Albertina Sisulu 'the mother of the nation'

This biography has been written in chapters, please refer to the contents on the right to view the different periods in Albertina Sisulu's life.

Banning orders, banning orders and more banning orders (1960-1980):

The 1960s saw the ANC move toward the armed struggle. Umkhonto we Sizwe (the ANC's armed wing) was formed through the agency of Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela in 1961. They were appointed chairman and political commissar respectively. Walter was responsible for framing the organizational units of National High Command, Regional Commands, Local Commands and cells. But in 1963 Walter was awaiting the outcome of an appeal against a 6 year sentence and he decided to forfeit bail and went underground. Security Police visited Walter Sisulu's house and found that he had fled. Soon afterwards they arrested Albertina.

Albertina Sisulu became the first woman to be arrested under the General Laws Amendment Act of 1963. The Act gave the police the power to hold suspects in detention for 90 days without charging them and in Albertina’s case she was placed in solitary confinement incommunicado for almost two months. During this time the security police psychologically taunted her (by threatening the safety of her children) with the intent of gaining information on Walter Sisulu's whereabouts. Because Albertina was cut off from all interaction with the outside world she had no idea that the police had raided Lilliesleaf Farm in Rivonia and had arrested her husband and 16 others. She only found out three weeks after she was released from detention. Just under a year later the Rivonia trial concluded, 6 of the accused were sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island, Walter Sisulu was one of them. As Walter Sisulu and his co-accused left the courtroom, Albertina, some ANC Women’s League members and other supporters rushed out to form a guard of honour to meet the men. The court officials turned them away, but they sang ‘Nkosi Sikele i’Afrika’ in Church Square in Pretoria in solidarity and mourning.

In order to visit Walter, Albertina was forced to apply for a passbook as no-one was allowed to visit Robben Island without one. This process was very humiliating and degrading for her, she had never owned a passbook and had always resisted attempts by the state or the nursing council to this end. The officials who administrated Albertina’s passbook mocked her by asking her where she had been when others had applied for their reference books years ago. They aggravated circumstances further by deliberately delaying the administrative process.

On top of all of this Albertina was served with a five year banning order (valid until the 31st July 1969) which limited her movement and activities according to ‘Group B’ restrictions. For five years Albertina was not allowed to leave the magisterial district of Johannesburg. Although the ‘Group B’ restrictions were less severe than those of ‘Group C’ (24 house arrest), Albertina’s banning order prevented her from visiting all townships, hostels, villages or compounds where Black people lived. She was also prohibited to visit any factory, newspaper or magazine office, university, school, college, or educational institution, and any Coloured or Asian area, except Orlando where she lived. She was further barred from communicating with any banned or listed person (list of individuals who the state wanted to persecute/were suspicious about) except her husband. In addition to this she was not allowed to be involved with the compiling, printing or distribution of any publication, or to give any educational instruction to any person other than her own children. Albertina was banned from attending social, political or student gatherings – a “gathering” being defined as more than three people present and/or any number of persons of different races being together. Finally Albertina also had to report to the Commanding Officer of the Orlando Police Station every Wednesday.

When Albertina’s permit to visit Robben Island arrived she had to apply to the Chief Magistrate for special permission to leave Johannesburg. In turn the Magistrate had to refer the matter to the security police. Eventually Albertina was able to visit Walter in September 1964, but the same restrictions applied to her in Cape Town and although she informed the police of all of her arrival and departure times, her movements were unashamedly watched over by local police.

Albertina’s first Christmas without her husband was difficult. Over and above the pain of not being with Walter, she was faced with dire financial problems. Her children returned home from school in Swaziland for the December holidays and she was concerned that she might not be able to feed them.  Holiday celebrations were a bleak affair as many of Albertina's friends and comrades were either in prison or in exile. Albertina remembers the following about the 1964 festive season:

“There was hardly anything to eat and I had to close the doors and windows to keep out the aroma of delicious food coming from the houses of our neighbours. We were so lonely. The people who we would normally spend the day with were not there. It was the worst Christmas we had ever had.”

Albertina’s financial woes continued throughout the 1960s as she struggled to afford her children's schooling in Swaziland, but she said that she would rather struggle than subject her children to Bantu education. When she was not at work, Albertina sewed lishweshwe dresses and knitted jerseys and baby clothes to sell for extra money and she also bought eggs at wholesale prices, selling them at a small profit. In these difficult times her neighbors and friends were incredibly kind and supportive. From grocers who allowed her to buy on credit, to friends who would lend her money to buy school supplies for her children, to neighbors who would donate coal for cooking free of charge every month. Anglican priests in South Africa who were friends with Albertina and Walter also helped her out by either paying for the children’s school fees or helping them to secure bursaries from overseas donors.

Even though Albertina was under constant surveillance by the security police she still managed to exchange political information with Walter and network with other activists. In a letter dated 25 November 1965 Albertina cryptically wrote the following:

“Our gardens are not too good at all this year. The drought has been too much. The worms are so powerful that as soon as you put in plants they are destroyed instantly.”

