Elias Motsoaledi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 1 of 1 Elias Motsoaledi From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Elias Motsoaledi (26 July 1924 – 9 May 1994) was one of the eight men sentenced to life imprisonment at the Rivonia Trial. The third of eight children, he was born in Nebo, Sekhukuneland. Motsoaledi moved to Johannesburg at the age of 17 in search of work. He soon became involved with trade unions, and later played an active role in the establishment of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). A lifelong member of the SACP and the ANC, he played a central role in many campaigns, including the Defiance Campaign of 1952, the year he was first banned. Detained during the 1960 State of Emergency, he was imprisoned for four months. When he was released, he went underground and worked for Umkhonto we Sizwe. After 26 years on Robben Island, Motsoaledi was elected to the National Executive Committee of the ANC. Motsoaledi received an Isitwalandwe Medal on 8 January 1992 along with Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Helen Joseph, Ahmed Kathrada, Harry Gwala, Andrew Mlangeni, Raymond Mhlaba, and Wilton Mkwayi. He died on the day that Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as the President of South Africa. External links Profile. Death of Elias Motsoaledi The African Activist Archive Projectwebsite has two buttons issued related to campaigns to free Motsoaledi, one from the 1970s Free South African political prisoners - free Elias Motsoaledi - ANCand one from 1988 Happy Birthday Cde Elias Motsolaedi - 64 - 26-07- 1924. The African Activist Archive Project website also has some other material releated to protests against the Rivonia trial. Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elias_Motsoaledi" Categories: 1924 births | 1994 deaths | Anti-apartheid activists | South African trade unionists | South African revolutionaries This page was last modified on 2 January 2010 at 22:59. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elias_Motsoaledi 24/01/2010.