Ruth First and Joe Slovo
13 Lyme Street, Camden
London NW1

was the house where two prominent South African communists lived in London exile.

Two leading members of the South African communist party lived in London exile from 1966 to 1978. The couple were high-profile members of the African National Congress and their house in Camden became a centre for the anti-apartheid struggle.

In 1982 Ruth First was killed by a parcel bomb, sent by the racist South African regime, in Mozambique where she was teaching.

Joe Slovo became the first white member of the ANC national executive council in 1985 and he was elected general secretary of the South African Communist Party in 1986.

Slovo lived to see the end of apartheid, returning to South Africa in 1990 and elected to parliament in the first free elections of 1994. He was appointed Minister of Housing in the Mandela government, a post he held until his death in 1995

Joe Slovo

Former South African president and veteran ANC leader Nelson Mandela unveiled the blue plaque outside the house where Ruth First and Joe Slovo lived in London in July 2003.