History Matters Blog :

Thembisile Chris Hani timeline 1942 - 2003

1942
28 June, Martin Tembisile, who later becomes known as Chris Hani, is born in the village of Sabalele, Eastern Cape to Gilbert and Mary. He is the fifth of six children.
1956
Hani leaves Sabalele for Lovedale College in Alice.
1957
Hani is recruited into the Society if Young Africa (SOYA) the youth wing of the Unity Movement.
Simon Kekana, head prefect at Lovedale and chair of the ANC Youth League and local agent for the New Age recruits Hani to the ANCYL.
1958
Hani completes his studies at Lovedale with English, Xhosa, Latin, History, Mathematics and Hygiene as his final subjects.
28 October, Hani applies for admission to Fort Hare University.
1959
5 February, Hani is accepted to Fort Hare for a Bachelor of Arts.
1961
Hani joins the South African Communist Party (SACP).
1962
Hani becomes one of the first volunteers for Umkhonto weSizwe (MK), the newly formed armed wing of the African National Congress and SACP.
Hani graduates from Rhodes University in classical and legal studies, leaves his home village of Sabalele for Cape Town to do his articles at the law firm Schaeffer and Schaeffer.
In Cape Town Hani meets his father for the first time.
Under the mentorship of Govan Mbeki, Hani becomes involved in trade union and political activity. He volunteers at the Roeland Street offices of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) which was not yet banned.
Hani is elected to the highly secretive seven-man regional committee, dubbed the 'Committee of Seven', of the MK in the Western Cape.
Hani and Sibeko are arrested on their way to Nyanga East to distribute leaflets against the 90-day detention law. After spending the weekend at Phillipi Police Station Hani, along with Sibeko, are charged under the Suppression of Communism Act for furthering the aims of a banned organization. They spend 30 days in isolation cells before their trail begins.
Hani and the others are sentenced to 18 months in prison with hard labour and bail is granted at £125. While the lawyers consider whether to appeal Hani travels into Lobatse, Bechualand (Botswana) to attend an ANC conference.
1963
Hani leaves Schaeffer and Schaeffer and does not complete his articles.
February, Hani and Sibeko's sentence is confirmed and it is decided that they should go into hiding until a group could be assembled for the journey into exile.
May, Hani begins his journey into exile first traveling to Soweto where he stays with a family sympathetic to the struggle. A few weeks later the group leave for Bechualand and then to Northern Rhodesia (Zambia). However, on reaching Lusaka Hani, along with the rest of the group, is arrested. After a brief court appearance the men are freed and taken by the United National Independence Party (UNIP) to the border with Tanganyika.
November, Along with 30 other MK cadres, Hani arrives in Moscow, USSR for further military training.
After the executive of the MK is arrested at Liliesleaf Farm the training of the cadres is extended from 6 months to a year.
1964
November, Hani and the 30 cadres return to Der es Salaam.
The ANC leadership is offered a piece of land at Kongwa, 400 kilometers south of the capital, for use by MK. Hani is put in charge of setting up the camp.
1965
The number of cadres at the Kongwa camp grows to 500. Hani becomes involved in teaching adult basic education to counter the high level of illiteracy amoung the cadres. He also begins writing for Dawn.
1966
Hani is moved to Zambia. There he becomes responsible for setting up a joint training programme with ZAPU before their entry into Rhodesia in what would later become the known as the Wankie campaign.  
While trying to re-enter Botswana Hani is arrested and detained for two weeks before being sent back to Lusaka.
1967
While working on the Wankie campaign Hani moves in with Ben Magubane, an academic at the University of Zambia, and his family in Sunningdale, Lusaka.
Hani travels to Swaziland to secretly meet Gasson Ndlovu, head of the Pan African Congress' armed wing Poqo, to discuss possible co-operation with the MK.
2 August, Hani's contigent is named the Luthuli Detachment by Oliver Tambo in memorium of Albert Luthuli. They are sent into the Wankie Game Reserve (Hwange National Park) on their first covert mission.
