Founded on 16 December 1961, a date now observed as the Day of Heroes, Umkhonto we Sizwe emerged at a time when all peaceful avenues for political change had been violently shut down by the apartheid regime. The ANC said the decision to form MK was not taken lightly, but followed years of brutal repression marked by the banning of liberation movements, the Sharpeville massacre, mass arrests, political executions, and the routine killing of unarmed civilians.

According to the ANC, MK was never about the glorification of violence. Rather, it was a disciplined and principled response to state-sponsored terror, firmly guided by political leadership and moral purpose. Operating under the leadership of the ANC and the South African Communist Party, MK remained committed to the vision of a democratic, non-racial, and just South Africa as outlined in the Freedom Charter.

From its first acts of resistance in December 1961, MK gave organised expression to the people’s right to resist oppression. It drew strength from a long tradition of African resistance and aligned itself with global struggles against colonialism, racism, and imperialism. Beyond being a military structure, MK served as a political school, shaping cadres grounded in sacrifice, discipline, internationalism, and unwavering loyalty to the people.

The ANC paid tribute to MK combatants who paid the ultimate price for freedom, honouring those who were killed, tortured, imprisoned, assassinated, or forced into exile. It also remembered those who trained under harsh conditions across Africa and beyond, and those who returned home to mobilise communities and confront the apartheid state alongside the masses. Their sacrifices, the ANC said, weakened the apartheid machinery and strengthened international solidarity that eventually isolated the racist regime.

The movement also acknowledged MK’s role within the broader African liberation struggle, noting that South Africa’s freedom was inseparable from the freedom of the continent. Through shared sacrifice and strategic alliances, MK contributed to regional victories against colonial and apartheid-backed forces.

Reflecting on the suspension of the armed struggle in August 1990, the ANC emphasised that it was a strategic decision aimed at securing a negotiated settlement in line with the will of the people. The democratic breakthrough of 1994, the party said, remains a powerful testament to the combined force of mass mobilisation, armed resistance, principled leadership, and international solidarity.

Today, the ANC says the responsibility of former MK combatants lies in defending and deepening the democratic gains achieved through struggle. This includes community involvement in fighting crime, strengthening street committees and community policing forums, combating gender-based violence and femicide, and passing revolutionary values to younger generations to rebuild a caring, people-centred society.

As the movement marks this milestone, it acknowledged that the legacy of Umkhonto we Sizwe places a heavy responsibility on the present generation. In a period of ideological contestation, internal challenges, and betrayal by former comrades, the ANC said MK’s example calls for renewal rooted in unity, discipline, selflessness, and service to the people.

The ANC stressed that remembering MK is not about romanticising the past, but about defending the hard-won freedoms of today and continuing the unfinished struggle for social and economic justice. The values that shaped Umkhonto we Sizwe, it said, must continue to guide the ANC as an effective instrument of the people.

On this Day of Heroes, the African National Congress saluted Umkhonto we Sizwe, Lerumo la Sechaba, and honoured all those who carried the spear of resistance so that South Africa could live in freedom and dignity.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara Netanyahu arrived at the Western Wall in Jerusalem last night (Monday) and lit a second Hanukkah candle together with IDF soldiers, the Rabbi of the Western Wall and the Commissioner of the Holy Places, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz and his wife, the Director General of the Western Wall Heritage Mordechai (Sully) Eliav, and US Ambassador Mike Huckabee and his wife Janet.

Prime Minister Netanyahu and his wife Sara buried a note among the stones of the Western Wall for the success of IDF soldiers and security forces. Mrs. Netanyahu wished for the return of the kidnapped soldier, Hero of Israel, Rani Gweily, the late.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:

“Dear friends, Sarah and I are very excited to be with you, heroic soldiers of Israel. I look into your eyes, I see the determination, and the courage, and the heroism of the Maccabees. You are the Maccabees of our time. I do not say this casually, not as an empty statement, but out of a deep belief that I know you share, that we are actually performing the same miracles that the Maccabees performed 2,200 years ago. They stood before a force that tried to wipe out the people of Israel, the Jews, and Judaism from the face of the earth.

This was the decree, and the decrees that came from Antiochus, who tried to wipe out the Jews, and what we were facing was essentially annihilation. And if those heroes had not risen up, he would have succeeded. And in this warfare, we first of all saved our people. But we also fought the war of the people of culture, the people of light against the people of darkness. And we are winning. You are winning. You truly perform miracles with supreme heroism.

You mentioned our great friend President Trump – President Trump asks me, ‘How do you do it? Israel is so small, and they are so many, a small country and their neighbors are so big. Where does this strength come from?’ It comes from the heritage of Israel, it comes from our faith, it comes from our understanding that we will not allow anyone to cut the thread of life of the people of Israel. This is a huge and mighty thing and it outweighs everything. They perform miracles in our day, in this time as in that time. And I salute you here, by the Western Wall, who dedicated the Temple here, our heroes the Maccabees.”

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