 Andrew Mokot-Mlangini's Biography Latest News Andrew Mokot-Mlangini was born on June 6, 1925 on a farm in the Bethlehem, Orange Free State, now Free State Province, District, as one of a twin, he has a sister. He grew up in Soweto, Johannesburg, Transvaal, now Goten. He was the ninth child in a family of 14. Although Mlangini started schooling at the age of 10, financial problems drove him to seek work at the age of 12 to assist his mother in maintaining the family, as his father had passed away. After school he worked as a caddy at the Johannesburg Golf Course. In 1942 his elder brother who was staying in Pimbley Soweto, assisted in paying his school fees. At that time he was a student at St. Peter's Secondary School, where he obtained his junior certificate in 1946. After 1946, owing to financial difficulties, he was unable to continue with his studies. As a result, he began working as a bus driver for Pudco, a bus company, where he was active in the strike for better working conditions and a living wage. In 1951 he joined the African National Congress Youth League, Ancel, and later in 1954 he joined the African National Congress, ANC. During the Congress of the People he was a branch delegate at Cliptown. Mlangini became a journalist on the newspaper New Age when Ruth First was editor. In 1961 he was among the first, along with nun Naidu, Raymond Maitlava, Job Kaby, and Patrick Mtham Vue, to be sent for military training outside the country to China. After an initial induction as a group, Mlangini and Naidu were taken to Shenyang, Mutin, to be taught radio technology and communication. Following a police raid on Lily's leaf farm at Rivaunia, almost all the Yom Konto we size we, MK, High Command were arrested on July 11, 1963. Although not in the High Command, Andrew Mlangini would be charged alongside the others with sabotage and conspiracy, for which the maximum penalty was debt by hanging. Patrick Mtham Vue was listed to give evidence for the state. Eight of the Rivaunia Trialists were sentenced to life imprisonment on June 12, 1964, including Andrew Mlangini who had not been in the leadership. He was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment on Raven Island. Before the court passed judgment on him, Mlangini told the court that, though leaders of many countries throughout the world have tried to persuade the government to abandon its apartheid policy, and although resolutions have been passed in the United Nations against South Africa, this has met with no result. All that the government has done is to reply to the people's demands by putting their political leaders in jail, and breaking up families. At time of his sentencing Mlangini was married to Johanna Juni with whom he had 10 children. His wife died in 2001. He spent 27 years in prison on Raven Island. After his release in 1989 and South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994, Mlangini served as a member of a democratically elected parliament from 1994 to 2004 and in the National Assembly from 2009 until 2014, when he retired. In 1992, Mlangini was awarded the Isithwailand Wisi Barangqui, the highest honor from the ANC for those who have made an outstanding contribution to the liberation struggle. He received the Presidential Order for Meritorious Service, Class 1, Gold from former President Nelson Mandela in 1999. Andrew Mokit Mlangini who turned 95 on June 6, 2020, was admitted to one military hospital in Shwane on Tuesday after an abdominal complaint.