January 6: Joe Slovo

South African revolutionary Joe Slovo (Yossel Mashel Slovo) died on this date in 1995. Both he and his wife, Ruth First (who was assassinated by the apartheid security police in 1982) were “banned” or hounded by the government for much of their lives. Slovo, an attorney, was a leading theoretician in both the South African Communist Party and the African National Congress, for which he helped to lead Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed resistance movement. He also helped to shape the plan for the five-year coalition government that would end apartheid. Slovo lived in exile from South Africa between 1963 and 1990. He was Minister of Housing in Nelson Mandela’s cabinet at the time of his death.

“He knew when to compromise. Yet he never compromised his principles. He was a militant. Yet a militant who knew how to plan, assess concrete situations and emerge with rational solutions to problems.” —Nelson Mandela