Biography
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.
“The mother of the nation” (1980s):
Circa mid-1980s. UDF meeting in Johannesburg.
© Paul Weinburg.
Elinor Sisulu wrote the following about the beginning of the 1980s for Albertina:
“The year 1980 began on a sad note for Albertina, with the death of her friend and mentor, Lilian Ngoyi. Lilian was the most significant woman leader in the struggle of her generation, and a shinning example to many.”
Albertina and Helen Joseph were both under banning orders that prevented them from attending Lilian’s funeral but applied for permits to attend. Helen was granted leave to attend but Albertina was forbidden to do so – a cruel and soul crushing experience for Albertina who wanted to say goodbye to her friend and co-worker in the struggle.
Politically the beginning of the 1980s was very much in favour of the liberation struggle as Zimbabwe gained its independence on 18 April 1980. This completely disarmed the apartheid regime’s plans to establish links with other African states in the region to support its policies of racial segregation and to prevent a “communist onslaught”. Sabotage acts against the state, most notably the bombing of police stations, increased greatly as the ANC relied on its armed wing – Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) - to retaliate against police brutality and the murders of political activists.
Student boycotts in the Western Cape had also taken on a more militant stance and boycotts spread across the country affecting many campuses. Nkuli Sisulu was studying her first year Fort Hare university in the Eastern Cape and was arrested by police under the orders of Bantustan leader Lennox Sebe. Nkuli was detained for three days and beaten severely. Albertina recalled that when Nkuli returned home she was “black and blue” from the injuries she had sustained in prison. Although Albertina was upset that Nkuli’s education had once again been disturbed (as in 1976) she agreed that it would not be a good idea for Nkuli to return to Fort Hare.
Albertina's son Zwelakhe was served with a three year banning order on 29 December 1980 which placed him under partial house arrest and confined his movements to the magisterial district of Johannesburg and it also effectively banned him from being a journalist as he was prohibited to be involved in any part of the production or dissemination of any publication. This was significant as Zwelakhe was the president of WASA – Writers Association of South Africa, later MWASA – Media Workers Association of South Africa. Up until his banning he had done profound political work by combining Black Consciousness (BC) philosophy with ANC strategies and ideology in his writings. Priscilla Jana, a BC activist and lawyer who had once defended Zwelakhe in court, remarked that Zwelakhe inherited his ability to combine differing ideologies and organisations from his mother. She notes that Albertina was…
“…the mother in Soweto. It didn’t matter whether you were Black Consciousness or PAC or anything, their home was an open home… she had a tremendous ability to bring people together. When people had any problems, be they political or non-political, they could feel free to call at the Sisulu home.”
Albertina’s attitude to life also helped Zwelakhe’s wife Zodwa cope with her husband’s banning as the adjustment to a “government-prescribed lifestyle” was severe. One had to adjust to a completely different way of life, one that was constantly monitored and disturbed by security police. Zodwa Sisulu said that Albertina had set an “impressive example” for her to follow and that being in the Sisulu family had made her accustomed to living under banning orders. Zwelakhe and Zodwa still lived with Albertina at no.7372 (they had tried many times to secure other accommodation but to no avail) and because of the banning order on both mother and son they were legally not allowed to be in the same room or to communicate with each other – a virtually impossible task considering the small size of the Sisulu house!
Fortunately in July 1981, much to her surprise, Albertina’s banning order was not renewed. She had been banned for 18 years, the longest any person in South Africa had been banned. Her new ‘freedom’ meant that she could actively and openly set to work on rebuilding women’s organisations within FEDSAW, she was also inundated with requests to speak at meetings and rallies. But even though she was free to speak at meetings she could not be quoted in newspapers as she had once been a banned person.
Albertina worked closely with veteran activists like Greta Ncapayi, June Mlangeni and Sister Bernard Ncube. Much work was done to recruit young female activists who could organise the women in the ANC underground. A Soweto teacher O’Hara Diseko was one of these new recruits who Albertina sent to Botswana to discuss plans with the ANC Women’s Branch there. Albertina and O’Hara also formed a local cell called Thusang Basadi (‘Wake up women’) with other women in the area to support detainees and the families of political prisoners. Thusang Basadi would help with the educating of political prisoners and with the organisation of funerals, tracing missing members of ANC’s families. The cell staged protest marches outside of municipal offices, demanding that the dummy municipal structures and non-elected councils be dismantled.
