Johannes Modise
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Johannes "Joe" Modise (May 23, 1929 - November 26, 2001) 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 Defense Minister 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 and tried for treason. All were acquitted. After the South African government chose more and more violent means to suppress the activists in the 1960s, Modise became a guerrilla fighter. He organized resistance groups and trained many other guerrilla fighters. In many of his camps, suspected dissidents and informers were imprisoned and killed.
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 regular army, which had all white officers. This potentially incendiary situation went relatively smoothly, and the army was fully integrated by 1999.
There was controversy during his term, however. He was criticized for conflicts of interest in awarding lucrative arms contracts. Many saw him as corrupt. But in spite of this, he was awarded the Gold Grand Cross, South Africa's highest civilian honor. Modise died of cancer in Pretoria at the age of 72.
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