Challenges Over the Bechuanaland Route Into South Africa
Exactly sixty years ago, on 29 May 1966, Mack Futha, an Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) operative, was deported to Zambia, which implied that his mission to establish a pipeline into South Africa through Bechuanaland was proven to be abortive. The day before, on 28 May 1966, Futha, was brought in for questioning in Francistown by a Bechuanaland Special Branch Officer, after he had survived arrest three days before, on 25 May, in Maun, when he disembarked from a flight that had landed from Livingstone.
Following his disembarking from a Livingstone flight, Futha had produced a British passport issued in the name of Stephen Hliziyo, and completed his Declaration of Arrival Form using that name. The suspicious immigration officers took him aside and began questioning him. Futha told the officer that his reason for travelling was to see his mother in Francistown, who was staying at the house of Simeon Richard Mutshekwane, the Francistown assistant town clerk.
Being further interrogated by the immigration officers, Futha eventually admitted that he was sent to establish an infiltration route for the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) personnel that were seeking access into Rhodesia from Zambia, through Bechuanaland. After the confession, Futha was allowed to leave Maun, without being arrested.
On 28 May, when Futha was brought in for questioning again in Francistown by the Bechuanaland Special Branch officer, he admi
