The Incipient MK High Command under Threat
On 4 July 1963, the Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) National High Command gathered at their Rivonia Headquarters to hear Arthur Goldreich submitting a Logistics Committee report on the production requirements of the guerrilla warfare plan. Goldreich had been part of a Zionist urban guerrilla group in Israel in the late 1940s, whereas others had fought in the Second World War. During the discussions that were taking place, Govan Mbeki made notes on the following: It was “Incorrect to say the liberation movement given itself to military methods”.
This was written when an argument that the entire liberation movement should be thrown behind the shift to guerrilla warfare received the rebuttal that there was still a lot of political work to be done and hence it was wrong to advocate that the liberation movement was to be given over wholly to military methods. When the advocates of guerrilla warfare were asked, “How? Where? We have no friendly borders”, they responded that the movement could obtain a place in the protectorates to which guerrillas could retreat. This drew the objection that such a notion was totally unrealistic, upon which Mbeki jotted down “cross border of protectorates”.
One of the critics of the plan argued against the proponents that it would be incorrect to undertake such an action without taking into consideration the other components of the Congress Alliance. Mbeki then noted that “Liberation movement n