13 August, Hani's Luthuli contingent is engaged in their first battle against the Rhodesian army in which they successfully force the army to retreat.
25 August, The Luthuli contingent experience another victory and they decide to start the march towards the Botswana border.
September, The MK soldiers are arrested by the Botswana security force. They are sentenced to between one and six years for weapons possession.
1969
Hani is released from jail and is sent to live with the intellectual and struggle exile Livingstone Mqotsi in Lusaka.  While staying there Hani and a group of soldiers from the Wankie campaign write a letter, which becomea known as the Memorandum, with explosive allegations against many of the ANC's leadership in exile.
April, At the Morogoro Conference the men attached to the Memorandum are suspended from the organization.
Hani and seven of the signatories of the Memorandum are reinstated. The eighth, Leonard Nkosi, returns home to South Africa.
1970
Hani is elected to the Central Committee of the SACP.
1972
December, At the Central Committee session in the German Democratic Republic it becomes clear that Moses Kotane will no longer be able to carry out his official duties and as a result the post of Assistant General Secretary is created and Chris Hani is elected to it.
1973
Hani's first daughter, Neo, is born.
1974
Hani travels to the German Democratic Republic (GDR) where for three months he receives training in guerrilla command.
Hani marries Limpho Sekamane in Dar es Salaam.
As part of an operation to infiltrate South Africa from Lesotho, Hani walks across the border of Botswana into Zeerust on his way to Johannesburg to set up small underground cells. Four months later he arrives in Lesotho.   
Hani is co-opted onto the ANC's NEC, along with Thabo Mbeki. They become the NEC's youngest-ever members.
1976
Hani, along with Lambert Moloi, is arrested in Maseru and detained under the 60-day detention law and is badly tortured by the Lesotho security force. A letter from Oliver Tambo eventually secures their release.
The ANC manage to secure an official presence is Lesotho with Hani as the organization's chief representative.
June, In the aftermath of the Soweto Uprising Hani's operation in Lesotho is caught off-guard by the massive influx of aspirant soldiers.
Hani is placed on the ANC's Revolutionary Council.
1978
Hani's second daughter, Nomakhwezi is born.
1981
Hani's third daughter, Lindiwe, is born.
June, Hani's driver Sizwe Kondile is abducted by the security police while driving Hani's car near Bloemfontein. Kondile is tortured at length and when he refuses to provide them with information he is taken to close to the Mozambique border where he is drugged and then shot dead.
1982
2 August, An assassination attempt on Hani's life goes wrong when the car bomb explodes in the hands of the would-be assassin Ernest Ramatolo.  As a result the family decides to move closer to the centre of Maseru to Kuena Flats where many MK and ANC leaders stay.
24 October, Hani sends a letter to Naidoo informing her that he is back in Maseru for 'political and personal' reasons.
9 December, Kuane Flats, home of many ANC representatives, is raided by South African security police as part of Operation Lebanta. Afterwards it is reported tat 30 ANC members along with 12 women 12 civilians including women and children are killed. Amoung the dead are Comrade Gene, Matumo Ralebitso, Zola Nqini. Fortunately Hani was not at home at the time of the attack.
Hani is moved to Lusaka by the ANC leadership after several unsuccessful assassination attempts.
1983
Hani is appointed MK's deputy army commander.
1984
A mutiny occurs in Viana camp. Hani persuades the mutineers to end their siege but the ringleaders are arrested. Ultimately 32 men are arrested, charged, found guilty and imprisoned at Luanda Maximum Security Prison.
1985
January, At the SACP's sixth conference Hani receives the highest number of votes for a seat on the Politburo.            
Hani is part of the team involved in secret talks at Mfuwe Game Reserve in Zambia between a delegation of businessmen led by the chairperson of Anglo America, Gavin Relly, and the ANC led by Oliver Tambo.
