Curnick Ndlovu was born in Matatiele in 1932. His parents moved to Durban’s uMkhumbane settlement in 1941, then on to KwaMashu after the demolition of Cato Manor in the 1950s. It was the squalid conditions there that prompted him to become involved in politics. He joined the ANC in 1952 and Umkhonto weSizwe in 1961. Ndlovu also contributed to the building of the trade union movement in South Africa as an organiser of railway workers in the South African Railways and Harbours’ Union. He was active in the South African Congress of Trade Unions and this work led to his eventual arrest. From 1964, he was imprisoned on Robben Island. On his release in 1984 he became National Chairperson of the United Democratic Front and a trade union educator. Post-1994, Ndlovu served as a member of KZN provincial legislature. Ndlovu died in 2002.
