INTERNATIONAL nternational support for what THE TURN TO ARMED STRUGGLE became Umkhonto we Sizwe I(MK) was forthcoming soon after the South African Communist Party © Shutterstock.com International Dimensions, (SACP) decided at its December 1960 conference to authorise the training of 1960-1967 a nucleus of fighters capable of leading a shift to violent methods, should the broader African National Congress (ANC) led liberation movement decide on a change of tactics. Arthur Goldreich was then a sub- manager in the Checkers store chain. The SACP’s Central Committee tasked him, using his job as cover, to explore the possibility of obtaining arms from Czechoslovakia. While the project was in its infancy, the Central Committee learned that the Chinese Communist Party was prepared to accept six people for military, Marxist and scholastic training. They selected Wilton Mkwayi, Nandha Naidoo, Raymond Mhlaba, Andrew Mlangeni, Abel Mthembu and Joe Gqabi to receive the training. The six gathered in Peking towards the end of 1961 before separating in January 1962, with Mlangeni and Naidoo heading north for radio training, and the remainder south to Nanking for military training in the use of guns, hand grenades, and explosives. Within South Africa, the ANC and its alliance partners met at a beach house near Stanger a couple of months after the failure of a three-day stay- at-home that Nelson Mandela had organised for the eve of the country’s proclamation as a republic on 31 May 1961. The purpose of the Congress Alliance meeting was to reconsider the movement’s tactics in the wake of the strike. The delegates decided to grant a request by Mandela for permission to establish an armed force. Faced with these converging diplomatic This marked the broader liberation movement’s endorsement of the turn pressures, the ANC opted to deploy MK, but to the use of armed force. Following the decision, Mandela drew Walter channel the infiltrations through the white-ruled Sisulu and Joe Slovo into the force’s states neighbouring South Africa, operating in High Command, while he worked with Slovo in fusing ANC and SACP alliance with the armed liberation movements personnel into its structures. This marked the formation of MK, which in the territories concerned. launched its first operations in December 1961. When the ANC’s National Executive By Thula Simpson Committee met on 3 January 1962, it 26 THE THINKER INTERNATIONAL decided to send Mandela to attend the (Walter Sisulu had served as sergeants gave them a seven week Pan-African Freedom Movement of acting Commander since Mandela’s course in handling firearms. This was East and Central Africa’s (PAFMECA) arrest). followed by eight weeks’ training in an conference in Ethiopia the following The recruits Mandela had met in engineering school where they were month. The ANC succeeded in Dar es Salaam in July subsequently taught explosives and drill, and were obtaining PAFMECA membership received ninety-days of training in provided physical training. They were at the conference, while Mandela Ethiopia in Debre Zeit (where Mandela thereafter joined by twelve more MK read the movement’s address on 3 himself had been trained) in the use recruits for an eight week course at a February. Mandela, however, had an of firearms, bombs, hand grenades, Commanders’ school near Cairo where additional objective in Addis Ababa, camouflage and radio equipment. the training involved camouflage, that of exploring the possibilities of After about four months in Ethiopia ambush tactics, guerrilla warfare, hand- obtaining military training for MK. The the group split, with nine being sent to to-hand fighting, shooting practice and Chief of Staff of the Ethiopian Armed infiltrate South Africa. The effort was explosives. The thirty-three cadres Forces, Lieutenant-General Kebbede unsuccessful. Their illegal crossing from would return to Dar es Salaam in Guebre offered training for twenty Tanganyika in the area of Tunduma August 1963. recruits, possibly more; Egypt places on 20-21 January 1963 was detected for seven; Algeria and Morocco ‘any by the Northern Rhodesian Police Operation Mayibuye number.’ The issue was also discussed who informed Southern Rhodesian The early months of 1963 saw with Malian, Guinean and Ghanaian counterparts, leading to the group’s the liberation movement engage its representatives. arrest on a train near Bulawayo on 26 international backers for support Mandela and his ANC colleague January. They would all be deported to for the next stage of the struggle, Robert Resha received training in South Africa. in which the requirements would shooting practice from the Algerian include assistance in preparing the National Liberation Army in Morocco return home of the trainees who were in March. Mandela would receive The Czechoslova- beginning to accumulate in Dar es more intensive training at the hands kians eventually Salaam. Arthur Goldreich joined the