Oliver Tambo: Lies Will Not Save The Racist Criminals
(Excerpts from an interview with ANC President O. R. Tambo published by Mayibuye – Fortnightly Journal of the African National Congress, No. 9, 1 September 1981)
Question: On the night of the 12th and 13th of August, a unit of the People’s Army shelled Voortrekkerhoogte, the Headquarters of the racist SADF – South African Defence Force – with, according to reports, 122mm rockets. This is the first such attack by Umkhonto we Sizwe on a military camp of the regime and on its personnel inside South Africa. Does this, Comrade President, herald a new stage of the armed struggle?
TAMBO: I would want to be careful about identifying this attack as heralding a new stage. Rather, it is an expression of our determination to intensify our struggle; to take the offensive on all fronts; to raise the level and extent of mass political activity, the staying power of industrial actions, general resistance to the oppressive and exploitative measures of the system, and at the military front, to increase the frequency of assaults, expand the area of operations and to raise the scale of these attacks.
In time, assaults and operations by Umkhonto we Sizwe must assume strategic dimensions. The attack on Voortrekkerhoogte is an indication of the direction we are taking, the capacity we have reached within the country to deliver heavy and effective blows, including particularly blows against the military set-up. It can be assum
