Remembering stalwart and activist Ruth First
THE African National Congress joins the people of South Africa in commemoration of our struggle stalwart and activist, Comrade Ruth First, who on August 17, 1982 was assassinated by the illegitimate and racist apartheid government.
A journalist, scholar and an anti-apartheid activist, Cde Ruth First was killed with a parcel bomb while in forced exile in Mozambique.
She was a founding member of the Communist Party of SA that later became known as the SA Communist Party. She was also a founding member of the SA Congress of Democrats in 1953.
A member of the drafting committee of the Freedom Charter, Cde First was unable to attend the Congress of the People in Kliptown due to her banning order. She was arrested and charged in the treason trial of 1956, with her husband Comrade Joe Slovo, culminating in their acquittal in March 1956.
As a journalist, she assisted in the first broadcast of Radio Freedom, a communication platform for the ANC that transcended borders at a time when the organisation was banned by the apartheid regime.
The ANC will forever be appreciative and grateful for her immense contribution to the liberation Struggle of this country.
We will continue to learn from the discipline she exhibited during those difficult years.