Soldiers in the struggle : aspects of the experiences of Umkhonto we Siswe’s rank and file soldiers- the Soweto generation and after / Lynda K. von den Steinen. Von den Steinen, Lynda.Town Cape South Africaof : [s.n., 1999]. 257 leaves ; 31 cm. Summary in English. Word processed copy. University Thesis (M.A. (History))--University of Cape Town, 1999. Bibliography: leaves 249-257. The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgementTown of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Cape Published by the University ofof Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University .-,1 1 · Table of Contents Abstract 1 Acknowledgements 2 Preface 4 Introduction 9 Chapter One: Politicisation 29 Chapter Two: Leaving South Africa 63 Chapter Three: Life in the Camps 93 Chapter Four: Angola in the 1980s 118 Chapter Five: Operations 151 .. Chapter Six: Women in MK 179 Chapter Seven: Coming Home 217 Conclusion 238 Bibliography 249 Abstract What has been written on Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) has focused particularly on diplomacy, strategies and tactics, and issues of leadership. Issues of human rights abuses and military failures have also been touched on. But largely neglected has been the history and experiences of the rank and file soldiers ofUmkhonto we Sizwe. This thesis will touch on only a few crucial aspects ofMK's history. It aims to provide a picture of what life was like for the ordinary members of Umkhonto we Sizwe from the Soweto generation until demobilisation. It enquires as to their motivations for becoming involved in politics and armed resistance. It explores the events and feelings that led them to leave South Africa and join MK and the act of going through this process, as well as their lives in the training camps in Angola in the mid~70s and 1980s, issues of the security department and the mutiny in 1984, deployment and operations inside South Africa, women's experiences in MK, and the soldiers' return home to South Africa. This thesis also looks at the feelings and experiences that the soldiers went through, and the influences that made them who they are today. This thesis provides only a glimpse of the experiences of MK's soldiers. It rests largely on interviews, with support from other works written about MK and documents from the ANC's organisation in exile. But many people have not told their stories and many documents and issues are still unavailable for view to the public. This author hopes that this work will provide an introduction to these issues and an impression of life in MK for the rank and file soldiers. 2 Acknowledgements First and foremost, this thesis is dedicated to all of the people who fought for the liberation of South Africa, particularly those who chose MK as their way of fighting. And to those who did not live to see the fruits of their efforts, but will be remembered still. To my two supervisors, Eddy Maloka and Christopher Saunders, for all of their help, input, and suggestions, that helped shape my thesis. They deserve great thanks for their support and excitement about the project and for their good advice and helpful contacts. To Dr. Karl von den Steinen (also my father) for his assistance in editing the final drafts. To Weziwe Ncame, for her friendship, discussions, support, and advice in writing the thesis. She also deserves a badge of bravery for her openness and honesty in allowing me to interview her and her insight into life as an MK soldier and life as an ex-MK soldier. To all of the people who were good enough to let a young, white, American girl interview them, and for their openness and honesty in their interviews. Without them none of this would have been possible. Thanks are also due to Wolfie Kodesh, Hilda Bernstein, and various anonymous interviewers for their efforts to record interviews with a wide variety of exiles, many of which were integral to this project. 3 To the staff of the Mayibuye Centre at the University of the Western Cape for their help and advice during my research in their archives. To Howard Barrell, for letting me copy and consult his PhD thesis, offering me advice, contacts, and encouragement throughout, which was particularKy impressive considering his horrendous schedule. To my family and friends in the US for their unconditional support of my voluntary exile to South Africa, and of the work I did there. And to my friends in South Africa, who provided encouragement, contacts, insight, and well needed nights out to escape my work on occasion. 4 Preface These were people like that. The ones who cared so terribly much­ enough to risk everything, enough to change and do things. Most people aren't like that, you know. It isn't that they don't care, but that they don't care so greatly ... Are some people destined for a great fate, or to do great things? Or is it only that they're born somehow with that great passion- and if they find themselves in the right circumstances, then things happen? It's the sort of thing you wonder, studying histoty, but there's no way of telling, really. All we know is what they accomplished. 1 -Diana Gabaldon I arrived in South Africa. for the first time in the middle of 1996 for postgraduate work at the University of Cape Town. One of the first classes I took there was a histoty of the liberation struggles of Southern Africa. As the end of the semester approached, and exams loomed, I was able to explain the local, regional, and international influences that led to resolutions in each Southern African country we covered. I could tell you about the leaders and the strategies and tactics of each of the liberation movements, relate the important events and turning points in each struggle and outline the way th.ese struggles overlapped and influenced each other. I could talk of the ways of the white governments and the methods used to combat these struggles, and explain exactly why each one turned out the way it did. I was sure that I was coming to some sort of understanding about the liberation struggles in Southern Africa, and my marks at the end of the year reflected this certainty. However, while I was sitting in my room at residence, memorising dates and names, events and their consequences, and producing papers on particular parts of the struggles, another side of the issue presented itself to me. A friend of a friend found 1 Gabaldon, Diana, Voyager, Dell, New York, 1994, p. 106-7. 5 himself in dire straits, with a thesis that needed to be submitted at the end of the weekend, and a typist who had become so drunk as to pass out for the whole three days he was supposed to .polish the thesis and print it out for submission. I found myself with a couple of friends, as well as the unlucky thesis writer, desperately putting together the thesis in time. Somehow we managed it, and I was able to write a paper for my own class at the same time, and the thesis, though a bit rough, went in on time. Later that week, in gratitude, the thesis writer appeared at my door with a case of Castle Lager bottles with which to celebrate. As the night wore on, and the case became full of empties rather than unopened bottles, he gradually related his life story, and it was an amazing one. He had been a policeman, and a black one, in South Africa under Apartheid, but found himself gradually moving over to the other side of the fight. He joined Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC), and spent years in their camps in exile, learning to be a soldier and desperately waiting for his · opportunity to go back to South Africa with his gun and fight against the racist government. He told us of the way of life in the training camps in Angola, of fighting against UNIT A (the rebel army in Angola), of love affairs with women soldiers, of deaths, diseases, low morale, and of the camaraderie and justness of their struggle. He told of his problems with the security department of the ANC, and of his eventual return home to South Africa. The story didn't end there though: it dealt with the physical and psychological problems he struggled with upon his return, of his family issues and drinking problems, and of his eventual rehabilitation and return to finish his education. He told me of so many aspects of the ~iberation struggle in South Africa that siinply didn't appear in the history books, didn't cross the minds of the 6 researchers, and did really strike at my heart in a way that dry statistics and . oft- repeated narratives did not. One can read in the histories of the ANC and its armed wing that "Thousands of young militants left the country, most of them seeking out the liberation movements for training as guerillas,"2 but that offers no understanding of what it was like to live in fear of the security police; to decide to leave behind your family, your friends, your education or employment, and even to be willing to sacrifice your life; to leave your country never knowing if you would return; to find yourself in foreign countries, in harsh conditions, with nothing but your certainty that your struggle is a just one.