At the end of 1979 a group of students involved in the student boycotts in the Western Cape were advised to seek the mentorship of Albertina on how to take up education issues from a national liberation perspective. Jessie Duarte was part of a delegation that met with Albertina, Greta Ncapayi and others in Orlando West. After their initial meeting in 1979 Jessie worked alongside Albertina for over 12 years. Jessie described Albertina as a “one-woman political education course” and learned much about FEDSAW and the ANC and its policies from her. Jessie along with Sicily Palmer, Feroza Adams, Benny Manama, Baby Tyawa and Susan Shabangu became known as ‘MaSisulu’s girls’. It was Albertina’s mission to develop what she called a “petticoat layer” of women leaders who would take over from the older women.
In 1981 Albertina was involved in a campaign against the government’s plan to hold elections for the South African Indian Council (SAIC), which was a puppet advisory body to the government that would allegedly advise the state on Indian affairs. The Transvaal anti-SAIC committee was formed in June 1981 and was met with an overwhelming response by the Indian community. In November 1981 a national anti-SAIC conference was held in Durban and Albertina was one of the main speakers alongside ANC legend Archie Gumede. The anti-SAIC campaign was all about non-racialism and about bringing to life the values of the Freedom Charter. Albertina was seen as a living testament to both of these ideals.
During 1981 Albertina also spoke at many meetings and, sadly, many funerals condemning the state’s policy of detentions without trials. January 1981 saw the first cross-border raid into Mozambique and the South African Defence Force killed 20 people in Matola, in February. Joe Gqabi (ANC representative in Zimbabwe) was assassinated outside his home in Harare, and in November, ANC activist Griffiths Mxenge was assassinated by the security police. On 5 February 1982 Neil Aggett, a trade unionist and medical doctor, was found hanging in his cell. He was the 54th prisoner to die in detention and the first white political prisoner to die in police custody. Albertina empathized with the Aggett family because of Zwelakhe who was still in detention and she became involved in the funeral arrangements for Neil’s burial.
On the 15th June 1982 Albertina was served with her fifth banning order, a two year set of restrictions that barred her from attending any meetings (and funerals) where she was able to ‘expound her ideological views’.
The 1980s was a decade of significant political reform; the 'tri-cameral parliament' system was introduced by the apartheid state in 1983. It created three separate parliaments; one for Whites, one for Coloureds and one for Indians. The African majority was excluded from this parliament system because it was argued that they had their own political representation in the respective homelands (Bantustans) – a completely defunct argument because of the fact that the homelands were largely rejected and despised by the majority of Black South Africans. For more information on political reform during the 1980s see SAHO’s timeline.
The repressed majority was fighting for change and for a united front against apartheid and there was some optimism as people could see that the apartheid engine was slowing losing steam. The apartheid state was loosing support and suffering international sanctions and the ANC’s popularity was increasing abroad.
At the beginning of 1983 Reverend Alan Boesak proposed the idea of a formal united front of resistance against apartheid at the Transvaal anti-SAIC Committee congress, an idea that was welcomed. Many were keen to use the proposal in opposition to the tri-cameral parliament. A national steering committee was set up to take the proposal of a united front forward. Albertina was approached to support the idea because of her ANC experience and her leadership involvement in the revival of FEDSAW.
Albertina had been banned from attending the conference in January where Revd. Boesak proposed the idea but when approached she wholeheartedly supported it. The timing for such an initiative could not have been more perfect as Albertina’s banning order was cut short due to the introduction of the new Internal Security Act of 1982. Her banning order ended approximately a yearbefore it was due to. Albertina was eager to be involved with the preparations for the launch of the United Democratic Front (UDF) as mass mobilisation on a national scale – across organisations and race – was desperately needed to change the political situation in South Africa. However, she was arrested on 5 August 1983 (probably because the state saw her involvement with the UDF as a threat) after the funeral of ANC Women’s League veteran Rose Mbele in January. She was charged under the Suppression of Communism Act for allegedly furthering the aims of the ANC – still banned at this time. The security forces ‘evidence’ was that Rose Mbele’s coffin was draped with an ANC flag and Albertina was asked to deliver a tribute to Rose’s life; facts which were distorted to incriminate Albertina for delivering a speech on behalf of the ANC. During this time the UDF section in the Transvaal held its Regional Executive Committee Elections and Albertina was elected president in absentia. In an article written about her election by the vice-president of the UDF for the Transvaal region, Dr. RAM Saloojee, Albertina was dubbed the ‘mother of the nation’.