of the Ethiopian Army from late June approved shipments SACP’s London representative Vella to July, but the course was cut short Pillay for discussions with China, upon receipt of a telegram from the worth CZK 2,500,000 Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union ANC urgently requesting his return to to Tanganyika while over the requirements. At a meeting South Africa. When in Dar es Salaam with the Czechoslovakian Communist on route home in July, Mandela met agreeing to receive ten Party on 7 February 1963, Goldreich twenty-one MK recruits travelling to South Africans requested 3 tons of plastic explosives, Ethiopia for the training that he had 10,000 detonators, 500 machine guns, helped to organise. It was the first time for training. 300 pistols and 2,000 automatic rifles. he had been saluted by his own troops. He also called on Czechoslovakia Mandela would famously be arrested The other Ethiopian trainees to provide military training for outside Howick in Natal on 5 August proceeded north, first to southern 10-15 recruits. Moses Kotane visited while returning to Johannesburg having Sudan, then by steamer to Khartoum, Prague next, requesting 55 trucks, reported to ANC President Albert before flying to Algiers, from where 35 motorcycles, 100 binoculars, Luthuli on his African voyage. they headed west to Oujda just inside and also radio transmitters, receivers Morocco. There they formed part of a and bicycles. The Czechoslovakians Into Exile group of seventy-eight trainees known eventually approved shipments worth The six recruits sent to China by as the ‘Luthuli Detachment’ which CZK 2,500,000 to Tanganyika while the SACP in 1961 regrouped in Peking was headed by Macdonald Masala, agreeing to receive ten South Africans around July 1962 upon completion of one of the Ethiopian trainees. In bases for training. The first two trainees in their respective courses. After about 9 formerly used by French colonial Czechoslovakia were Omar Bhamjee months total in China, they returned forces, they received six months of and Amin Cajee who arrived on 16 to Dar es Salaam, then proceeded training in the use of Molotov cocktails March 1963 from London. They by bus to Northern Rhodesia, and and firearms. were followed by two further recruits train to Bechuanaland, before Joe Egypt was another North African (including Moses Kotane’s son Joseph) Modise drove them to the country that had extended pledges on 27 May, and Walter Sisulu’s nephew liberation movement’s underground of training to Mandela. Towards the Gerald van Rensburg a month later. headquarters at Liliesleaf Farm end of January 1963, twenty-one The five would receive training at the in Rivonia which was north of recruits left Dar es Salaam for Nairobi, Czechoslovakian Military Academy at Johannesburg. On their arrival in whereafter they flew to Cairo. On Brno; the remaining five would come December 1962, Joe Slovo told 30 January they were transported in 1964. Mhlaba that they had been waiting for to an infantry camp outside the city On 5 April 1963, Kotane joined him to take over as MK Commander where two English speaking Egyptian Oliver Tambo in Moscow for Volume 80 / 2019 27 INTERNATIONAL discussions with the Communist Party near the Black Sea. The training of the Soviet Union (CPSU). While Training in the included political science, weapons Kotane was a member of both the Soviet Union would handling, guerrilla tactics, engineering, SACP and the ANC, Tambo was not: it topography, signals, communication, was the first direct contact between the commence at armour, physical training, first aid, and ANC and the Soviet Union. the beginning of artillery. In January and February 1963, The first groups sent to Moscow Raymond Mhlaba and Wilton Mkwayi August 1963. in August 1963 began returning to headed to the Eastern Cape where Tanganyika in batches in August a year they contacted members of the MK continued throughout this crisis. later. Soon after their return to Dar es underground in the region. Then, in Between June and August, recruits had Salaam they were transported to the April, in accordance with a decision proceeded from Dar es Salaam to both village of Kongwa where they found made at Rivonia in January, Mhlaba Algeria and China. a dilapidated property that had been departed the country to inspect the Training in the Soviet Union allotted to them. On the first night they movement’s external camps. In May he would commence at the beginning of slept in the village courthouse before visited the training facilities in Morocco, August 1963, when a group of thirty cleaning out the premises the following as well as another camp that had been departed from MK’s ‘Luthuli Camp’ day. In preparing the camp they established in Algiers. His mission also in Dar-es-Salaam’s Ukonga suburb. made their own bricks with which took him to Czechoslovakia. Their destination was a two-storey they built houses and quarters.