Dia: cleanup details further and added references based on references

2025-12-20T18:51:46Z

cleanup details further and added references based on references

imported>Waynejayes: Restored revision 1033968008 by Trappist the monk (talk): Vandal

2021-07-30T10:05:48Z

Restored revision 1033968008 by Trappist the monk (talk): Vandal

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{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}
'''{{Use South African English|date=July 2012}}'''
{{Infobox officeholder
| image = Walter Sisulu.jpg
| caption =
| office = Deputy President of the [[African National Congress]]
| president = [[Nelson Mandela]]
| term_start = July 1991
| term_end = 1994
| predecessor = [[Nelson Mandela]]
| successor = [[Thabo Mbeki]]
| office2 = Secretary-General of the [[African National Congress]]
| president2 = [[James Moroka]]<br>[[Albert Luthuli]]
| term_start2 = 1949
| term_end2 = 1954
| predecessor2 = [[James Arthur Calata]]
| successor2 = [[Oliver Tambo]]
| birth_name = Walter Max Ulyate Sisulu
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1912|5|18}}
| birth_place = [[Ngcobo, Eastern Cape|Ngcobo]], [[Transkei]] (now [[Eastern Cape]]), South Africa
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2003|5|5|1912|5|18}}
| death_place =
| party = [[African National Congress]]
| relations = 
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Albertina Sisulu]]|1944}}
| children = {{flatlist|
* [[Lindiwe Sisulu]]
* [[Max Sisulu]]
* [[Zwelakhe Sisulu]]
}}
| residence =
| occupation =
| religion =
| signature =
| website =
| footnotes =
}}
{{Apartheid}}
'''Walter Max Ulyate Sisulu''' (18 May 1912 – 5 May 2003) was a South African [[Internal resistance to apartheid|anti-apartheid]] activist and member of the [[African National Congress]] (ANC), serving at times as Secretary-General and Deputy President of the organization. He was incarcerated at [[Robben Island]], where he served more than 25 years' imprisonment.<ref name=BBCObit>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/297039.stm Obituary: Walter Sisulu] – BBC News obituary, dated Monday, 5 May 2003</ref>

== Family and education ==

[[File:Sisulu wedding with mandela and lembede.JPG|thumb|left|Walter and Albertina Sisulu wedding with Nelson Mandela and Anton Lembede. [[Evelyn Mase]] is to the left of the groom and [[Anton Lembede]] is to the right of the bride. Nelson Mandela is far left. Rosabella Sisulu looks out over the couple.<ref name=wedding>{{cite news|last=Sisulu|first=Elinor|title=Tribute: Life, love and times of the Sisulus|url=http://www.thenewage.co.za/20336-1007-53-Tribute_Life,_love_and_times_of_the_Sisulus|access-date=4 August 2013|newspaper=The New Age|date=10 June 2011|url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202151200/http://www.thenewage.co.za/20336-1007-53-Tribute_Life%2C_love_and_times_of_the_Sisulus|archive-date=2 February 2014}}</ref>]]

Sisulu was born in [[Ngcobo]] in the [[Union of South Africa]]. His mother, Alice Mase Sisulu, was a [[Xhosa people|Xhosa]] [[domestic worker]] and his father, Albert Victor Dickinson, who was [[white people|white]]. Dickinson worked in the Railway Department of the Cape Colony from 1903 to 1909 and was transferred to the Office of the Chief Magistrate in [[Umtata]] in 1910.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.anc.org.za/list_by.php?by=Walter%20Sisulu |title=Walter Sisulu – ANC Page |access-date=4 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110422144655/http://anc.org.za/list_by.php?by=Walter%20Sisulu |archive-date=22 April 2011 |url-status = dead }}</ref><ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/may/07/guardianobituaries.southafrica David Beresford, "Walter Sisulu" (obituary)], ''The Guardian'', 7 May 2003.</ref> Sisulu's mother was related to [[Evelyn Mase]], [[Nelson Mandela]]'s first wife. Dickinson did not play a part in his son's upbringing, and the boy and his sister, Rosabella, were raised by his mother's family, who were descended from the [[Thembu]] clan.<ref>[http://ancestry24.com/walter-sisulu/ Walter Sisulu] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120616181711/http://ancestry24.com/walter-sisulu/ |date=16 June 2012 }} ''Walter Sisulu''</ref> Dickinson later went on to become the Attorney General of the Transvaal.

Educated in a local missionary school, he left in 1926 to find work. He moved to [[Johannesburg]] in 1928 and did a wide range of manual jobs.

He founded Sitha Investments in 1939. It was situated at Barclay Arcade between West Street and Commissioner Street in the [[business district]] of [[Johannesburg]]. Its objective was to help [[black people|blacks]] and Indians buy houses in [[Apartheid]] South Africa. During its operations, Sitha was the only black-owned real estate agency in South Africa.

He married [[Albertina Sisulu|Albertina]] in 1944; [[Nelson Mandela]] was his [[best man]] at their wedding.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.namibian.com.na/news/africa/full-story/archive/2011/june/article/sa-mourns-anti-apartheid-icon-ma-sisulu/ |title=SA mourns anti-apartheid icon 'Ma' Sisulu |date=6 June 2011 |newspaper=[[The Namibian]] |publisher=NAMPA |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607203031/http://www.namibian.com.na/news/africa/full-story/archive/2011/june/article/sa-mourns-anti-apartheid-icon-ma-sisulu/ |archive-date=7 June 2011 }}</ref> The couple had five children, and [[adoption|adopted]] four more. Sisulu's wife and children were also active in the struggle against apartheid.