Albertina’s trial date was set for the 17th October and she was denied bail. She remained in custody with Thami Mali (a teacher from Soweto accused of the same offences) in Diepkloof Prison. The international Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) publicised Albertina’s detention abroad with strong condemnation of the apartheid government. This caught the attention of the British Foreign Secretary who issued a statement of concern detailing the ‘strong feelings of repugnance’ that Britons felt towards the South African government. The fact that Albertina and Thami Mali were arrested a full eight months after Rose Mbele’s funeral implies that the state was not really interested in their actions at the funeral but rather in crushing the UDF in its early stages
Being in jail did not prevent Albertina from participating in the struggle as 250 000 copies of the UDF News boasted a full-length image of her on the front page. The UDF News was distributed throughout the townships in the Transvaal during the UDF’s recruitment drive for its national launch.
The launch of the UDF signalled a new chapter in the struggle for liberation as 12 000 to 15 000 people gathered in Mitchell’s Plain to show their support for South Africa’s largest democratic organisation. More than 400 organisations throughout the country were affiliated to the UDF including trade unions, women’s groups, sports groups and faith-based and civic organisations. Albertina was elected as one of the three presidents of the UDF along with Oscar Mpetha and Archie Gumede.
George Bizos defended Albertina and Thami in court saying that, yes, the ANC’s presence at the funeral was necessary because of Rose Mbele’s history with the organisation but the funeral was not a political rally for the ANC. On 24 February 1984 Albertina was sentenced to four years in prison, two of which were suspended for five years. Upon hearing the news of MaSisulu’s sentence, Priscilla Jana, lodged a successful appeal for bail and eventually (after running around to everyone she knew) collected the required R1000 bail fee. Priscilla managed to get Albertina out of jail at midnight that night, Albertina was fast asleep by then as she had not been expecting to be bailed out. She was taken home and settled down to a celebratory meal of curry and rice at 3am in the morning! Albertina’s sentence was met with an outcry by the UN Special Committee against Apartheid and by the leader of the women’s section of the ANC, Gertrude Shope, especially since it was the ‘Year of the Women in South Africa’.
In 1984 Albertina retired from the Council of Nurses to work with Dr Abu Asvat who worked from a mobile clinic (housed in a caravan) in Rockville Soweto. Dr Asvat was politically aligned with AZAPO (Azanian People’s Organisation) and was deeply committed to helping the poor. Despite their different political persuasions Albertina and Dr Asvat worked in perfect harmony as both were passionate about serving the poor and overthrowing the apartheid state. Dr Asvat was also understood the nature of Albertina’s UDF work and the risk that she could be jailed or banned at any time. He allowed her much leave to visit Walter in Cape Town.
1984 was a very busy year for the UDF and Albertina spoke at many rallies around the country. In July the UDF embarked on ‘roadshow-style mobilisation’ where its leaders travelled around the country encouraging people to boycott the tri-cameral elections during ‘Don’t Vote’ rallies. Despite the jail sentence hanging over her head and unconcerned about her older age, Albertina delivered angry speeches that criticised the government for its plans to conscript young coloured and Indian males into the apartheid army. She also continually campaigned for the release of Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu so that there could be genuine democratic negotiation. At the first anniversary of the UDF Albertina delivered one of her most famous speeches.
By the end of 1984 the UDF had over 600 affiliates and its boycott campaign was the most vigorous and sustained political campaign run by black South Africans. The ANC had also declared 1984 the ‘Year of the Woman’ and Albertina was part of a group of activists tasked with the challenge of reviving FEDSAW. It was decided, for fear of being banned, that FEDSAW should exist as a network of connected but independent provincial organisations and Albertina set Sister Bernard Ncube and Jessie Duarte the task of drawing veteran activists into the process of building up FEDSAW. As leader in charge, Albertina also maintained that it was vital that FEDSAW communicated and sought the consult of women in exile. In her public statements during this period Albertina continually emphasised the role of women in the struggle and combined this with the campaign against the tri-cameral parliament.
Riots, boycotts and indiscriminate police shooting rocked the townships in 1984, but the state could not squash the will of the people and the riots continued throughout the year. The state blamed the UDF for the violence and considered banning the party but concerns over international pressure and what could happen if the UDF went underground prevented this. Instead the state targeted the UDF leaders and in October and December 1984 nine UDF leaders were arrested. Shortly after this on the 19 February 1985 Albertina was arrested along with other UDF leaders and trade unionists, all of whom were transported down to Durban to join their UDF colleagues who had been detained the previous year. In total sixteen leaders were arrested and charged with treason and a trial date was set for 21 October, on Albertina’s 67th birthday.