16 June, At the ANC's Kabwe Conference the NEC becomes is voted for by ballot for the first time. Of the members elected 24 of the 29 are communists, including Joe Slovo, Thabo Mbeki (who later resigns from the SACP) Moses Mabhida and Hani. Hani also becomes a member of the ANC's Politico-Military Council (PMC), which is created to replace the Revolutionary Council.
The first state of emergency is put into place as a response to the ungovernability of the townships as the MK structures and front organizations, commanded by Hani out of Harare and Lusaka, began to take hold.
A decision is made for Hani to leave Zimbabwe, where he had been based on and off, to travel clandestinely into Botswana in order to run the MK's operations on South Africa's northern border with Zimbabwe and Botswana.
Mid-1987
Hani is appointed MK chief of staff.
1988
Hani is interviewed for the The Times of London and the Weekly Mail by journalist John Battersby.
Hani moves into a house in Woodlands, Lusaka with two permanent teams of bodyguards.
1989
After the Angolan government requests the MK to leave, as part of an agreement with the South African government, Hani is sent on a mission to Uganda to find out whether the government would host MK troops.
December, After the selection of several ex-mutineers and former Quatro prisoners results in the dissolution of the regional political committee in Tanzani Hani and NEC member Stanely Mabizela are sent to Dakawa, an MK camp, to calm the soldiers.
1990
14 February, A party to honour the poet Robert Burns is hosted for Hani after his arrival in London after a political tour of Havana, Cuba as guests of Fidel Castro.
28 April, Hani returns back to South Africa on a provisional amnesty order from FW de Klerk. Hani stays with Winnie Mandela for a brief period after returning home from exile.
20 August, The provisional amnesty provided to leaders such as Hani expires and is not renewed by the De Klerk government. At the time Hani is in the Transkei which means he is under the protection of its leader Bantu Holomisa.
1991
21 March, Hani, along with Trevor Manuel and Moses Kotane welcome a large crowd of prisoners released from Robben Island after the signing of the DF Malan Accord.
2-6 July, At the ANC's first NEC conference after the homecoming of the exiles, held in Durban, Hani receives the highest number of votes - 94.7% of the total - and a public poll shows that he is the most popular leader in the ANC after Mandela.
December, After Joe Slovo steps down as general secretary of the SACP due to illness Hani is elected as the new general secretary at the SACP's annual conference.
1992
Hani relinquishes his position as MK chief of staff in the interests of supporting the objectives of peace and to concentrate more on the SACP. He becomes involved in the grassroots development of the SACP.
7 September, Hani, Ronnie Kasrils and Steve Tshwete lead a procession of roughly 80 000 people at Victoria Stadium in King Williams Town. The procession heads for the Cickei border when they are attacked by machine gun fire which leaves 28 people dead and over 200 injured. The incident becomes known as the Bisho Massacre.  
1993
March, Hani returns to his home village of Sabalele for the first time in thirty years.
10 April, Hani is shot dead in front of his house in Dawn Park, Boksburg by Januz Walus, an anti-Communist Polish immigrant.
14 April, Nelson Mandela makes a televised appeal for a peaceful day of mourning.
26 April, De Klerk announces the date for the first democratic election to be held on the 26th of April 1994.
15 October, Januz Walus and Clive Derby-Lewis, Conservative Party MP and the apparent master-mind behind Hani's assassination, are sentenced to death in the Rand Sumpreme Court by Judge CF Eloff. The ANC oppose the death penalty and as a result their sentences are commuted to life in prison.
1997
Januz Walus and Clive Derby-Lewis apply to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for amnesty but their application is denied.
1998
1 July, At the SACP's 10th National Congress Nelson Mandela is awarded the Chris Hani Award.
2001
Hani's daughter, Nomakhawezi dies and is buried in an unmarked grave at her father's feet.
2003
April, The Chris Hani Institute is launched at the Parktonian Hotel.
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