Joe Modise

Who was Joe Modise?

Johannes "Joe" Modise was a South African political figure. He helped to found Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the African National Congress, and served as South Africa's first black Minister of Defence from 1994 to 1999.

As a truck driver from Alexandra, 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 ANC alleged that 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 the first Commander in Chief of Umkhonto we Sizwe while Chris Hani deputised him as Chief of Staff.

But 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 sects of guerrilla fighter into the new South African National Defence Force,