Joe Slovo

For the informal settlement in Cape Town, see Joe Slovo, Cape Town.

Joe Slovo
Minister of Housing of South Africa
In office April 1994 – January 1995
President	Nelson Mandela
Preceded by	New post
National Executive Committee member of the African National Congress
President	Nelson Mandela
General Secretary of the South African Communist Party
In office 1984–1991
Succeeded by	Chris Hani
Commander of uMkhonto we Sizwe
President	Oliver Tambo
Preceded by	Nelson Mandela
Succeeded by	Chris Hani
Personal details
Born	Yossel Mashel Slovo (1926-05-23)23 May 1926 Obeliai, Lithuania
Died	6 January 1995(1995-01-06) (aged 68) Johannesburg, South Africa
Political party	African National Congress South African Communist Party
Spouses	Ruth First ​ ​ (m. 1949; died 1982)​ Helena Dolny ​ (m. 1987)​
Military service
Allegiance	Union of South Africa African National Congress
Branch/service	South African Army uMkhonto we Sizwe
Years of service	1941–1945 1963–1990
Battles/wars	Second World War Internal resistance to apartheid Rhodesian Bush War Angolan Civil War South African Border War

Yossel Mashel Slovo (23 May 1926 – 6 January 1995), commonly known as Joe Slovo, was a South African politician, and an opponent of the apartheid system. A Marxist-Leninist, he was a long-time leader and theorist in the South African Communist Party (SACP), a leading member of the African National Congress (ANC), and a commander of the ANC's military wing uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK). Slovo was a delegate to the multiracial Congress of the People of June 1955 which drew up the Freedom Charter. He was imprisoned for six months in 1960, and emerged as a leader of uMkhonto we Sizwe the following year. He lived in exile from 1963 to 1990, conducting operations against the apartheid régime from the United Kingdom, Angola, Mozambique, and Zambia. In 1990, he returned to South Africa, and took part in the negotiations that ended apartheid. He became known for proposing the "sunset clauses" covering the 5 years following a democratic election, including guarantees and concessions to all sides, and his fierce non-racialist stance. After the elections of 1994, he became Minister for Housing in Nelson Mandela's government. He died of cancer in 1995.

Personal and Political Life

Family, Relationships, and Education

• Slovo was born on 23 May 1926 in Obeliai, Lithuania, to a Jewish family that emigrated to the Union of South Africa when he was eight. His father worked as a truck driver in Johannesburg. Although his family were religious, he became an atheist who retained respect for "the positive aspects of Jewish culture". Slovo was educated at King Edward VII School and left school in 1941 and found work as a dispatch clerk. He joined the National Union of Distributive Workers and, as a shop steward, was involved in organising a strike.

• Between 1946 and 1950 he completed a law degree at the University of the Witswatersrand and was a student activist. He was in the same class as Nelson Mandela and Harry Schwarz. In 1949 he married Ruth First, another prominent Jewish anti-apartheid activist and the daughter of SACP treasurer Julius First. They had three daughters, Shawn, Gillian and Robyn. Ruth First was assassinated in 1982 in Maputo, by order of Craig Williamson, a major in the South African Police.
• Slovo was a harsh critic of Israel, which he viewed as an apartheid state, and has been described among "people who want to see justice in struggles wherever they are fought".

Participation in the South African Communist Party (SACP)

• Slovo joined the South African Communist Party in 1942. Inspired by the Red Army's battles against the Nazis on the Eastern Front of World War II, Slovo volunteered to fight in the war. He served as a Signaler in combat operations for the South African forces in North Africa and Italy, and on his return to South Africa he joined the Springbok Legion, a multiracial radical ex-servicemen's organization.

• In 1950, the SACP was banned and both First and Slovo were listed as communists under the Suppression of Communism Act and could not be quoted or attend public gatherings in South Africa. He became active in the South African Congress of Democrats (an ally of the ANC as part of the Congress Alliance) and was a delegate to the June 1955 Congress of the People organised by the ANC and Indian, Coloured and white organisations at Kliptown near Johannesburg, that drew up the Freedom Charter. He was arrested and detained for two months during the Treason Trial of 1956. Charges against him were dropped in 1958. He was later arrested for six months during the State of Emergency declared after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960.
• In 1961, Slovo and Abongz Mbede emerged as two of the leaders of uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the military wing of the ANC, formed in alliance between the ANC and the SACP.
• In 1984, he was elected general secretary of the SACP in Lusaka, Zambia, and in 1985, he became the first white member of the ANC's national executive.

