[5] As a member of the South African Communist Party and UMkhonto we Sizwe he was sent for guerilla training in China in the early 1960s.

[6] He was captured with 28 fellow members who were undergoing military training in Rhodesia and deported back to South Africa, where he was sentenced to two years' jail for leaving the country illegally and then ten years for crimes under the Sabotage Act, after which he was jailed at Robben Island.

[9] During this time, the South African security services attempted to assassinate him by placing a bomb in his car, but it was discovered before it could detonate.

[7] He was arrested again after the Soweto uprising (Oliver Tambo later asserted that he served as an intermediary between the ANC and the South African Students' Movement there)[10] but the police, with little evidence, were unable to make a case against him.

[7] He was assassinated by the South African Defence Force on 31 July 1981 in Ashdown Park, Salisbury (now Harare), Zimbabwe.