The ANC and Umkhonto we Sizwe in Angola, 1976-1989

226 Pages·2011·3.79 MB·English

A State ofExile: The ANC
and
Umkhonto we Sizwe in Angola, 1976-1989
Maren Saeboe
Dissertation submitted in fulfilment ofthe requirements for the
degree ofMaster ofArts in Historical Studies
Programme ofHistorical Studies
Faculty ofHuman and Social Sciences
University ofNatal
Durban
December 2002
Acknowledgements
This work would not have been possiblewithout thehelp and supportofPhyllisNaidoo
and my mother Hilde Karin Larsen. My supervisor Professor Yonah Seleti made it
possible to fmish the work. I am also grateful to the History Programme at the
UniversityofNatal forguidance.
Doctor Vladirnir Shubin at the University ofMoscow and Professor Sean Morrow of
the National Research Council read and commented on Chapters Three, Four and Five.
Howard Barrell made his thesis available to me on disc. I am grateful to all for
guidance and advice. The staffat the archives at Fort Hare and the Mayibuye Centre
were extremely helpful in finding the right boxes and transcripts. I would also like to
thank all those who were willing to be interviewed. I am especially grateful to Major
General Willie Leslie and Lieutenant Mathule Mathiba ofthe SANDF who informed
me about the plightofthose MK veterans whohad returned home but who werenotyet
re-integrated into South Africansociety.
11
Dedication
This dissertation is dedicated to the mothers ofthose who have been or are inexile.
III
Abstract
After its banning in 1961 the ANC, together with the South African Communist Party,
adopted the armed struggle. Urnkhonto we Sizwe (MK) was formed and had its debut
inDecember ofthe sameyear. When the MK command was arrested atRivonia outside
Johannesburg most ofthe remaining members went into exile. The banning ofthe ANC
forced the members not just to go underground but also to go into exile and their first
haven was the newly independent Tanzania. The 1960's witnessed the flight into exile
ofmost members ofthe organisation.
In Tanzania, members ofthe ANC and MK came into contact with members ofother
liberation movements, including the liberation movements [Tom Portuguese Africa. As
the 1960's progressed MK was responsible for training recruits in various African
countries, most notably inTanzania and Zambia.In 1967they launched their firstmajor
campaign,togetherwith the ZimbabwePeople's Union(ZAPU), intosouthernRhodesia
in an effort to reach South Africa. The campaign failed and several members were put
in prison in Bechuanaland. On their release some ofthe cadres, amongst them Chris
Hani, voiced criticism ofthe leadership. This criticism was expressed justasthe leaders
of the organisation gathered for their first major conference in exile, the Morogoro
conference in Tanzania At Morogoro the emphasis on armed struggle was affirmed,
and it was agreed that the other pillar supporting the struggle would be international
relations. After the Morogoro conference MK continued to train recruits inZambiaand
Tanzania, but the situation was increasingly difficult as internal problems in these
countries led to the expulsion ofseveral liberation movements.
IV
In 1974 a new wave of South Africans went into exile, and at the same time the
liberation war in Portuguese Africa entered its last phase. When Angola became
independent the ANC began negotiating with the new government about the possible
establishment ofnew training facilitiesfor MK inAngola.
When the students of Soweto went into revolt, reacting against the introduction of
Afrikaans as the main language intheir schools, the ANC, the MK command and their
rivalsthe PAC were taken aback. The first wave of new recruits wasflown to Tanzania
before they werere-routed to Luanda In Angolathey weresent tothe southern parts of
the country, to Benguela and later to Nova Katengue. By 1979 nine camps had been
established inAngola:there wasatransit camp outside Luanda, andcamps atBenguela,
Nova Katengue, Gabela, Fazenda, Quibaxe, Pango, Camp 32 (Quatro) and Funda The
main camp wasNovaKatengue. The camp got the nickname ofUniversityoftheSouth
because ofthe emphasis there on ideological, political and academic courses. But one
episode ofattempted food poisoning and later the bombing by the South African Air
Force focused attention on the need for internal security in the camps, and a Security
Department took shape in the region. After the bombing which left Nova Katengue
flattenedto theground, MK lefttheir southern camps;aseriesofmeetingstook placein
Luanda whichresulted in a revisedstrategy outlined in "theGreen Book".
In 1979 MK participated in a second campaign together with ZAPU; as the attempt to
reach South Africa was once again unsuccessful most of the participants found
themselves back in the Angolan camps. This failure, together with the degrading
conditions in which the cadres were living, fuelled a spiral ofdiscontent in the camps.
The food was sparse and the sanitary conditions were bad. A feeling of stagnation
v
spread among the cadres, who were disillusioned at the bleak prospect of infiltrating
back into South Africa. In the beginning ofthe 1980's the roads between Luanda and
the eastern camps around Malanje, Caculama and Camalundi became unsafe as the
South African-backed UNITA guerrillas increased their attacks. MK forces were
deployed around the town ofCacuso to guard the railwayline and secure the safety of
the road, and thisdeployment aggravated the dissatisfactionofthe cadres.
At the end of1983 some members ofthe securitydepartmentbeat asickcadre to death.
