The Hani Memorandum
Around 7 January 1969, Chris Hani and six other Comrades signed a document, later known as the “Hani Memorandum”, that accused the African National Congress (ANC) in exile of being in a deep crisis as a result of “the rot” that had set in. After 18 frustrating months in jail, Hani became an adopted son for Livingstone and Nzimazana Mqotsi, in Woodlands, Lusaka.
When Hani and his comrades had returned to Lusaka from jail in Botswana, a party was thrown for them at the home of the South African Communist Party (SACP) members, Jack and Ray Simons. Ben Magubane, who was an ANC academic teaching at the University of Zambia, threw a party, too. But surprisingly, disturbingly, there was no other official welcome.
On their return from war and prison, the Luthuli Detachment had been all but ignored by the ANC leadership. There were no ceremonies and no medals, no special briefings. The silence from the leadership began to affect Hani negatively. Within months, his confusion turned into a desperate kind of fury, feeling that the ANC leadership had neglected them after having sacrificed their lives and lost a number of gallant comrades in the Wankie Campaign. Finally, he put his name at the top of a list of seven signatures in the Memorandum, the signatories, included two former cellmates in Gaborone, gathered in Mqotsi’s home in Lusaka.
The Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) soldiers in the camps decried the disenchantment that had affected the ANC while e
