1983–4, Hani played a key role in the uprisings' suppression – although he denied any involvement in the subsequent torture and murders. Hani continued to rise through the ANC ranks and in 1987 he became the Chief of Staff of the MK. During the same period, he rose to senior membership of the SACP.

After the unbanning of ANC and SACP on 2 February 1990 Hani returned to South Africa and became a charismatic and popular speaker in townships. By 1990 he was known to be a close associate of Joe Slovo, the General-Secretary of the SACP and both Slovo and Hani were considered fearful figures in the eyes of South Africa's extreme right: the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) and the Conservative Party (CP). When Slovo announced that he had cancer in 1991, Hani took over as General-Secretary.

In 1992 Hani stepped down as Chief of Staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe to devote more time to the organisation of the SACP. Hani campaigned for the SACP in townships around South Africa. A description of Hani at this time was as charming, passionate, and charismatic. He developed a cult-like following and he was the only political leader who seemed to have influence over the radical township self-defence groups that had parted from the authority of the ANC. Hani's SACP could have proved a serious match for the ANC in the 1994 elections.

However on 10 April 1993, as he returned home to the racially mixed suburb of Dawn Park, Boksburg (Johannesburg), Hani was assassinated by Januzs Walus, an anti-Communist Polish refugee who had close links to the white nationalist AWB. Also implicated in the assassination was Conservative Party MP Clive Derby-Lewis.

Hani's death came at a critical time for South Africa. It was felt that his killing may lead to a complete breakdown in the peace talk. It galvanised the negotiators of the Multi-Party Negotiating Forum to finally set a date for South Africa's first democratic election.

Walus and Derby-Lewis were captured, sentenced and jailed within six months of the assassination. Both were sentenced to death and due to the new Constitution it was commuted to life. . Walus and Derby-Lewis are currently serving their sentence in a maximum security prison near Pretoria.

Sources:
ANC
Who is Who
Africa Files

 

Page Last Updated 5 May 2010