His son [[Zwelakhe Sisulu]] became a journalist and union leader, went on to found the ''New Nation'' (at the time South Africa's largest black newspaper), served as Nelson Mandela's press secretary, became CEO of the South African Broadcast Corporation, and later a businessperson.<ref>{{cite web|author=Sapa and Mkhulu Mashau |url=http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/zwelakhe-sisulu-laid-to-rest-1.1402516#.UQcF1x2_J8E |title=Zwelakhe Sisulu laid to rest – South Africa | IOL News |publisher=IOL.co.za |date=14 October 2012 |access-date=28 January 2013}}</ref><ref name=allafrica>{{cite news|first=Tami |last=Hultman |title=South Africa: Zwelakhe Sisulu – a Remembrance |url=http://allafrica.com/stories/201210050366.html |publisher=AllAfrica |date=5 October 2012 |access-date=28 January 2013 }}</ref>

An adopted daughter, Beryl Rose Sisulu, served as ambassador for the Republic of South Africa in Norway.<ref>[http://www.saemboslo.no/documents/n4story1.pdf Female ambassadors luncheon.]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

== ANC activism ==

He joined the ANC in 1941. In 1943, together with [[Nelson Mandela]] and [[Oliver Tambo]], he joined the [[ANC Youth League]], founded by [[Anton Lembede]], of which he was initially the treasurer. He later distanced himself from Lembede after Lembede, who died in 1947, had ridiculed his parentage (Sisulu was the son of a white foreman). Sisulu was a political networker and had a prominent planning role in the militant ''[[Umkhonto we Sizwe]]'' ("Spear of the Nation"). He became [[secretary general]] of the ANC in 1949, displacing the more passive older leadership, in a post he held until 1954. He also joined the [[South African Communist Party]].


As a planner of the [[Defiance Campaign]] from 1952, he was arrested that year and given a [[suspended sentence]]. In 1953, he travelled to Europe, the [[USSR]], [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]], and China as an ANC representative. He was jailed seven times in the next ten years, including five months in 1960, and was held under house arrest in 1962. At the [[Treason Trial]] (1956–1961), he was eventually sentenced to six years, but was released on bail pending his appeal. He went underground in 1963, resulting in his wife being the first woman arrested under the [[General Laws Amendment Act of 1963]] (or "90-day clause"<ref>H. Lever, "The Johannesburg Station Explosion and Ethnic Attitudes", {{cite journal|title=The Public Opinion Quarterly|issue=Vol. 33, No. 2, Summer 1969|pages=180–189| jstor=2747759|last1=Lever|first1=H.|year=1969|volume=33|publisher=Oxford University Press, American Association for Public Opinion Research}}</ref>). He was caught at [[Rivonia]] on 11 July, along with [[Govan Mbeki]], [[Ahmed Kathrada]] and 14 others. At the conclusion of the [[Rivonia Trial]] (1963–1964), he was sentenced to life imprisonment on 12 June 1964. With other senior ANC figures, he served the majority of his sentence on [[Robben Island]].

On 15 October 1989, he was released after 26 years in prison, and in July 1991 was elected ANC deputy president at the ANC's first national conference after its unbanning the year before. He remained in the position until after South Africa's first democratic election in 1994.

== Awards ==

In 1992, Walter Sisulu was awarded [[Isitwalandwe Medal|Isitwalandwe Seaparankoe]], the highest honour granted by the ANC, for his contribution to the liberation struggle in South Africa. The government of India awarded him [[Padma Vibhushan]] in 1998. Walter Sisulu was given a "[[State funeral|special official funeral]]" on 17 May 2003. In 2004 he was voted 33rd in the [[Great South Africans|SABC 3's Great South Africans]].

The [[Walter Sisulu National Botanic Garden]], [[Walter Sisulu University]] and Walter Sisulu Local Municipality are named after him.

== See also ==

* [[List of people subject to banning orders under apartheid]]

== References ==
{{reflist|40em}}

== Further reading ==

* {{cite book|last1=Sisulu|first1=Walter Max |last2=Houser|first2=George M.|author-link2=George Houser|last3=Shore|first3=Herb |title=I Will Go Singing: Walter Sisulu Speaks of His Life and the Struggle for Freedom in South Africa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ASBzAAAAMAAJ|year=2001|publisher=Robben Island Museum}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3002619.stm Anti-apartheid fighter Sisulu dies] – BBC News article, dated Tuesday, 6 May 2003
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3004001.stm South Africa mourns Sisulu] – BBC News article, dated Tuesday, 6 May 2003
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3003849.stm Nelson Mandela's tribute to Walter Sisulu] – BBC News article, dated Tuesday, 6 May 2003
* The African Activist Archive Project website includes the audio of a January 1987 [http://africanactivist.msu.edu/audio.php?objectid=32-12E-4 Interview with Walter Sisulu] conducted in 1954 by George M. Houser of the American Committee on Africa. The website also includes photographs of Sisulu and demonstrations in the U.S. in support of the defendants in the Rivonia Trial.

{{African National Congress}}
{{Padma Vibhushan Awards}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sisulu, Walter}}
[[Category:1912 births]]
[[Category:2003 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Engcobo Local Municipality]]
[[Category:South African people of Xhosa descent]]
[[Category:South African people of British descent]]
[[Category:Coloured South African people]]
[[Category:Members of the African National Congress]]
[[Category:Anti-apartheid activists]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Padma Vibhushan in public affairs]]
[[Category:People with Parkinson's disease]]
[[Category:South African prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment]]
[[Category:Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by South Africa]]
[[Category:People acquitted of treason]]
[[Category:Inmates of Robben Island]]

Walter Sisulu - Revision history

Dia: cleanup details further and added references based on references

imported>Waynejayes: Restored revision 1033968008 by Trappist the monk (talk): Vandal