allAfrica.com: South Africa: Anti-Apartheid Hero Walter Sisulu dies at 90 (Page 1 of 2)

Tributes poured in Tuesday for the South African anti-apartheid hero, Walter Sisulu, who died Monday night in the arms of his wife and fellow liberation activist, Albertina, at their Johannesburg home.

Sisulu was two weeks shy of his 91st birthday.

Nelson Mandela, 84, Sisulu’s friend and prison mate, called him a mentor and said his death had left a void in his life. Lamenting the loss of his "comrade" and confidant, Mandela wrote in a mournful statement: "Xhamela [Sisulu’s clan name] is no more. May he live forever! His absence has carved a void. A part of me is gone."

Sisulu recruited Mandela into the African National Congress (ANC), the movement that fought for and won the liberation of black South Africans from white minority rule. They jointly co-founded the militant ANC youth league with their colleague and late ANC leader, Oliver Tambo.

"During the past 62 years, our lives have been intertwined. We shared the joy of living and the pain," said Mandela’s statement. "Together we shared ideas, forged common commitments. We walked side by side through the valley of death, nursing each other’s bruises, holding each other up when our steps faltered. Together we savoured the taste of freedom."

Albertina Sisulu, too distraught to talk to the media on Tuesday, had earlier described to the national broadcaster, SABC, that she had found a father figure in Sisulu. "I was very fortunate to marry a man like Walter, because Walter married an orphan. I had no mother and no father. So when I met Walter, it took me just a few months to understand he is not a husband to me. He is a father. He has taken my father’s place."

Mrs Sisulu said theirs had been a happy marriage, although her husband spent more than a quarter of a century in prison, away from their own five children and the four they adopted. "We never quarrelled ever since we got married. There was no quarrel in this house. He was just my guardian and he used to listen to me. He really was a wonderful man. He didn’t have those qualities of men who feel big at times. No! Even when I was making a mistake, he would take time to make me understand that I had made a mistake. And I became shy and apologised. So that’s the life we led. Up to this day, he was very sweet."

The Sisulu couple raised a family of anti-apartheid activists, spanning several generations, several of whom simultaneously served prison sentences during the struggle.

Although a towering figure of the liberation struggle, Sisulu with his trademark snow-white hair and black round-framed glasses, was quietly charismatic, gentle and publicity shy. A grandfather and great-grandfather several times over, Sisulu retired from active politics in 1994, the year Mandela was sworn in as the first black president of South Africa.

Mandela said Sisulu was never president of the ANC, nor a member of parliament. Nor, he added, did his friend receive accolades from foreign governments or win the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize. "Nevertheless, he stood head and shoulders above all of us. What was the reason for this? Because he had the gift of humility and simplicity. We have lost a remarkable man," Mandela told journalists at the Sisulu house on Tuesday.

President Thabo Mbeki, whose late father Govan was a close friend to both Sisulu and Mandela, announced that flags at all government offices would fly at half-mast from Wednesday, as a sign of mourning.

Mbeki told journalists he would ask the cabinet to organise a state funeral for Sisulu, who he described as "a giant of our people" and a "massive force for enlightenment and freedom" in South Africa. Echoing Mandela’s praise, Mbeki said that many did not realise Sisulu’s importance because he was modest and humble. "Our country and people have lost one of our greatest sons, one of the architects of democracy, one of the architects of a non-racial society, of a non-sexist society," said Mbeki.

As well as Mbeki, a succession of senior government and ANC stalwarts, as well as black and white figures of the anti-apartheid struggle, friends and well-wishers offered their condolences to the Sisulu family in a continuing flow of visitors to their modest home in Linden, a Johannesburg suburb.

Many younger members of the ANC - including senior party officials, ministers and provincial premiers - have been reminiscing about the kind and thoughtful nature of Sisulu, who many considered their teacher and mentor - in and out of prison.

Deputy President Jacob Zuma, who was among the mourners on Tuesday, said Sisulu "has been an inspiration to us, particularly the younger generation,"' adding that "South Africa had lost "more than a leader, a father."

Defence Minister, Patrick Mosiuoa "Terror" Lekota, who spent years as a political prisoner on Robben Island with Sisulu, remembered that he was regarded with respect and awe when he taught the younger inmates the history of the liberation struggle. "To cultivate young people, to cultivate new freedom fighters, that was his distinguishing mark," said Lekota.

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