ANC Politico-Military Strategy Commission (PMSC) Appointed
On 1 January 1979, a Politico-Military Strategy Commission (PMSC) was appointed at a Special African National Congress (ANC) National Executive Committee (NEC) Meeting in Luanda, Angola, following the visit to Vietnam by a small delegation, led by ANC President Oliver Tambo, in October 1978.
A copy of the report on the Vietnam visit was presented to that NEC meeting by Joe Slovo in Luanda, from 27 December 1978 to 1 January 1979, to consider the ANC’s strategic impasse. The context of the meeting was, among other issues, to consider the report on the Vietnam visit and to appoint a structure – which became the PMSC – to review the ANC strategy, tactics and operational structures. The composition of the PMSC combined both political and military leadership, which consisted of Oliver Tambo as chairperson, Joe Slovo, Thabo Mbeki, Joe Modise, Moses Mabhida, and Joe Gqabi, who had just been released from Robben Island.
The June 16, 1976, uprisings in Soweto and elsewhere indicated an immediate potential for popular insurrectionary activity in urban areas. Furthermore, these uprisings had also shown that armed struggle was not a necessary ‘detonator’ of, or precondition for, popular upsurge, as there had been no major armed activity inside South Africa for 13 years before 1976, except for armed actions that resulted in independence in the neighbouring former Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola.
