On 12 January 1984, a strong delegation of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the African National Congress (ANC) arrived at Caculama, the main training centre of its military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), near the town of Malanje, Angola.
This delegation consisted of Oliver Tambo, Chris Hani, Joe Nhlanhla and Lambert Moloi. Normally, such a visit by the ANC leadership would have been prepared for weeks before they arrive. Some travelled more than eighty kilometres from the centre to Kangandala.
The emergency visit by the leadership followed the refusal by certain MK combatants to go into counter-insurgency operations against the forces of the Union for Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) in the Angolan civil war and defied the security personnel of the ANC.
Previously, in 1979, MK had participated in a second campaign together with the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) of the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), as the attempt to reach South Africa was once again unsuccessful. This led to most of the MK Cadres finding themselves back in the Angolan camps.
This failure, together with the degrading conditions in which the cadres were living, fuelled a spiral of discontent in the camps. The food was sparse and the sanitary conditions were bad. A feeling of stagnation spread among the Cadres, who were disillusioned at the bleak prospect of infiltrating back into South Africa.
In the beginning of the 1980's the roads between Luanda and the cam
For me this information is very educative.
Our Tri-partite Alliance structures need to be educated on these history.
A way should be found to incorporate these history to the education syllabus in South Africa.