Umkhonto we Sizwe
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- For other uses of Umkhonto, see Umkhonto (disambiguation)
Umkhonto we Sizwe (or MK), translated "Spear of the Nation," was the active military wing of the African National Congress in cooperation with the South African Communist Party in their fight against the South African apartheid government.[1] MK launched its first guerrilla attacks against government installations on 16 December 1961. It was subsequently classified as a terrorist organisation by the South African government and media, and banned.
For a time it was headquartered in Rivonia, a suburb of Johannesburg. On 11 July 1963, 19 ANC and MK leaders, including Arthur Goldreich and Walter Sisulu, were arrested at Liliesleaf Farm, Rivonia (). The farm was privately owned by Arthur Goldreich and bought with SACP (South African Communist Party) funds. This was followed by the Rivonia Trial, in which ten leaders of the ANC were tried for 221 acts of sabotage designed to "foment violent revolution". Wilton Mkwayi, chief of MK at the time, escaped during trial.
The MK carried out numerous bombings of military, industrial, civilian and infrastructural sites. The tactics were initially geared solely towards sabotage, but eventually expanded to include urban guerrilla warfare, which included human targets. Notable among these were the 8 January 1982 attack on the Koeberg nuclear power plant near Cape Town, coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the formation of the ANC, the Church Street bombing on 20 May 1983, killing 19, and the 14 June 1986 car-bombing of Magoo's Bar in Durban, in which 3 people were killed and 73 injured. The total number of people killed or injured in the 30 years of MK's campaigns is not known exactly. MK alone was not a military threat to the apartheid state, but the ANC leadership saw MK as the armed component of a strategy of "people's war" that was primarily geared towards mobilizing mass political support.
MK suspended operations on 1 August 1990 in preparation for the dismantling of apartheid, and was finally integrated into the South African National Defence Force by 1994.
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[edit] MK's military campaign
Units of ANC exiles had MK camps in the "frontline" states neighbouring South Africa, most prominently Angola where MK was allied to the MPLA government, and fought alongside Angolan and Cuban troops at the critical engagement in Cuito Cuanavale. MK fighters were also allied with ZAPU (rival to Robert Mugabe's ZANU) in then-Rhodesia, with FRELIMO in Mozambique, and with SWAPO in Namibia.
Following the suppression of MK inside South Africa in the late 1960s the organsiations cadres undertook military actions against the Rhodesian army (in, it was hoped, a prelude to crossing into South Africa itself). In 1965 MK formally allied itself with ZIPRA and in July 1967 a joint MK/ZIPRA commando crossed into Rhodesia. The mission was a failure at both tactical and strategic levels, though the joint MK/ZIPRA detachment engaged the Rhodesian army in heavy firefights over the next year and academic sources have suggested that the cadres of the revolutionary armies acquitted themselves well enough for the Rhodesians to ask for South African assistance [1].
The early 1970s were a low point for the ANC in many ways, and that included in the military fields. Attempts to rebuild MK inside South Africa resulted in many losses though some, including the legendary Chris Hani, were able to remain undetected for a long period. The patient work of this time allowed the ANC to emerge as the leading voice of South Africa's black people after the Soweto uprising of 1976.
Then young blacks, anxious to strike back at the apartheid regime, flooded across the borders seeking military training. And whilst MK were able to build a new army - one capable of attacking prestige targets such as the refineries at Sasolburg - the force also suffered from appalling breakdowns of discipline and there were many accusations that some new recruits were being tortured or killed by a training regime that was out of control.
By the mid 1980s MK was concentrating on both propaganda by deed - namely high profile attacks on prestige targets to demonstrate to the world the depth of resistance to apartheid as well as display to the majority population that resistance was possible (see below for a discussion of the controversies that followed) - and on building liberated zones inside the townships. MK cadres trained milita forces - such as the Soweto Suicide Squad - who attacked the props of the apartheid government inside the townships.
It was the success of this campaign which resulted in a huge escalation of oppressive measures against the majority population but which also persuaded more enlightened National Party figures that apartheid was fundamentally unstable and the country was sliding towards ungovernability.
[edit] Bombings
Landmark events in MK's military activity inside South Africa consisted of actions designed to intimidate the ruling power. In 1983, the Church Street bomb was detonated in Pretoria near the SA Air Force Headquarters, resulting in 19 fatalities and 217 persons injured, some of whom were military, and many were civilians. During the next 10 years, a series of bombings occurred in South Africa, conducted mainly by the military wing of the African National Congress.