All sixteen accused were denied bail with Albertina being the only woman accused she was effectively in solitary confinement. Priscilla Jana remembers one occasion where she went to visit Albertina and found the men relaxing enjoying each other’s company over a game of chess while Albertina was alone in her cell scrubbing the floor. In April the French ambassador requested to see Albertina in jail but his request was denied after an embarrassingly diplomatic exchange of letters between the security police, the Ministry of Justice and the French embassy.
Throughout the country the UDF organised mass protests against the detainment of their leaders, and Dr Allan Boesak along with other UDF leaders challenged the government to arrest them too as they were ‘guilty’ of participating in the same activities as the accused sixteen. Finally on the 3 May 1985 the Natal Supreme court granted the accused bail of R170 000. But the bail conditions meant that Albertina and her co-accused could not participate in any organisations mentioned in the indictment. This put a halt on Albertina’s FEDSAW, UDF and ANCWL work.
The Pietermaritzburg Treason Trial began with pre-trail proceedings some time before the trial date of 21st October. The state had put together a 587 page indictment that alleged that the UDF was a political front for the ANC and that it was leading a ‘revolutionary alliance’ to overthrow the state. The specific charges were high treason, violations of the Terrorism Act and furthering the aims of the ANC. Once the trial began properly it was clear that the state had insufficient and unconvincing evidence against the accused sixteen. The key state witness (a lecturer at the Rand Afrikaans University) eventually conceded that he had made ‘fundamental mistakes’ that could have misled the court and that he, contrary to what the Attorney-General had argued, had no expertise to assess revolutionary literature. On 9 December the state withdrew its charges against twelve of the sixteen; the remaining four were SAAWU members who remained on trial. The twelve were met by a crowd who had gathered outside the courtroom to congratulate them. Elinor Sisulu writes about the ‘wild scenes of celebration’ as the fourteen made their way to a local hotel to continue the celebrations.
After her release, Albertina made her first public appearance at a meeting on International Human Rights Day in central Johannesburg where she delivered a fiery speech saying that it was ‘the beginning of the end of the apartheid system’.
Violence in the townships continued with two State of Emergencies being called during 1985 and then again in 1986 which was extended until 1988. Police brutality was unprecedented and in Alexandra seventeen young people were killed in what the press called the ‘Six-day War’. A funeral was held for the victims and 60 000 people mourned their passing at Alexandra Stadium where Albertina delivered a speech that condemned the government as ‘frightened cockroaches’. She appealed to mothers of white soldiers for the government to stop killing black children. 1986 was also the year that the UDF focused on the role of women as a key part of its programme of action as a large majority of its members were women. In May the UDF National Working Committee Conference resolves that new women’s organisations be set up where none had existed and that existing women’s groups be strengthened so as to lay a strong foundation for its national structure.
Albertina Sisulu said the following in 1987, referring to rent boycott in Soweto and women’s role:
"Women are the people who are going to relieve us from all this oppression and depression. The rent boycott that is happening in Soweto now is alive because of the women. It is the women who are on the street committees educating the people to stand up and protect each other."
These women’s groups were essential as they could bring some form of control over the ungovernable political attitude of the youth who were recklessly rallying behind the Liberation before Education slogan. With the townships being ungovernable because of violence there was an attitude of ‘anything goes’ and Albertina was deeply concerned about brutalisation of young activists and tsotsis who used political activism as a guise for their criminal activities. Suspected police informants were being necklaced – placing a tyre filled with petrol around a person’s neck and then setting it alight – and Albertina had very strong objections to this practice. She was concerned that Winnie Mandela saw this practice as a useful means to achieve liberation.
During 1986 tensions between AZAPO and the UDF came to a bloody head and hundreds of supporters on both sides were killed and the leaders houses bombed. The apartheid state was partly to blame for this as it had circulated fake UDF pamphlets in Soweto that incited anti-AZAPO sentiments. With this in mind Albertina and Dr Asvat’s working relationship and friendship was a remarkable one. Albertina always spoke highly of her employer, Dr Asvat who had continued to pay Albertina her salary whilst she was on trial/detained. During the time that they worked together they provided much needed help to people in some of the poorest communities. In McDonald’s Farm where people were living in abandoned cars they set up a surgery and installed 20 toilets that were shared by 150 people. Space for a crèche was made in the surgery and a feeding scheme was introduced that fed approximately 80 children with twice a week. In January 1987 the leadership of the UDF and AZAPO committed to pursing a peace process and agreed to halt further attacks.
In September 1987 Albertina’s four year sentence in the Rose Mbele case was dismissed on appeal because her co-accused Thami Mali had left the country.
In February 1988 the UDF and sixteen other organisations were effectively banned by the harsh restrictions put on them by the Emergency regulations. Albertina and other leaders were also restricted.