African
Revolutionary Writers, Part 5a
Govan Mbeki
The main item today is Chapter 7, “The New Offensive: The
ANC after 1949”, from “The Struggle for Liberation in South Africa” by Govan
Mbeki, published in 1992 (download linked below).
Right at the beginning of this chapter Mbeki recalls the
joint ANC/CPSA protest against the Suppression of Communism Act on May Day 1950
and the massacre of 18 people on that day by the National Party regime that had
come to power in 1948. This is something South Africans should always remember
on the May Day holiday each year.
Consequent to this massacre, 26 June 1950 was observed with
a stay-away as Freedom Day. Freedom Day was observed again when the Defiance of
Unjust Laws campaign was launched in 1952 and again in 1955 when the Freedom Charter
was adopted on that date at the Congress of the People in Kliptown.
This is something also to remember in what is now called
“Heritage Month” in South Africa. 26 June, our original Freedom Day, having to
do with the protests against the banning of the Communist Party - is not a
Public Holiday in South Africa. 24 September was made a public “Heritage Day”
holiday at the insistence of the Inkatha Freedom Party (see here).
Govan Mbeki concludes this chapter with a very good section
on the “Africanists”, in terms of events in which he himself, as he records,
was involved in a major capacity. The first occasion was when the Africanists
tried to hi-jack the ANC leadership from the Treason Trialists, taking
advantage of the fact that they were locked up.
“Black exclusivism,” says
Mbeki, “presents a misguided solution”.
“What has
characterised all groups that claimed to be opposed to government policies -
groups that either broke away from the ANC like the PAC, or others like the
Liberal Party, Unity Movement (NEUM), Inkatha
and Black Consciousness Movement - has been that instead of opposing the
government directly, they have mounted
campaigns aimed at thwarting those initiated by the ANC,” writes Mbeki,
and proceeds to tell the whole Sharpeville story, when 69 people were shot,
fifty years ago, on 21 March 1960, and relates the immediate aftermath.
“At a meeting of the
joint executives of the Congress Alliance in June 1961, the situation was
reviewed and a decision was taken that in all future stay-at-homes, the
possibility of the use of force could not be excluded,” writes Mbeki
To read Govan Mbeki’s book on-line, click
here.
The question of armed struggle was settled by the formation
of Umkhonto we Sizwe on 16 December of that year, 1961. In tomorrow’s item we will see how O R Tambo,
as the President-General of the ANC, reflected upon all this heritage in 1969,
which was also the year of the ANC’s Morogoro Conference, where the “Strategy and Tactics”
document was adopted.
Please download and read the entire text via
this link:
Further reading:
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