Oliver Tambo; Led ANC in South Africa

Oliver Reginald Tambo, a beloved black liberation leader who piloted the African National Congress during its three difficult decades in exile, died Saturday of a massive stroke. He was 75.

Tambo, or “O.R.” as he was best known, was national chairman of the ANC at the time of his death. He was best remembered as the ANC president who led the congress into exile after it was banned by the white minority government, oversaw the escalation of its guerrilla war and engineered worldwide sanctions against Pretoria.

Tambo had been in failing health in recent years. He suffered a stroke in 1989 and handed over the ANC presidency to Nelson Mandela, his former law partner, in 1991. But Tambo still gave occasional speeches and participated in ANC decision-making.

“He was my brother, my comrade, my friend and my colleague,” Mandela told a news conference Saturday. The ANC president praised Tambo’s “quiet efficiency” and said the leader’s death “closes a chapter in the history of the ANC.”

Tambo was the third important South African political leader to die this month. Chris Hani, leader of the South African Communist Party, was assassinated April 10, and Andries Treurnicht, leader of the right-wing Conservative Party, died Thursday of heart failure.

Tambo, a bearded, slightly built man with a keen intellect and an even disposition, was lauded Saturday by leaders across the political spectrum for his gentleness and diligence.

President Frederik W. de Klerk described Tambo as “an example worthy of being followed,” adding that he had played “a positive role” in the peace process in South Africa.

Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, whose Inkatha Freedom Party has long been at war with the ANC, said he received news of Tambo’s death “with shock and great sadness.”

“We all watched in admiration as he stomped across Africa and the rest of the world, drumming up support for the cause of liberation,” Buthelezi said. Despite their political differences, Buthelezi added, “my admiration for him as a person increased over the years as I watched just how much one man could do for the cause he served.”

Anglican Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu, the 1984 Nobel Peace laureate, said Tambo’s death was “a tragic loss for our country and a heavy blow for our people. But all of us know that what he did, what he suffered and what he sacrificed is going to bear fruit in South Africa.”

Tambo, a product of Christian mission schools and a devout Anglican, was born into a peasant family in the Eastern Cape in 1917.

He was expelled from Ft. Hare University in 1942 for helping organize a student strike against compulsory church services. He later became a founding member, with Mandela and others, of the ANC’s youth league, which helped change the congress from a movement representing the African elite to one that spoke to the masses of uneducated and unskilled workers.

In 1952, Tambo and Mandela opened the country’s first African legal partnership, which became known for championing the rights of the poor. Tambo’s political work continued, and he was charged with treason in 1956. The charges were dropped, but the government imposed a five-year order that prohibited him from political activity.

When the ANC was banned in 1960, the ANC sent Tambo into exile to establish the congress outside the country and persuade foreign governments to support its cause. He became president of the ANC in 1967.

During the years of exile, Tambo’s name became a rallying cry for blacks inside South Africa, even though journalists were prohibited from quoting him or from publishing his photograph here. Tambo also raised the profile of the ANC abroad, and many foreign governments considered it a government in waiting.

In 1989, he was the mastermind behind the ANC’s Harare Declaration. In that document, the ANC set conditions for talks with the government--conditions met by De Klerk in 1990.

Although Tambo had led the congress during the height of its guerrilla war, he was a strong proponent of the ANC’s decision to suspend its armed struggle in 1990.

“To go back means defeat,” Tambo told ANC members that year. “And it would also be a tragedy because it (would) mean the destruction of a new South Africa.”

Tambo is survived by his wife, Adelaide, two daughters, a son and three grandchildren.