The Order of Mendi for Bravery in

Silver

Ulysses Modise (Posthumous) Awarded for:

His excellent contribution to the struggle for the liberation of the people of South Africa. He selflessly left his loved ones for exile where he devoted his military skills to fight the apartheid regime.

Profile of Mr Ulysses Modise

Mr Ulysses Modise was born Julius Gogi Kgabegenyane on 23 December 1942 to Johannes and Miriam Saitsiwi Daniels Kgabegenyane in Kimberley in the Northern Cape. It was in the midst of this oppression of one by another that Modise took a conscious and voluntary decision to join the African National Congress (ANC).

He was one of the first youths from Kimberley to skip the country and join the ANC’s military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK). He underwent military training in Lusaka, Zambia and became par t of the Luthuli Detachment in 1967.

Reporting to the late OR Tambo, Modise would go on to systematically perform, engage and lead cover t intelligence and counter-intelligence operations exposing spy rings within the movement. Modise served in the ANC both during the tough times of exile and back home in the democratic ANC- led government.

Between 1976 and 1980, he served as a member of the Department of National Intelligence and Security Directorate.
 
He also served in the Department of Intelligence and Security between 1980 and 1983. In 1981 he served as Deputy Head of Security. After the 1994 elections, Modise was appointed Intelligence Head in the Northern Cape.

In September 1998 he was promoted to the position of Coordinator of Intelligence for the Northern Cape. He was a member of the Eminent Persons Group and was responsible for the formalisation and welfare of the MK Military Veterans in the Northern Cape.

Modise collated information of the Struggle veterans and former MK combatants, including those who worked in the underground operations of the ANC in the Northern Cape. He endeavoured to create sustainable economic empowerment ventures for the stalwarts and veterans of the struggle. Modise passed away on 30 May 2007.