Born in Sophiatown, near Johannesburg, Nhlanhla attended the Ikage Primary School in Alexandra and later matriculated from Kilnerton Training Institute in 1956.
[1] In early 1964, he travelled to the Soviet Union to study, completing a Master's degree in economics in 1969.
[1] In 1969 he was appointed head of the ANC's youth and student headquarters in Tanzania, a post he served in for five years before being chosen as the organisation's chief representative in Egypt and the Middle East in 1973.
[1] In 1986, he joined the organisation's intelligence directorate after serving a three-year stint as secretary to the political military council.
[1] Joe Nhlanhla, aged 71, died at the Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg, after more than one month in a comatose state.