A Hero of the Revolution: Peter Sello Motau (aka “Paul Dikeledi”)

A Hero of the Revolution: Peter Sello Motau (aka “Paul Dikeledi”)

This year, Peter Sello Motau (aka “Paul Dikeledi”), would have been 70 years old, a veteran of the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the People’s Army, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK). On 9 July 1987, Paul Dikeledi and his comrade Cassius Maake, were assassinated in Swaziland when the taxi in which they were travelling was ambushed by three South African agents who were in a car with South African registration numbers.

Born to David Motau and Salome Motsoaledi, in Soweto, on 17 January 1955, Paul grew up in Soweto and attended the Morris Isaacson High School in the same township. Paul Dikeledi was a dedicated young activist who joined the Movement after the 1976 Soweto uprising and had since risen in the ranks of the organisation to a prominent position.

Paul underwent military training in the MK Camp Novo Catengue, colloquially referred to as the “University of the South”, in the Benguela Province of Angola. He became one of the graduates of Teterow, in Mecklenburg, in the erstwhile German Democratic Republic (GDR aka “East Germany”), and was trained as a Brigade Commander in artillery at the Simferopol United Military School (Perevalnoye) in the Soviet Union.

In 1977 he became the Secretary for the Regional Military Committee (RMC) under the chairpersonship of Joe Slovo, which was responsible for the Mozambique and Swaziland front into South Africa. Both Joe Slovo and Paul Dikeledi played a significant role in the establishment of the RMC in Mozambique, which was instrumental in the expansion of armed struggle during the period when the ANC was operating in the Eastern Mozambique-Swaziland Front. The RMC became a key military structure for the ANC and its armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), coordinating operations and training, and responsible for the pulsating Transvaal and Natal Rural and Urban Machineries.

In 1978 Paul Dikeledi became a member of the Regional Political Bureau of the South African Communist Party (Mozambique-Swaziland-Internal) and during 1981 when the ANC structures were reorganised, he became a member of the Regional Political Military Committee (RPMC). This new structure combined the political and military machineries operating inside the country. He rose through the ranks of the organisation and ran the African National Congress (ANC) machinery in the then Transvaal while based in Swaziland as an exile. He was responsible for the Eastern Front operations via Swaziland.

After the Nkomati Accord, Paul Dikeledi had to leave Mozambique for Swaziland. He had always been in and out of the Kingdom, but from then on, he had to be based there. Unlike most of the men who left their wives behind, Carla (Carla Mendes-Motau) decided to follow him into Swaziland with their children and crossed the fence into Swaziland in April 1984. Following a raid by the apartheid Death Squad at her house, Carla had to go back to Mozambique with the children, while Paul remained in Swaziland to pursue MK operations.

In the beginning of April 1986, landmine operations were coordinated by the Transvaal Implementation Machinery of MK, which met in Swaziland. This Machinery was a structure to coordinate the activities of the ANC political and military, rural and urban structures for the Transvaal. Paul Dikeledi became the Head of the Machinery, which consisted of Vusimuzi Sindane, Acton Mandla Maseko and Glory Sedibe (aka “September”). The meeting was arranged because Dikeledi had received orders from ANC Headquarters, in Lusaka, that the Swaziland Regional Politico-Military Committee (RPMC) and the Transvaal and Natal Implementation Machineries, had to commence with landmine warfare.

On 9 July 1987, as MK Chief of Operations in the Eastern Front, Dikeledi welcomed the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) member, Cassius Maake (real name Job Shimankana Tabane), and Eliza Tsineni Augusto, a Mozambican national and ANC supporter, as they arrived at Matsapha Airport in a flight from Mozambique. The three then got into a Colt Gallant, as they were driven away by the taxi driver, Sipho Gamedze.

As the taxi took a turn to the University of Swaziland, a white BMW with Transvaal number plates was following behind. When the taxi passed the Usushwana Bridge near the Swazi King Mswati II’s royal palace, the BMW flashed its lights, which prompted the Colt Gallant to stop. Immediately the occupants of the BMW rushed out of the car and began spraying the taxi with gunfire, instantly killing Augusto, Maake and Dikeledi, but sparing Gamedze.

The same apartheid Security Branch officers who were involved in the murder of Theophilus “Viva” Dlodlo were involved, and these were Colonel Johan Botha and Warrant Officer Lappies Labuschagne, belonging to the Security Branch of Middleburg. The two police officers on 24 May 1987, two days after the ambush and murder of “Viva”, authorised by Schalk Visser, head of the Eastern Transvaal Security Branch, abducted Sheila Nyanda from Swaziland. The white BMW 3 series that was used in the mission to kill Maake and Dikeledi was the one that belonged to Sheila Nyanda and was parked in a carport at her apartment.

In all of these assassinations, security police informers played important roles. Evidence before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) revealed that Gamedze was an informer and that he stopped his taxi at a prearranged isolated spot before collecting the targeted individuals. Moreover, the ANC included the confession of Nompumelelo Zakade as one of its case studies of confessions by agents. She was said to have provided information for the killings of Viva, Maake, Dikeledi and others.

Zakade was told by Paul Dikeledi, about two days before his death, that there was an important person, Cassius Maake, arriving from Maputo on Thursday and that he should be met at the airport. She duly informed Captain Ronnie Nel, who was described as Head of the Elimination Squad for Swaziland, based in Compol Building, Pretoria. Labuschagne told the Commission that he had received a letter of thanks in connection with the Maake’s and Dikeledi’s death from apartheid Law and Order Minister, Adriaan Vlok.

Sources:
Wikipedia.
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African National Congress, “Further Submissions and Responses by the African National Congress to Questions Raised by the Commission for Truth and Reconciliation”, 12 May 1997.
Howard Barrell, “Conscripts to Their Age: African National Congress Operational Strategy, 1976 – 1986”, D. Phil: Oxford University, 1993.
Joe Slovo, “1976 to the Present”, Dawn, Souvenir Issue, 1986.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission, “Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report”, Vol. 2, 29 October 1998.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission, “Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report”, Vol. 6, 21 March 2003.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission, “Amnesty Decisions: Siphiwe Nyanda, Solly Zacharia Shoke, Malekolle Johannes Rasegatla”, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Amnesty Committee, Cape Town, 16 May 2000.
Editorial Notes, “Obituary”, The African Communist, No. 111, Fourth Quarter, 1987.
Janet Smith and Beauregard Tromp, “Hani: A Life Too Short”, Jonathan Ball, 2009.
Jacob Dlamini, “Askari: A Story of Collaboration and Betrayal in the Anti-apartheid Struggle”, Jacana, 2014.
Thula Simpson, “Umkhonto we Sizwe: The ANC’s Armed Struggle”, Penguin, 2016.
Stephen Ellis, “External Mission: The ANC in Exile, 1960–1990”, Jacana, 2012.
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Nadja Manghezi, “They Were Part of Us and We Were Part of Them: The ANC in Mozambique from 1976 to 1990”, Online Publication.
Hugh Macmillan, “The Lusaka Years: The ANC in Exile in Zambia, 1963 to 1994”, Jacana, 2013.
Vladimir Shubin, “Chapter Eleven: Comrade Mzwai”, in Arianna Lissoni et. al., “One Hundred Years of the ANC”, Wits University Press, 2012.

Castro Khwela
Good evening fellow Compatriots!