HISTORY The Thinker puts Questions to © South African History Archives Ronnie Kasrils on the Role, Function and Achievements of Umkhonto we Sizwe MK High Command Joe Slovo, Chris Hani and Joe Modise Every MK combatant was required to have a clear understanding of ANC policy in respect of what we were fighting for and who the real enemy was. They were clear they invoked a people’s cause; not a personal agenda of some war-lord or individual leader. 16 THE THINKER HISTORY : Can you recall where you and occupation; in struggles against leadership explained how the regime were and your situation dictatorships; where a government had left the liberation movement Qat the time of the raid on becomes increasingly oppressive; or with no choice but to resort to armed Liliesleaf Farm? for reasons of people’s self-defence. activity to counter apartheid brutality Well, on that fateful day fifty years It was the imposition of a repressive and bring about the necessary change. ago I was in hiding outside Durban racist regime in our own country using They reasoned that it would be wrong with Ebrahim Ismail, Abolani Duma unbridled violence that led to the and immoral to allow our people to and Bruno Mtolo (who proved to be a establishment of MK. This decision be subject to state violence, without traitor and was a star state witness at the did not derive from a lust to kill, to providing them with an alternative. Rivonia and Pietermaritzburg MK trials) see blood on the floor, out of reckless They argued that people’s justified at what later came to be called “Little adventurism or the glorification of the violence would inevitably occur, as Rivonia” – a safe house organised by gun, but rather because our people was already happening in certain areas, my late wife Eleanor – at that time my were prepared to lay down their lives where communities were beginning girlfriend. The four of us had retreated when they saw that there was no to defend themselves in the face of there to continue our activities after other choice available if we were to increased state repression such as in evading an SB round-up of Durban MK overthrow apartheid. the killing of police in Cato Manor at operatives in May that had netted Billy It was only by 1960, with state the end of 1959. A century earlier Karl Nair, Curnick Ndlovu, Sunny Singh Marx had analysed how the violence and scores of others. of an oppressive state gave rise to the Eleanor, an MK member herself, Hopes of our increasing resistance of the masses, was our key contact with above-ground entire movement and how this interaction created higher comrades in Durban, and the national were very high and levels of revolutionary organisation and leadership in Johannesburg. Usually sacrifice as the spiral of repression cheerful, she arrived at our hide-out the masses had and resistance intensified, ripening looking grim. enormous faith in revolutionary options. She had the morning newspaper It was in such a context that MK was with her which told the sensational their leadership. Their launched on 16 December 1961, with story of the arrests at Rivonia – arrest was a massive a series of attacks against government eighteen in number. Those who would installations. Whilst conditions in South eventually be put on trial, Walter setback to the struggle Africa did not favour the development Sisulu, Govan Mbeki and company, and our highest hopes of a fully-fledged guerrilla struggle, had all been under house arrest and its operations were inspirational in had disappeared months before to lead were deflated. reinforcing the political mass struggles the struggle from underground. Hopes of our people. The psychological of our entire movement were very high repression reaching an all time high - factor, firing-up our people and and the masses had enormous faith following Sharpeville and the banning undermining the confidence of racial in their leadership. Their arrest was a of the ANC and other organisations supremacists, was highly significant massive setback to the struggle and our - that the necessity for armed action and grew in importance over the next highest hopes were deflated. We were became clear. In this context the three decades. all devastated but after the impact had legal space for non-violent, extra- MK’s founding Manifesto (16 sunk in it was decided that Eleanor parliamentary protest, that had been December 1961) declared: would go to Jo’burg to meet with progressively narrowed over the years, It is…well known that the main her contact Bram Fischer so that we effectively closed. State violence and national liberation organisations… could fully assess the situation, obtain repression had become increasingly have conducted themselves directives and plan for the next phase. brutal in crushing resistance: Zeerust peaceably at all times… they have There was absolutely no question of (1957), Sekhukhuniland (1958), Cato done so because the people prefer giving up - A luta continua! Manor (1959), Pondoland (1960), peaceful methods of change to Warmbaths (1961). The crushing of achieve their aspirations without Q: Can you recount the challenges the three-day stay-at-home led by the suffering and bitterness of civil that led to the decision to undertake Mandela (by then underground and war. But the people’s patience is not armed struggle and to the formation dubbed the “black pimpernel”) in May endless. The time comes in the life of of MK? 1961 in addition to Sharpeville the any nation where there remain only This has been written about so previous year, gave the final impulse to two choices: submit or fight. That many times that let us begin, for the those pressing for a change in tactics. time has now come to South Africa. sake of originality, by examining the Non-violent methods having been We shall not submit and we have no question within a broad international virtually exhausted, the conditions for choice but to hit back…in defence context. Historically, revolutionary armed struggle had emerged. of our people, our future and our armed struggle has been undertaken in In arguing for the need to review freedom…We hope - even at this civil war; resistance to foreign invasion our position on non-violence, the late hour - that our first actions will Volume 52 / 2013 17 HISTORY awaken everyone to a realisation of in Pretoria was demolished and the forward to the next stage of armed the disastrous situation to which the City of Durban plunged into darkness struggle. Nationalist Party is leading…before when three strategic pylons were Of course the enemy was not matters reach a desperate state of simultaneous destroyed. That the sleeping. They were gearing up to civil war… . struggle had reached a new higher track us down by all means. They were The MK Manifesto had explained phase was illustrated by Water Sisulu learning from Western intelligence that the organisation was formed by addressing the country through a agencies, notably British and American. Africans, but included in its ranks radio broadcast from a secret location. Some SB men had been to Algeria to South Africans of all races. MK made South Africa was abuzz with all study the French methods of counter- its political allegiance quite clear these sensational developments. The insurgency and the use of torture. The by stating that it “fully supports the government and its supporters were in arrest of Mandela, in August 1962, national liberation movement, and our a state of anxiety; the masses getting a who had returned home the previous members jointly and individually, place sense that our day would soon arrive; month, was a huge blow and pointed themselves under the overall political the media chasing every rumour. to the work of an informer and security guidance of the movement.” Volunteers were being secretly weaknesses on our part. There was a Who were those members? Many recruited and sent across the Botswana spate of defiant MK operations after were from the ranks of the ANC, border (then the British Protectorate of his arrest and we vowed to free him. but a large number were from the Bechuanaland) on the long trail to Dar Instead an even more severe blow was underground SACP from the Coloured es Salaam and further afield to undergo dealt to us within eleven months. July and Indian Congresses, trade unionists military training. Mandela himself 11th 1963 saw the axe fall with the from SACTU and the small but raid on the Liliesleaf property where energetic COD (white democrats). This was a tense the leadership had decided to meet for In fact units of the Party had already one last time sensing that the SB were started functioning earlier in that year. and dramatic hot on their heels. Too many people The Party was jointly responsible for period. The Minister had visited the establishment and its the creation of MK with Joe Slovo security had been undermined. The and Govan Mbeki playing a leading of Agriculture’s intention was to shift to other quarters role with Mandela in its policy office in Pretoria but it is history that their luck had run formulation, strategy and tactics, out. planning and operations. Laloo Chiba, was demolished one of MK’s trail-blazers, recounts and the City of Q: How did the Rivonia arrests and in the book Men of Dynamite that in Durban plunged into imprisonment of the leadership early 1961 his underground Party cell affect our capacity to prosecute the “was changed into an SACP sabotage darkness when three struggle? unit under the leadership of Wolfie strategic pylons The SB officer leading the Rivonia Kodesh” and during the latter half of Raid, Captain Dirker, bragged to the year “became part of MK” (Ahmed were simultaneous Walter Sisulu on arresting him: “We Kathrada Foundation: Pen Portraits of destroyed.