Spear of the Nation: Umkhonto weSizwe: South Africa’s Liberation Army, 1960s-1990s

157 Pages·2012·0.48 MB·English

by  Janet Cherry

J
SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY A
N
Umkhonto weSizwe, Spear of the Nation, was arguably the E
T
last of the great liberation armies of the twentieth century—
C
but it never got to “march triumphant into Pretoria.” MK—as H
E
it was known—was the armed wing of the African National
R
Congress, South Africa’s liberation movement, that chal- R
Y
lenged the South African apartheid government. A small

group of revolutionaries committed to the seizure of power,

MK discovered its principal members engaged in negotiated

settlement with the enemy and was disbanded soon after.
S
The history of MK is one of paradox and contradiction, of P
E
successes and failures. In this short study, which draws widely
A
on the personal experiences of—and commentary by—MK sol- R

diers, Janet Cherry offers a new and nuanced account of Spear O
F
of the Nation. She presents in broad outline the various stages

T
of MK’s thirty-year history, considers the difficult strategic and H
moral problems the revolutionary army faced, and argues that E

its operations are likely to be remembered as a just war con- N
A
ducted with considerable restraint. T
I
O
Janet Cherry is a human rights activist, researcher, and aca-
N
demic who teaches at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Univer-

(
sity in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. She has written and published U
on the history of the liberation struggle for the South African m OHIO SHORT HISTORIES OF AFRICA
Democratic Education Trust. k
h
SPEAR O F NATION
o
n
Ohio Short Histories of Africa is a series of informative and con-
t
cise guides that are lively biographies and succinct introductions to o THE

important topics in African history. Other titles include A Brief History w
of Rights in South Africa; Epidemics: The Story of South Africa’s Five Most e
S (UMKHONTO WESIZWE)
Lethal Human Diseases; and Steve Biko.
i
z
w
OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS e SOUTH AFRICA’S LIBERATION ARMY, 1960s–1990s
The Ridges )

Athens, Ohio 45701 JANET CHERRY
ohioswallow.com
OHIO
Spear of the Nation
(Umkhonto weSizwe)
OhiO ShOrt hiStOrieS Of AfricA

This series of Ohio Short Histories of Africa is meant for those
who are looking for a brief but lively introduction to a wide range
of topics of South African history, politics, and biography, written
by some of the leading experts in their fields.

Steve Biko
by Lindy Wilson
ISBN: 978-0-8214-2025-6
e-ISBN: 978-0-8214-4441-2
Spear of the Nation (Umkhonto weSizwe):
South Africa’s Liberation Army, 1960s–1990s
by Janet Cherry
ISBN: 978-0-8214-2026-3
e-ISBN: 978-0-8214-4443-6
Epidemics:
The Story of South Africa’s Five Most Lethal Human Diseases
by Howard Phillips
ISBN: 978-0-8214-2026-3
e-ISBN: 978-0-8214-4443-6
A Brief History of Rights in South Africa
by Saul Dubow
ISBN: 978-0-8214-2027-0
e-ISBN: 978-0-8214-4440-5
Spear of
the Nation
(Umkhonto weSizwe)
SOUTH AfrICA’S LIBerATION Army,
1960s–1990s
Janet Cherry
OHIO UNIverSITy PreSS
ATHeNS
Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701
www.ohioswallow.com
All rights reserved
first published by Jacana media (Pty) Ltd in 2011
Second impression 2011
10 Orange Street
Sunnyside
Auckland Park 2092
South Africa
([phone]
www.jacana.co.za
© Janet Cherry, 2011
To obtain permission to quote, reprint, or otherwise reproduce
or distribute material from Ohio University Press publications,
please contact our rights and permissions department at (740)
593-1154 or [phone] (fax).
first published in North America in 2012 by Ohio University Press
Printed in the United States of America
Ohio University Press books are printed on acid-free paper ƒ ™
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN: 978-0-8214-2026-3
e-ISBN: 978-0-8214-4443-6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon
request.
Cover design by Joey Hi-fi
Contents
Preface....................................7
1. Introduction ............................9
2. The turn to armed struggle, 1960–3 ........13
3. The Wankie and Sipolilo campaigns,
1967–8 ................................35
4. Struggling to get home, 1969–84...........47
5. reaping the whirlwind, 1984–9............85
6. The end of armed struggle...............113
7. A sober assessment of mK...............133
Sources and further reading ................145
Index ...................................153

Preface
I should like to thank Howard Barrell, mzolisi
Dyasi, Kholi mhlana, madeleine fullard and ronnie
Kasrils for their comments on the manuscript, as
well as the South African Democracy education
Trust (SADeT) and the Port elizabeth amabutho for
their contributions. The opinions expressed here are
my own.

7

1
Introduction
Hailed as heroes by many South Africans, demonised
as evil terrorists by others, Umkhonto weSizwe, the
Spear of the Nation, is now part of history. Though
the organisation no longer exists, its former members
are represented by the mK military veterans’
Association, which still carries some political clout
within the ruling African National Congress (ANC).
The story of mK, as Umkhonto is widely and
colloquially known in South Africa, is one of paradox
and contradiction, successes and failures. A people’s
army fighting a people’s war of national liberation,
they never got to march triumphant into Pretoria. A
small group of dedicated revolutionaries trained by
the Soviet Union and its allies, they were committed
to the seizure of state power, but instead found their
principals engaged in negotiated settlement with
the enemy as the winds of global politics shifted in
9