Sequel to Long Walk to Freedom - Revision 9 - Chapter 1 Page 11

In 1959, Hani enrolled at Fort Hare university and attracted the attention of Govan Mbeki, the father of Thabo Mbeki. Govan played a formative role in Hani's development. It was here that Hani encountered Marxist ideas and joined the already illegal underground South African Communist Party. He always emphasised that his conversion to Marxism also deepened his non- racial perspective. Hani was a bold and forthright young man and did not hesitate to criticise even his own organisation when he felt it was failing to give correct leadership. He recalled that: "those of us in the camps in the sixties did not have a profound understanding of the problems. Most of us were very young in our twenties. We were impatient to get into action. Don't tell us there are no routes, we used to say. We must be deployed to find routes. That's what we were trained for."