Johannes "Joe" Modise (23 May 192926 November 2001) was a South African political figure. He helped to found uMkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the African National Congress, and was its longest serving Commander in Chief, deputised at different points in time by Joe Slovo and Chris Hani. Modise headed MK for a 25-year period, from 1965 to 1990. He served as South Africa's first black Minister of Defence from 1994 to 1999 and led the formation of the post-independence defence force.
As a PUTCO bus driver from Sophiatown, Gauteng, he became interested in the struggle against apartheid at an early age. He at first chose only non-violent means, being arrested with Nelson Mandela and 154 others and tried for treason. All were acquitted. In the 1960s, the South African government were using increasingly violent means to suppress anti-Apartheid activists, and Modise became a guerrilla fighter. He organized resistance groups and trained many other guerrilla fighters. Modise became Commander in Chief of Umkhonto we Sizwe ("MK") following the Rivonia Trial during which other MK high command members such as Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Walter Sisulu, Dennis Goldberg, Ahmed Kathrada, Raymond Mhlaba, Andrew Mlangeni and Elias Motsoaledi's were sentenced to life imprisonment.
By 1990, Modise and other representatives of the African National Congress met with the white government. When Mandela was elected president in 1994, he chose Modise as his Defense Minister. Modise was charged with integrating the many sections of guerrilla fighters into the new South African National Defence Force (SANDF).
Early life and education An African of Tswana descent, Modise or Joe (or JM), as he is known to family, friends and comrades, was born in Doornfontein, Johannesburg, on 23 May 1929. He was the only child of Miriam and Ezekiel Modise. His father worked as a sweeper in a factory and his mother was a domestic worker in a white family.
Modise completed his Junior Certificate at the Fred Clark Memorial School in Nance Field. He had to leave school in order to work and contribute to his family's income. His parents impressed the importance of education on the young Modise and, consequently, he obtained his matric certificate through private study. His first job was as a driver for various companies.
Contrary to apartheid regime-led claims and conspiracy theories; Modise was never a member of the Alexandra Township gang, the Spoilers. Instead he spent his time away from work (as a PUTCO bus driver) working for the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL). Modise joined the ANCYL in about 1947 in Newclare and became one of the organisation's organisers. When the Strijdom government declared Sophiatown a White area the residents who were threatened by the demolition of their homes and political organisations, such as the African National Congress (ANC), organised themselves in the Western Areas Protest Committee. Modise was very involved in the one-day work stoppage in 1955. His political activities as an organiser against the Sophiatown removals led to his first arrest in 1954. He was also actively involved in the political campaigns against the introduction of Bantu Education in 1953.
Career Freedom Charter Movement and the founding of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Modise was one of the 156 people whom the South African state identified as leading figures in the Freedom Charter movement. They were charged with treason. The government claimed that they were working systematically towards the overthrow of the South African state. Modise was amongst the 73 trialists against whom charges were dropped.
By 1960 many of the acts of resistance were directed against the implementation of the Pass Laws. On 21 March 1960 the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) organised an anti-pass campaign. The ANC and the PAC were banned in the wake of the brutal crushing of the campaign by the South African police.
Modise was part of the group that included his long-time friend Nelson Mandela, Wilton Mkwayi, Ronnie Kasrils, Govan Mbeki, Walter Sisulu, Denis Goldberg, Ahmed Kathrada, Raymond Mhlaba, Andrew Mlangeni, Elias Motsoaledi and others who founded Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK). After warning the South African government in June 1961 of its intent to resist further acts of terror if the government did not take steps toward constitutional reform and increase political rights, MK launched its first attacks against government installations in Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth and Durban on 16 December 1961. In January 1962, Nelson Mandela left South Africa for military training while most of the other MK members continued underground activities inside the country with meeting being held at Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia. As soon as ties with other countries had been established, Modise played a key role in recruiting people for Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) and arranging for them to leave the country for military training. As of 1962 he was instructed to leave his job as a driver to work as an organiser for MK on a full-time basis.
On 11 July 1963, 19 ANC and MK leaders, including Arthur Goldreich and Walter Sisulu, were arrested at Liliesleaf Farm, Rivonia. Modise and other key leaders such as Oliver Tambo, Moses Kotane were not at the farm at the time of the arrests. The Rivonia trail, resulted in MK high command members Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Walter Sisulu, Dennis Goldberg, Ahmed Kathrada, Raymond Mhlaba, Andrew Mlangeni and Elias Motsoaledi's being sentenced to life imprisonment. The charge sheet at the trial lists 193 acts of sabotage. Wilton Mkwayi, head of MK at the time, escaped during trial.
Building MK When the USSR opened an embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in 1962, more direct links between the Soviets and the ANC were cemented. The embassy, formally through the Soviet Afro-Asian Solidarity Committee, invited Oliver Tambo in December 1962 to visit the Soviet Union for a period of rest. Tambo went to the country in March 1963, accompanied by Moses Kotane and they presented an overview of events in South Africa, and met with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). On 5 April 1963 Tambo and Kotane had talks with Ponomarev, which was the beginning of a long relationship between the men and during the meeting, parties set out radical plans for the overthrow of the apartheid regime, using armed and political struggle. Tambo also motivated the urgent need to train ANC cadres in the Soviet Union.
