Launching Radio Freedom – 26 June 1963
On 26 June 1963, a broadcast was heard over large stretches of Johannesburg, which said “This is Radio Liberation! This is the Radio of the African National Congress! Our radio talks to you for the first time today, June 26, but not for the last time. There will be more broadcasts.” On this day Radio Freedom was born, as the station’s first transmission went out from the armed wing’s, Umkhonto we Sizwe’s (MK), hideout in Liliesleaf, a farm in Rivonia, north of Johannesburg, with Lionel Gay, Denis Goldberg, Cyril Jones and Ivan Schermbrucker handling the technical aspects of the broadcast.
The radio made mention of the house-arrest order placed on Walter Sisulu and it said: “We could not accept this. We are not afraid of jail or even death in the struggle. Even in jail the struggle goes on, but those in jail are there as captives of the government. Our Congress decided that Walter Sisulu should leave his home. His house was being used by Vorster to imprison him. Today he continues to lead our organisation and the people. He leads from underground. Here from underground is Walter Sisulu to speak to you.”
Sisulu then began speaking: “Friends, Comrades, Sons and Daughters of Africa, I am speaking to you from somewhere in South Africa. I have not left the country.” He continued to say that by order of “my organisation, the African National Congress, I am resuming my position of Secretary-General that I relinquis