This triggered offa mutiny in some ofthe camps. The leadership defused this, the first
in a series ofmutinies. In 1984 a second mutiny took place in Viana The mutineers
elected a Committee of Ten to forward a set of demands to the leadership. But the
leadership was not ready to listen and the Angolan presidential guard quelled the
mutiny. When a third mutiny erupted in Pango three months later no demands were
made andno committee was elected, but the Pango mutiny was more violent. Afterthe
disturbances at Viana but before the Pango mutiny, a commission had been sent out
from Lusaka to find the reasons for the uprising. The commission found that the main
reasons were the deteriorating living conditions, the lack ofproper health services and
the deployment on the eastern front. Later reports came to similar conclusions
regarding the reasons for the mutiny. However, the reports differ regarding the degree
ofpunishment used inthe region afterthe mutinies.
The Committee ofTen was imprisoned after the mutinies. However preparations were
made to meet their main demand, which had been for the calling of a national
consultative conference and in 1985 theKabwe conference took placeinZambia.Some
restructuring ofthe organisation and army took place and the much criticised Security
VI
Department was made accountable to the leadership. Life in the Angolan camps
continued much as before but efforts were made to provide some vocational training
and better health services. The deployment on the eastern front came to an end, but
soon MK came under attack on the roads between Luanda and their northern camps.
The attacksintensified asother forces inAngolagathered around the south centraltown
of Cuito Cuanavale, and eventually the siege of Cuito Cuanavale forced the South
African regime to the negotiating table. After the siege the Namibia Agreement was
signed. One ofthe terms ofthe agreement wasthat MK had to leave Angola and search
for new havens, andin 1989 and 1990 most ofthe cadreswere flown to Uganda.
VII
Table of Contents
Title Page
Declaration I
Acknowledgement 11
Dedication 111
Abstract IV
TableofContents viii
Preface x
Note on Sources xiii
Chapter1 A discourseonliberation 1
Partisanhistory? - Descriptiveaccounts,biographiesand autobiographies 2
Academic analysis ofliberationmovements 5
Conclusion 10
Chapter2 A calltoarms 12
Africa inthewake ofindependence 13
Thefirstyears in exile 17
Nationalliberationmovements ofSouthernAfrica 21
Ideologyand guerrilla warfare 24
The alliance with ZAPUandthe Hwangecampaign 26
Morogoroconference 30
The LusakaManifesto 34
FaHofan empire 37
SegundaGuerra -the second war for Angola's independence 41
Conclusion 44
Chapter3 TheDawningofanewera 46
ANC moves to Angola 49
Shelter forthe children ofSoweto 55
University ofthe South 57
Comrades, genderandrace 61
The training 66
Relationship with the MPLAand theCubans 70
Guerrillas orurbanmilitants? 74
Black September-conceivinga security department 77
Meetingin Luanda 1978 77
Apartheidstrikes back 81
The other armies 84
Conclusion 86
Vlll
Chapter4 Paradoxofexile 89
AsecondZAPU campaign 92
93
Life inexile
100
Politicsofsuspicion
106
Distressin exile
In defenceofsupplies 111
Discontentarise 119
Conclusion 123
Chapter5 Makatashinga -themutiny 126
Dangerous deployment 127
The Vianamutinyand theCommitteeofTen 130
The Stuart Commission 133
The Pango mutiny 138
Disciplineand punish 141
Punishingpolitics 146
Theimmediatepoliticalaftermath 147
Conclusion 149
Chapter6 Towardsliberation 152
Beforeand after theKabwe conference 154
Change intheregion after Kabwe 161
Anew securitydepartment 165
The plot -vocationaltraining 170
Militarycamps orcivilian trainingfacilities? 174
Thenorthern front 178
TheNamibiaagreement 186
Move toUganda 189
Conclusion 191
194
Conclusion
203
Bibliography
IX
Preface
When I was 8 years old my family moved to Luanda, Angola. My mother had
volunteered as a consultant to the Norwegian People's Aid, which at the time was
looking into projects for the exiled South African and Namibian community in Angola.
Through this work she became familiar with the ANC and MK personnel based in
Luanda and Viana. Our house was soon a meeting point for staffat the Luanda office
who cameto talkto my mother or to relax. One visitortaught mehow to use abow and
arrow, pointing at one ofour banana-plants. My tutor was Mzwandile Piliso, chief of
ANC security inAngola.
This was in 1985. The ANC and Umkhonto we Sizwehad just experienced aseries of
mutinies in the Angolan camps and the situation was still tense. So was the overall
situation in Angola, initstenth year ofcivilwar.My mother would sometimes take me
through the roadblocks out ofthe city and to Viana where she helped build a clinicfor
ANC and SWAPO. While she worked I would lay my hand on the ground to listen to
the "Stalin-organs" go off at a distance or I would chase snakes out of the bush,
accompanied by MK cadres not more than adecade older than me.
As I grew older I used to wonder about what I had experienced and why. When we
moved back to Norway at the end of1986 mymother continued working for the ANC
and I was familiar with the movement and its history. But there were parts missing,
significantly their presence and activitiesin Angola When allegations started to surface
in the early 1990's about widespread abuses in the camps, this lack of information
became more apparent.
x