Plaque in Camden Tow

Period of Exile and Return

• In 1963 he went into exile and lived in Britain, Angola, Mozambique and Zambia. In his capacity as chief of staff of MK he codetermined its activities, like the 1983 Church Street bombing. In 1982, Slovo's wife, Ruth First was assassinated in Maputo, Mozambique, where the couple lived in exile. In 1984, Slovo, an ANC and SACP member, was forced to leave Mozambique in terms of the Nkomati Accord between the Marxist People's Republic of Mozambique and apartheid South Africa.

• In May 1990, after 27 years of exile, Slovo returned to the country to participate in the early "talks about talks" between the government and the ANC. Ailing, he stood down as SACP general secretary in 1991 and was given the titular position of SACP chairperson. Slovo was succeeded by Chris Hani, who was assassinated two years later by a white right-winger. Slovo was a long-demonised figure in white South African society, widely misrepresented as a KGB colonel or Russian secret agent, and attracted a great deal of press after his return. (more information in other section).

Elimination of Apartheid in South Africa ("Sunset Clauses")

• In 1992, Slovo secured a major breakthrough in the negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa by presenting the "sunset clauses" developed by the ANC/ SACP leadership: a coalition government for five years following democratic elections, guarantees for civil servants, including the homelands and armed forces, and an amnesty process. These were intended to head off right-wing coups and destabilisation. However, Slovo specifically rejected any compromise on full majority rule, and any agreement that "constitutionally prevented permanently" a new government "from effectively intervening to advance the process of redressing the racially accumulated imbalances in all spheres of life".

Assassination Attempt

• In early 1993, a wing-winged extremist group planned an assassination attempt on Slovo, only for him to have been tipped off by Jacques Pauw, the reporter for The Star newspaper, rather than the police who were aware of the planned attack days prior.
• Slovo addressed his concerns of the police's role by stating "It makes one wonder who in the police one can trust," taking special notice to his previous assassination experience in the death of his wife, Ruth.
  • Reports document that the killer, Apartheid spy Craig Williamson, killed First out of frustration because he was unable to attack her husband, Slovo.
  • The spy pledged admittance to the placing on bombs in concealed mail, but was unaware of whom the recipient would be.
  • Additionally, Williamson did not work alone as he explains that his stragety was approved and orchestrated by the State Security Council, stressing the pressure placed on Slovo.
• Slovo believed that the planned murder on himself was worrisome not necessarily for his health, but for the desperation attempt to abolish the negotiation tactics that were in progress.
• Slovo was 67 years old at the time when five men coordinated an attempt outside of his Johannesburg home between days May 15th and May 21st.
  • One man was European and another Polish.

Later Life and Death

• After the elections of 1994, Slovo became Minister for housing in Nelson Mandela's government, until his death in 1995 of cancer.
• His funeral was attended by the entire high command of the ANC, and by most of the highest officials in the country, including both Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, and he was buried in Avalon Cemetery, Soweto, which was unheard of for a white South African.
• 50,000 people, virtually all black, attended the event.

Global Views on Slovo and his Associates

Rumors: People specifically residing in South Africa and the United States interpreted Slovo's role in military as "Moscow's man in charge of the ANC" and a KGB colonel.

Response to KBG: Slovo described the allegations as "nonsense" and a creation of the mind that is not factual for the past, present, nor future. He continues to state that his military efforts represent no external forces or powers and rather, the ideals/interests of the people in South Africa, and, particularly, the workers of the Community Party.

Response to Affiliation with Moscow: Slovo completely abolished any reason to believe he had relations with Moscow and went as far to say that the rumor was "an absolutely outrageous anacronism to suggest that we, South African Communists, get orders from any outside source." Slovo expanded on the countries and external powers that he was suspected to work alongside, such as Cuba, GDR, and Moscow by stating that these allegations are an "outrage."

CIA Reports on Communism and the ANC: A report by the United States CIA summarizes the direct separation between the Communist Party and the ANC, stating that Communism held substantial influence in the ANC, but did not dominate nor control the political party.

