On 8 December 1991, former Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Army Chief of Staff, Chris Hani, was elected as General-Secretary of the South African Communist Party (SACP) at its first legal congress in four decades after its unbanning in February 1990. He took over from Joe Slovo, who resigned as a result of ill health.
Martin Thembisile "Chris" Hani was born on 28 June 1942 in the rural village of Sabalele, in the Cofimvaba region of the former Transkei, where he grew up a devout Christian. Hani was introduced to the politics of inequality early in life, when his father had to leave their rural home in search of work in the urban areas. This had a profound influence on the young Chris, who became aware of his mother's struggle to run the household.
Hani was enrolled at a Catholic school where he soon developed a love for Latin. At this stage of his life, Hani's desire was to enter the priesthood, but his father disapproved and moved him to another school, Matanzima Secondary School at Cala, in the former Transkei.
In 1954, a number of Hani's school teachers who were active in the Unity Movement lost their jobs after they protested against the introduction of Bantu Education. This played a further role in developing Hani's political ideas. Hani later moved again to the Lovedale Institute in the Eastern Cape, where he matriculated in 1958.
Hani was exposed to Marxist ideology while a student at University of Fort Hare from 1959-1961, where he also explored his childhood passi