In the Amanzimtoti bomb on the Natal South Coast in 1985, five civilians were killed and 40 were injured when MK cadre Andrew Sibusiso Zondo detonated an explosive in a rubbish bin at a shopping centre. In a submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), the ANC stated that Zondo acted in anger at a recent SADF raid in Lesotho.[2]
A bomb was detonated in a bar on the Durban beach-front in 1986, killing three persons and injuring 69. Robert McBride received amnesty for this bombing which became known as the "Magoo's Bar bombing".
In 1987, an explosion outside a Johannesburg court killed three people and injured 10; a court in Newcastle had been attacked in a similar way the previous year, injuring 24. In 1987, a bomb exploded at a military command centre in Johannesburg, killing one person and injuring 68 military or civilian personnel.
The bombing campaign continued with attacks on a series of soft targets, including a bank in Roodepoort in 1988, which four were killed and 18 injured. Also in 1988, in a bomb detonation outside a magistrate’s court killed three. At the Ellis Park rugby stadium in Johannesburg, a car bomb, killed two and injured 37. A multitude of bombs in “Wimpy Bar” fast food outlets and supermarkets occurred during the late 1980s, killing and wounding many people. In most of these events the victims were civilians, and of all races. Several other bombings occurred, with smaller numbers of casualties.
The TRC later found that in the case of the Durban beach front and Magoo's Bar bombings, these acts constituted "gross violations of human rights".[3]
[edit] Landmine campaign
From 1985 to 1987, there also was a campaign to mine rural roads used by security forces in what was then the Northern Transvaal. In submissions to the TRC, the ANC described the strategy and how they abandoned it due to the high rate of civilian casualties—especially amongst black labourers. The ANC estimated 30 landmine explosions resulting in 23 deaths, while the National Party submitted a figure of 57 explosions resulting in 25 deaths.[4]
The TRC found that it could not condone the use of landmine because of the indiscriminate nature of the weapon which inevitable resulted in gross violations of human rights, but gives the ANC credit for abandoning the strategy.[5]
[edit] Torture and executions
The TRC found several instances of torture—even though it wasn't official policy— and executions "without due process" at ANC detention camps particularly in the period of 1979—1989.[6]
[edit] MK's popular influence
In 1988, musician Prince Far-I's album 'Spear of a Nation: Umkhonto we Sizwe' was released (posthumously) in an act of solidarity with the MK.
Zimbabwean-born African-American author and filmmaker M.K. Asante, Jr. embraced the initials MK after Umkhonto we Sizwe.
[edit] References
- ^ Manifesto of Umkhonto we Sizwe. African National Congress (16 December 1961). Retrieved on 2006-12-30.
- ^ "The Liberation Movements from 1960 to 1990" . Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report 2: 330. Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa).
- ^ "The Liberation Movements from 1960 to 1990" . Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report 2: 333. Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa). “THE CONSEQUENCE IN THESE CASES, SUCH AS THE MAGOO’S BAR AND THE DURBAN ESPLANADE BOMBINGS, WERE GROSS VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THAT THEY RESULTED IN INJURIES TO AND THE DEATHS OF CIVILIANS.”
- ^ "The Liberation Movements from 1960 to 1990" . Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report 2: 333. Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa).
- ^ "The Liberation Movements from 1960 to 1990" . Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report 2: 334. Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa).
- ^ "The Liberation Movements from 1960 to 1990" . Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report 2: 366. Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa). “THE COMMISSION FINDS THAT ‘SUSPECTED AGENTS’ WERE ROUTINELY SUBJECTED TO TORTURE AND OTHER FORMS OF SEVERE ILL-TREATMENT AND THAT THERE WERE CASES WHERE SUCH INDIVIDUALS WERE CHARGED AND CONVICTED BY TRIBUNALS WITHOUT PROPER ATTENTION TO DUE PROCESS BEING AFFORDED THEM, SENTENCED TO DEATH AND EXECUTED.”
[edit] Well known MK members
- Chris Hani
- Ronnie Kasrils
- Nelson Mandela
- Robert McBride
- Joe Modise
- Joe Slovo
- Marion Sparg
- Jacob Zuma
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Collection of Umkhonto we Sizwe documents - from anc.org, timeline and manifesto.
- The other armies: A brief historical overview of Umkhonto We Sizwe (MK), 1961-1994 - The South African Military History Society (Military History Journal - Vol 11 No 5)
