· 4th October 1923 born in Thornville near
Pietermaritzburg, Natal, South
Africa into a peasant family
· 1932-1942 disrupted education at several
different schools
· 1941 introduction to communist and unionist
ideas by his teacher, Harry Gwala
· 1942 became a member of the Communist Party of South
Africa
· 1943 forced to leave school due to financial constraints and
worked as a waiter and later in that year began working
a party-run co-operative society
· 1950 started to lead and organize several different trade
unions
· 1955 elected vice-president of the South African Congress
of Trade Unions (SACTU) and worked in close cooperation
with the president-general of the African National Congress
(ANC), Chief Albert Luthuli
· 1956 became member of the National Executive Committee
(NEC) of the ANC
· 1960 forced to emigrated from his home country during the
state of emergency and worked as SACTU representative at
the World Federation of Trade Unions in Prague
· 1963 requested by Oliver Tambo to work within Umkhonto
we Sizwe (MK), the armed wing of the ANC
· 1964 undertook military training in Odessa, Soviet Union
· 1964-1969 held position of MK commissar
· 1979 elected General-Secretary of the underground South
African Communist Party (SACP)
· 1985 suffered a stroke on a trip to Cuba
· March 1986 died in exile in Maputo, Mozambique and was
buried there
· 2nd December 2006 his remains were returned home and
reburied in Pietermaritzburg, near his birthplace