Remembered for his leadership of the South African Communist Party and the African National Congress's armed Umkhonto we Sizwe division, this politician and anti-apartheid activist was assassinated in the early 1990s.
After studying literature at the University of Fort Hare, he was arrested and exiled for his membership in the Umkhonto we Sizwe. After undergoing Soviet military training, he returned to Africa to participate in the Zimbabwean Liberation War.
His assassin, Janusz Walus, was an anti-communist emigrant from Poland.
A member of the South African Bantu ethnic group, he grew up with five siblings in the town of Cofimvaba in South Africa's Eastern Cape province.
Following Hani's assassination, political leader Nelson Mandela passionately addressed his fellow countrymen, calling for peace and unity among all South Africans.