On 13 December 1990, Oliver Tambo, former President of the African National Congress (ANC) and Commander-in-Chief of the People's Army, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), returned to South Africa after going into exile nearly thirty years before.
Oliver Reginald Tambo, fondly known as OR, was one of the founder members of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) in 1944 with Nelson Mandela, Anton Lembede and Walter Sisulu, among others, and was elected as the organisation's Secretary. He was appointed as the Secretary General of the ANC in 1954. With the banning of the ANC and other liberation movements in 1961 Tambo was given the mandate to establish ANC mission offices in exile.
Tambo started the UK/Ireland, Morogoro and Lusaka Missions and was at the fore of mobilisation of the armed struggle and guerrilla campaigns against apartheid. When ANC President Chief Albert Luthuli died in 1967, Tambo was appointed as Acting President. He was elected as President of the organisation during the Morogoro Conference in 1969 and was re-elected in 1985 at the Kabwe Conference, in Zambia.
Pressure and exhaustion took its toll on Tambo in 1989 and he suffered a severe stroke that resulted in him losing his speech. Following his stroke, he was rushed from Lusaka, on Tony Rowland’s executive plane on the order of President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, to Harley Street in London. Rowland also paid for the medical treatment.
Against the advice of his physician and the NEC, Tambo continued his punishing
