A Hero of the Revolution: Peter Sello Motau (aka “Paul Dikeledi”)
This year, Peter Sello Motau (aka “Paul Dikeledi”), would have been 70 years old, a veteran of the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the People’s Army, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK). On 9 July 1987, Paul Dikeledi and his comrade Cassius Maake, were assassinated in Swaziland when the taxi in which they were travelling was ambushed by three South African agents who were in a car with South African registration numbers.
Born to David Motau and Salome Motsoaledi, in Soweto, on 17 January 1955, Paul grew up in Soweto and attended the Morris Isaacson High School in the same township. Paul Dikeledi was a dedicated young activist who joined the Movement after the 1976 Soweto uprising and had since risen in the ranks of the organisation to a prominent position.
Paul underwent military training in the MK Camp Novo Catengue, colloquially referred to as the “University of the South”, in the Benguela Province of Angola. He became one of the graduates of Teterow, in Mecklenburg, in the erstwhile German Democratic Republic (GDR aka “East Germany”), and was trained as a Brigade Commander in artillery at the Simferopol United Military School (Perevalnoye) in the Soviet Union.
In 1977 he became the Secretary for the Regional Military Committee (RMC) under the chairpersonship of Joe Slovo, which was responsible for the Mozambique and Swaziland front into South Afr