Albertina was making reference to the fact that informers (worms) were defeating the work of the ANC underground (gardens) which was mad worse by the repressive political climate (drought). As a FEDSAW leader and ANC stalwart who was not imprisoned Albertina had to do her best to dodge the security police so that she could network with ANC comrades and other activists. One such person was John Nkadimeng. John was closely associated with Walter in the ANC before he joined the Communist Party and he too was a target of the security police. John and Albertina managed to contact each other during 1966 and together they set up an underground cell. They were joined by activist John Mavuso and the three of them maintained contact with the ANC leadership in Botswana. The cell’s main activity was to help ANC members to leave the country for education or military training and they managed with the help of others to set up a working committee to facilitate this.

Nkadimeng and Albertina went about setting up links with activists in other provinces which proved to be very difficult because of their banning orders and the ban on formal meetings. Nkadimeng would visit Albertina at her clinic pretending to be a relative. They would discuss political matters by pretending to be chatting about family matters. Other underground activists would also go to the clinic and pretend to be patients and they would exchange information as Albertina attended to them. Between 5pm when she finished work and 7pm when she had to report to the police station, Albertina managed to sneak off to meetings. One of her sons, Lungi, assisted her as courier and driver to other activists. He often picked up messages and parcels for his mother.

Albertina also managed to keep in contact with her FEDSAW comrades through very unconventional but ingenious methods; one of which involved conversations through a toilet wall! The toilet in Albertina’s house, like most in her area, shared a wall with her neighbor, Metty Hluphekile Kubheka. Kubheka moved in next door the mid-1960s. FEDSAW members would pretend to visit Kubheka but would converse with Albertina through the thin adjoining toilet wall while Kubheka kept a look out in the front garden for the security police.

Albertina always had to be extremely careful as police informants were all over neighborhood, the clinic and even posed as members in the movement. Towards the end of 1967 Albertina grew suspicious that John Mavuso was a police informant. He was their main contact with the ANC leadership in Lusaka and he had opened up a new factory and Albertina was unsure where he had managed to get the money. After an investigation carried out by John Nkadimeng it turned out that Albertina’s suspicions were correct. They decided not to confront Mavuso about this but they stopped all business with him.

Over and above the constant surveillance, the security forces tried to break the nerve of political leaders using psychological tactics. In July 1966 Albertina received a letter from the Liquidator informing her that he had evidence that she was a member of the Communist Party and that FEDSAW was under “communistic domination and control” because its leaders; Albertina, Eufemia Hlapane and Gertrude Shope, were confirmed communists. In a back and forth exchange of letters between Albertina, the Ministry of Justice and the Liquidator the allegations were dropped but the psychological strain of the ordeal affected Albertina. The security forces also stirred up gossip in the townships making people suspicious of their comrades, asking questions like “why are their children studying in boarding schools in Swaziland when ours are in township schools?”

In July 1969, exactly five years after her first banning order the state informed Albertina that her banning order had been renewed for another five years and that she was being placed under partial house arrest. The security police justified their decision by saying that Albertina had continued her involvement in FEDSAW and had continued to engage in illegal political activities. The security police report used in extending Albertina’s banning order contained many fabrications, some of which were completely fantastical. The police were correct that Albertina was still a member of FEDSAW. The usual allegations that Albertina was a member of the Communist Party were included in the report, along with allegations that she was planning to buy a property for returning freedom fighters (‘terrorists’). By far the most bizarre allegations were that she had communicated with her husband by putting a “secret message” into the frames of the new spectacles she had bought him and that a white man called Platz-Mills from London had given Albertina a secret writing apparatus that looked like a mirror so that she could communicate with leaders abroad. The security police were also very interested in the rift between Albertina and Winnie Mandela and alleged that Albertina was “competing with Winnie for the leadership of FEDSAW” – a ridiculous allegation as Winnie was not a member of FEDSAW or of any affiliated organisation. These allegations were merely used to convince the Ministry of Justice to impose further restrictions on Albertina.

Although the 1960s were tough, Albertina felt that significant work had been done in rebuilding the underground and community structures of FEDSAW and the ANC. In September 1968 she wrote to Walter, using the same metaphors as before, saying that:

“Though we have not got enough rain yet this year, our gardens are not as poor as all these other years. I think by next year we will have enough vegetables. So rest in peace in the Island. We are not going to starve long.”
Albertina celebrated her 50th birthday in 1968 and obtained her matric certificate in 1969 through an adult education course.

The renewed banning order made it almost impossible for Albertina to network with FEDSAW and the ANC members as she was under partial house arrest. During this time she kept Walter up to date with family matters, writing to him constantly about their children’s school achievements and their love lives (marriages). The Sisulu house was always busy as extended family, friends and neighbors often visited and political activists came by to exchange information and of course there were the obtrusive police raids. Albertina was a busy house wife; this amazed her children who appreciated the political stress she was under. In 1972 some of Albertina’s children clubbed together to buy her a washing machine for her 54th birthday. Sheila Sisulu (daughter-in-law, married to Lungi Sisulu) commented on this occasion: “I felt so guilty about Mama doing laundry all the time and I was not about to spend my days helping her with the washing. At first she distrusted the machine and felt it did not wash the clothes properly, but after the first few washes she was so impressed that she named the machine ‘MaSisulu’. When the washing machine was churning out load after load we would jokingly say ‘MaSisulu is busy today!’”

