Walter Sisulu Birthplace

Walter Sisulu (1912-2003) was born in Ngcobo in 1912. He was raised by his mother's family as his father did not play a part in his upbringing. He never schooled beyond Standard Four. After two contracts on the mines, he settled in Johannesburg where his mother was working as a washerwoman. Walter got a job at Premier Biscuits where, in 1936, he led his first strike and was immediately dismissed. He founded his own estate agency, Sitha Investments, whose offices in downtown Johannesburg became a meeting place for new arrivals from the Eastern Cape, including Nelson Mandela (1941) and Oliver Tambo (1942). In 1943, Sisulu, Mandela and Tambo joined with Anton Lembede, AP Mda and others to found the ANC Youth League. The Youth League drew up the Programme of Action which was adopted at the ANC Conference of 1949, which elected Sisulu as Secretary-General. This Programme laid the basis for the Defiance Campaign of 1952 and other mass actions. Sisulu was repeatedly arrested, charged and eventually placed under 24 hour house arrest. He went underground but was arrested at Rivonia with Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba and others in July 1963. Facing the death sentence, he wrote the following statement: "I am to face the gallows simply because I have dedicated my life towards making my humble contribution to my fatherland and to the advancement of the aspirations of my people I am condemned because I have dared to challenge the Apartheid Monster of the Vorster and Verwoerd clique. All honest men have an obligation to smash oppression and tyranny wherever it exists and by whatever means. History is full of examples of the execution of those who stand for the truth. I am quite confident that our blood will certainly water the Garden of Freedom!" Walter Sisulu was sentenced to life imprisonment and spent from 1964 to 1989 on Robben Island.