The Motshabi Commission Report
The Motshabi Commission Report On 2 May 1975, the Motshabi Commission delivered an interim report on the condition of the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) existing People’s Army abroad. The “Commission on the State of Affairs in Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) in East Africa” was established by the ANC Revolutionary Council on 17 April 1975, with a mandate to investigate the causes of and possible remedies for the “deterioration of the standard of military life and…
Olof Palme is Assassinated
Olof Palme is Assassinated Close to midnight on 28 February 1986, Sven Olof Joachim Palme was walking home from a cinema with his wife, Lisbeth Palme, in the central Stockholm street, Sveavägen, when he was shot in the back at close range. A second shot grazed Lisbeth’s back. Despite being Prime Minister, Palme sought to live as ordinary a life as possible. He would often go out without any bodyguard protection, and the night of…
Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe: The Suppressed African Revolutionary
Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe: The Suppressed African Revolutionary On 27 February 1978, Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe passed on in the Kimberley General Hospital because of lung complications after having been hospitalised in 1977. His medical doctors requested that he should be granted freedom of movement on humanitarian grounds, as he was banned to Galeshewe Township, in Kimberley. However, this request was turned down by the apartheid authorities. Sobukwe was born in Graaff-Reinet in the Cape Province on…
The Bantu Homelands Citizenship Bill is Passed: Attempts at Keeping South Africa White
The Bantu Homelands Citizenship Bill is Passed: Attempts at Keeping South Africa White “There are no grounds in history or in reality for the Nationalists to claim any part of South Africa exclusively for whites … Africans live in every part of our country; their labour has gone to develop its farmlands and its cities, its mines and industries, its railways and harbours; they claim every inch of South Africa as their homeland.” – The…
Inkosi Mhlabunzima Maphumulo Gunned Down
Inkosi Mhlabunzima Maphumulo Gunned Down On 25 February 1991, exactly 35 years ago, the President of the traditional leaders’ organisation, the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (CONTRALESA) and African National Congress (ANC) stalwart, Chief Mhlabunzima Maphumulo, was gunned down in the driveway of his home in Pietermaritzburg. Maphumulo was a Chief from Maqongqo/Table Mountain area, east of Pietermaritzburg. He had survived a previous attempt on his life when his house was burnt down.…
The 1966 Traitorous Coup D’état in Ghana
The 1966 Traitorous Coup D’état in Ghana On 24 February 1966, a coup d’état occurred in Ghana, codenamed “Operation Cold Chop”, overthrowing President Kwame Nkrumah while he was visiting China and Vietnam. The coup was led by Colonel Emmanuel Kotoka, Major Akwasi Afrifa, and Police Inspector-General J.W.K. Harlley, during which the military and police authorities justified the move by citing economic decline, corruption, and authoritarian rule. It was later established that the coup was supported…
Lessons of Our People’s War: The Political and Military Relationship
Lessons of Our People’s War: The Political and Military Relationship (An adaptation of the Part 2 and 3 of the articles penned by Khumalo Migwe – Jabulani “Mzala” Nxumalo – on the on-going debate regarding the focus of Umkhonto we Sizwe on driving the armed struggle towards a completely developed people’s war, February 1982). Since by definition guerilla warfare is that form of warfare adopted by the strategically weaker side to give it the capability…