Throughout her life Albertina had always been mothering. From when she had to take care of her younger siblings to her experience of motherhood with her own children and her late sister’s children, then later taking care of her grandchildren whose parents were away in exile. In African cultures, extended family (i.e. nieces and nephews) are considered to be part of the immediate family and Albertina frequently looked after her sister Flora’s children. Albertina had to make more room for her family and built extra ‘backrooms’ in the backyard of her house to accommodate everyone. Albertina always kept Walter up to date with these changes so that he would recognise No. 7372 when he returned home.

The Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) was very popular amongst students of the 1970s and Lindiwe Sisulu (Albertina’s 4th child, her first daughter) was active in the Black People’s Convention (BPC) from 1971-1973. Albertina was concerned with Lindiwe’s involvement with BPC because she disapproved of the way that many of the youths had interpreted the Black Consciousness (BC) philosophy with regards to white people. The ANC had always maintained a policy of non-racialism and while Steve Biko’s views on whites in South Africa were not extreme, some of the BCM youths were bent on totally eliminating white people from South Africa. Despite her concerns, Albertina was supportive of her daughter and did not patronise her during the political conversations they enjoyed. Lindiwe felt that Albertina and John Nkadimeng were too passive and lacked real activity in merely working to set up structures.

On 25 April 1974 Mozambique was liberated by FRELIMO. This victory boosted the morale of the South African freedom fighters. Albertina’s second five year banning order was due end that year, but it was renewed again for another five years. The partial house arrest requirement was removed, but she was prohibited to leave her own township of Orlando and she had to continue to report the Orlando Police Station weekly. Albertina had to apply for special permits to attend work-related lectures outside of Orlando from the Chief Magistrate of Johannesburg.

16 June 1976 was a pivotal day in South African history, the details of which are too significant to summarise here. SAHO has a feature on the student uprising and this should be read by all hoping to appreciate this event. Protests against the use of Afrikaans as an instruction medium in black schools were frequent but the government refused to listen; Albertina was one of thousands of parents who were concerned about the quality of education that her children were receiving given that most of the teachers in Soweto could barely speak Afrikaans let alone teach in it.

Nkuli Sisulu, Albertina’s daughter and youngest child, attended Morris Isaacson High. This school was centrally involved in the organisation of the student protests. Before the 16 June riots Albertina could sense that Nkuli was hiding something from her and so could her siblings who saw the excitement that she was repressing. Nkuli and her cousin Jongi left home as normal with their school books on 16 June 1976 not speaking of the protest plans to anyone. Albertina was at work when she heard about the student protests but was not really worried about it because she did not imagine that they would be in any real danger. However, during the course of the day Albertina became increasingly worried as reports about children being shot at and killed came in. On her way home that evening Albertina saw that the township had erupted into chaos, students were throwing stones at the police and cars and buildings had been set alight. Albertina had no idea where Nkuli and Jongi were, but they returned home later that day. The student riots continued through June and July and Albertina, like most parents, could not stop her children from taking part as the Sisulu children did not want to sit around at home while their friends and peers were out fighting on the streets. This period was very nerve wrecking for Albertina who never knew when her children would be home. Nkuli often came home badly bruised or burnt by teargas.

On top of this stress Albertina was very anxious about her daughter Lindiwe who had been taken into custody on 14 June. Initially Albertina was utterly distressed as she did not know where Lindiwe had been taken and she feared the police’s increased brutality towards detainees. Fortunately Albertina found Lindiwe the following day at John Vorster Square, the notorious detention centre where Steve Biko was murdered. Lindiwe remained in detention for almost a year and suffered terrible physical and mental torture at the hands of the police.

Many young people were either forced to leave the country or left voluntarily after the events of 1976. Lindiwe Sisulu left in June 1977 for Mozambique because she feared being detained again. Albertina facilitated the departure of many young people into exile post-1976 and there were many opportunities to mobilise not only the youth but also women. Albertina notes that women who had previously shunned her and her political activity because they were afraid to land up in jail now had had a change of heart. Primarily because of the involvement of their children in the student protests and the police brutality against them, they wanted to become active members of FEDSAW. Albertina noted “our organisation of women became very strong after 1976”.

In July 1979 Walter and Albertina celebrated 35 years of marriage; a marriage like no other with many children in exile (they had not seen Max, their firstborn, in 16 years) and with 15 years of not living in same house. Click here to read the letter that Walter wrote to Albertina on their 35th wedding anniversary. The sisulu’s also celebrated two other weddings, in December 1978 Albertina's son Zwelakhe married Zodwa Mdladlambaand in 1979, Lindiwe married Xolile Guma in Swaziland.  

Two weeks after their wedding anniversary the security police arrived to serve Albertina with another banning order, this time it was a two year ban. The report from the security police recognised that Albertina was a very good public speaker who could mobilise many people so the ban on attending “gatherings” remained.

Next: “The mother of the nation” (1980s)