Tambo's request for military training was approved by the Soviet government, and in the summer of 1963 two groups of 20 cadres arrived in Moscow to begin studies at the Northern Training Centre. The first group arrived in November 1963, and they were joined by a larger group that included Modise (who had taken name the guerrilla name Thabo More) and Moses Mabhida, who was recalled from the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) headquarters in Prague. The recruits underwent training in guerrilla warfare, military strategy and tactics, topography, drilling and the use of firearms. Because the number of recruits had increased significantly, training was moved to a larger facility in the city of Odesa in Ukraine. Between 1963 and 1965, 328 cadres were trained in Odessa including Chris Hani who arrived in 1964. Other leaders of the ANC and SACP also underwent aspects of military training, including Moses Kotane, Duma Nokwe, Joe Slovo and Ambrose Makiwane.
Following his training, MK's executive determined that Modise should undergo further military training in order to lead its military personnel. He was also charged with the additional responsibility of the procurement of arms. Modise's training took him to the former Soviet Union, the former Czechoslovakia, Cuba and Vietnam. In 1964 he returned to Tanzania, from where he was involved in the re-organisation of MK and its training programmes and began a lifelong commitment to the struggle in which he established MK bases in Tanzania, Angola and Zambia. Training in the Soviet Union, especially for MK's staff officers continued in the USSR and Tambo and Modise led another delegation to the USSR in August 1965 with the aim of expanding these programmes.
Commander-in-Chief of Umkhonto we Sizwe Modise was appointed Commander in Chief of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) in 1965. In the same year, he was also appointed to the National Executive Committee of the ANC, an explicitly political office. Between 1965 and 1990, he led every tactical and strategic action by the MK including the acts of sabotage, bombings and landmine campaigns.
Between 1965 and 1996 the leadership group moved to Morogoro, which became ANC HQ, with MK becoming the ANC's military wing. In 1967, OR Tambo became Acting President, after the death of Chief Albert Luthuli. The ANC's secretary-general was Duma Nokwe, Moses Kotane filled the post of treasurer, and modise was commander in chief of MK. The primary task before them was the reorganisation of the ANC's severely disrupted structures. As Commander in Chief of MK, Modise together with Dumiso Dabengwa of Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZAPU, ZIPRA) led the Wankie Sipolilo Campaign. The "Luthuli Detachment" comprising ANC and ZAPU guerrillas crossed the Zambezi river into the then Rhodesia and engaged joint Smith-Vorster troops during the infamous battles. Under Modise's command, the troops who included Chris Hani (Commissar), Mavuso Msimang (MK Co-Chief of Communications), Lennox Lagu, Peter Mfene, Douglas Wana, Mbijana, the late Victor Dlamini, Castro, Mashigo (the ANC Chief Representative to Lusaka), Paul Sithole, Desmond, Wilson Msweli, Shooter Makasi, Eric Nduna, Basil February, James April fought raging battles with the enemy which until late 1968.
Tambo and James Chikerema, the head of ZAPU in exile, directed the campaign at the political level, while Modise (MK Commander in Chief), Akim Ndlovu (ZIPRA commander), Archie Sibeko (Zola Zembe, MK Chief of Operations), Dumiso Dabengwa (ZAPU chief of intelligence), Mjojo (General Tshali, MK Chief of Staff), Walter Mavuso (Mavuso Msimang, MK Chief of Communications) and Chris Hani (MK Commissar) assumed responsibility at the military level for personnel, reconnaissance, intelligence and logistics.
The latter involved the acquisition of ammunition and food supplies for the mission, as well as the means to transport them. Intelligence was left to ZAPU, due to their knowledge of the terrain and its people. ZAPU also undertook to conduct an awareness campaign in the area of the proposed operation so as to ensure a good reception for the MK guerillas by local residents. Other ZIPRA cadres who were involved included John Dube and Moffat Hadebe (ZIPRA commanders) as well as Phelekezela Mphoko (former vice-president of Zimbabwe).
Morogoro conference In 1969 Chris Hani authored the 'Hani Memorandum' which was strongly critical of the direction of the armed struggle.The ‘Hani Memorandum’ – introduced and annotated by Hugh Macmillan , Transformation, 2009 At the Morogoro Conference later that year, the ANC formed the Revolutionary Council which was chaired by OR Tambo. This was a move intended to reinforce the supremacy of political leadership also ensure that the task of mass mobilisation and underground organisation received the necessary emphasis - to reinforce the links between the armed struggle the mass base and the underground structures of the ANC.
During the conference, Tambo resigned but was unanimously re-elected as deputy president of the ANC. There was also a decision to have new, reduced NEC and Duma Nokwe lost his position as secretary-general to Alfred Nzo and was also removed from the NEC. Modise received a massive vote of confidence and retained his post and title as Head of MK, although OR Tambo as ANC president then took on the title of Commander in Chief.