Joe Nhlanhla

Born in Sophiatown, near Johannesburg, Nhlanhla attended the Ikage Primary School in Alexandra and later matriculated from Kilnerton Training Institute in 1956.[1] He joined the ANC's youth wing, the ANC Youth League, in 1957.[1] He was elected onto the ANCYL's Transvaal executive a year later.[1] In early 1964, he travelled to the Soviet Union to study, completing a Master's degree in economics in 1969. However he never worked as an economist.[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 1978, the ANC posted him to its Lusaka headquarters as national administrative secretary.[1] In 1981 Nhlanhla became a member of the ANC national executive committee.[1]

In 1986, he joined the organisation's intelligence directorate after serving a three-year stint as secretary to the political military council.[1] The following year he became the ANC's intelligence chief, in which capacity, two years later, he was a member of the ANC group headed by Thabo Mbeki which made contact with South Africa's then-apartheid government.[1]

In 1995, Nhlanhla became Deputy Minister in the Justice Ministry, responsible for Intelligence Affairs.[1] 1999 Nhlanhla was appointed by President Mbeki as Minister of Intelligence.[1]

Joe Nhlanhla, aged 71, died at the Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg, after more than one month in a comatose state. No further details of his death were made public.[1]

• http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-07-02-former-intelligence-minister-joe-nhlanhla-dies
• https://web.archive.org/web/20080518075441/http://www.alexandra.co.za/photogallery/heritage/community/community.htm