The Secretary of the African National Congress, Comrade Fikile Mbalula, will lead a memorial lecture in honour of isithwalandwe/seaparankwe, Comrade Andrew Mlangeni, on Saturday, 14 June 2025.
The memorial lecture will be held at Boiketlong Community Hall in Comrade Mlangeni’s hometown of Bethlehem, in Thabo Mofutsanyana district. Comrade Andrew, one of the renown Rivonia trialists, would have celebrated his 100th birthday today were he still alive.
The ANC in the Free State province recognises and appreciates the role played by Comrade Andrew, and many others, in the struggle to liberate South Africa from the oppressive apartheid regime.
Following his arrest at Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia on 11 July 1963, together with his coaccused and fellow activists, including Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu, Comrade Andrew was charged in the now famous Rivonia Trial. He was ultimately convicted of treason in 1964 and sentenced to life imprisonment.
He would spend the better part of his adulthood in prison and was only released in 1989 after 27 long years in Robben Island.