Summary: Slovo denies all allegations of receiving orders from any non-South African state or power, despite their relationship with the country. Additionally, the allegations enrage the leader and are made clear to stand as misinformation.

Additional Literature, Tributes, and Acting Career

Personal Published Works

• 1970s, "South Africa: No Middle Road": argued that the apartheid government would be unable to achieve stability, co-opt significant sections of the small but growing black middle class, or democratise: the only choice was between an insurrectionary overthrow of apartheid, centred on MK, or even greater repression.
  • At the time, Slovo was a leading theoretician in both the SACP and the ANC and the SACP's orthodox pro-Soviet and two-stage view of change in South Africa – "national democratic revolution" first, socialism later – was dominant in the ANC-led liberation movement. Slovo's 1988 "The South African Working Class and the National Democratic Revolution" defended the two-stage conception, insisting that "national democratic revolution" would "implement economic measures which go far beyond bourgeois-democracy" and so "erect a favourable framework for a socialist transformation but will not, in themselves, create, or necessarily lead to, socialism".

• 1989, "Has Socialism Failed?": acknowledged the weaknesses of the socialist movement and the excesses of Stalinism, while at the same time rejecting attempts by the left to distance themselves from socialism. Slovo insisted on having a "justified confidence in the future of socialism and its inherent moral superiority", and pointing to "the failures of capitalism", although he now rejected the one-party state model.
  • Slovo prefaced the essay with the acknowledgement and preparation to readers that the following statements were a reflection of his personal views, rather than that of the SACP, presenting some uncertainty and misinterpretations to follow about South Africa.
  • It is divided into 6 parts, 1-5 focused on the collapse of ideologies, and the 6th addressing the SACP itself.
  • It was one of the first pieces that placed a critical lens on socialist countries with positive praise, rather than degrading representations such an "anti-communist" or "anti-socialist".
  • Slovo writes persuasively and speaks for a group when in use of words such as "we" and "should"
    • ex: "We should have little patience with the plea in mitigation that, in the circumstances, the Stalinist excesses (such as forced collectivisation) brought about some positive economic achievements"
  • Slovo strongly advocated for the impurities and negative implications of Stalinism, describing supporters and followers as "a dying breed" and need to focus on reinstating new ideologies, rather than the focus on the invasion of South Africa.
  • The piece touches on aspects of Socialism, Communism, Stalinism, and Marxism.
    • Links between the distortion of Socialism and Marxism are directly interpreted to place blame not on the founders of Marxism nor Socialism but on the people of South Africa.
  • Slovo introduces moments of recognization to guide his readers into self-reflection.
  • Slovo directly refutes the theories that Socialism led to failures in South Africa with the claim that the real demise was sparked by the failure of Capitalism.
  • Slovo's claims were not unsupported as he consistently recognizes statistics that support his work.
    • ex: the failure of capitalism..."Over 90 percent of our continent's people live out their wretched and repressed lives in stagnating and declining capitalist-oriented economies."

The grave of Joe Slovo in Avalon Cemetery, Soweto

Civic and similar tributes

• In 2004 Slovo was voted 47th in the Top 100 Great South Africans.
• Shack settlements built on land occupations in both Durban and Cape Town were named after Joe Slovo by their founders.
• Harrow Road in Johannesburg and Field Street in Durban Central were renamed Joe Slovo Drive and Joe Slovo Street respectively. A newly constructed Residence building at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa, has been named "Joe Slovo" in honour of the man.
• The Congress of South African Trade Unions, the largest union federation in South Africa, and an ally of the ANC and SACP, helps organise the annual Joe Slovo Memorial Lecture and normally issues a statement on the anniversary of his death.
• Slovo was widely admired across southern Africa, leading Zimbabwean magazine, Southern African Political and Economic Monthly running a special issue on his death, and describing Slovo in an obituary as a "liberation war hero" and "African patriot" completely immersed in the struggle for black freedom.

Cinema and music

Joe Slovo appears as a character in two films for which his daughter Shawn Slovo wrote the screenplay. In the award-winning 1988 movie A World Apart, he is depicted as "Gus Roth" (played by Jeroen Krabbé). He is played by Malcolm Purkey in the 2006 film Catch A Fire.

External links

• Joe Slovo – biographical sketch at the homepage of the ANC
• Joe Slovo Archive at marxists.org