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 in Luanda, from 27 December 1978 to 1 January 1979, to consider the ANC’s strategic impasse. The context of the meeting was to consider the report on the Vietnam visit and to appoint a PMSC to review the ANC strategy, tactics and operational structures. The composition of the PMSC combined both political and military leadership, which consisted of Joe Slovo, Thabo Mbeki, Joe Modise, Moses Mabhida, and Joe Gqabi, who had just been released from Robben Island. Furthermore, the PMSC also had to reflect on the Communist Party's (SACP’s) crucial role within the ANC-led national liberation struggle, notably in its operational structures. What the NEC expected of the PMSC was that it should develop a report to be presented in March of that year in which it was to address the strategic trajectory of the liberation struggle and particularly the role of the armed component within that struggle. As expected, the PMSC did present a report in March and most, but not all, of its central recommendations were formally adopted as the "Green Book" by the ANC five months later in August 1979. This heralded the second