Chris Hani: working class hero

Abstract

Martin Thembisile 'Chris' Hani held a range of significant leadership positions in the liberation movement during his relatively short life, including being a member of the Western Cape Regional Committee of the ANC, a chief of staff of its military wing, MK, a member of the ANC's National Executive Committee (NEC), and secretary general of the South African Communist Party (SACP). Hani, the son of Gilbert and Mary Hani, was born in rural Sabalele in the Cofimvaba region of the former Transkei on 28 June 1942. He joined the ANC Youth League when he was 15 years old and still a student at Lovedale Mission School in Alice. His interest in politics was nurtured at an early age in discussions with his father Gilbert on various issues affecting Africans in apartheid South Africa, in particular the Bantu Education system introduced while he was at school. Years later Hani pointed out that 'we as students were dead against Bantu Education which had been imposed in 1954. So, our purpose of struggle as students ... was the struggle against Bantu Education. We wanted an equal education. We perceived Bantu Education as being inferior; as preparing us to serve the white government with no decision making on the part of the blacks'.