Congress Alliance Debates the Armed Struggle
On 2 July 1961, the night following the debate the African National Congress (ANC) had in Groutville, near Stanger, on the armed struggle, the meeting of the Congress Alliance Joint Executives took place in a beach house, also near Stanger. Nelson Mandela had arrived for the ANC National Working and Executive Committee meetings disguised as a chauffeur for Hymie and Hazel Rochman, in whose Johannesburg residence he used to sleep in the maid’s quarters, as a gardener, wearing coveralls. During this occasion, Mandela drove incognito to Natal in July to Stanger, to a sugar plantation belonging to Walter Singh, a close friend to Inkosi Albert Luthuli.
The National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting which ran late the previous night, 1 July 1961, under the chairmanship of Moses Kotane and Masabalala B. Yengwa, who was Luthuli’s close ally and the senior ANC leader in the province of Natal, was meant to provide guidance to the Congress Alliance meeting the following day, on 2 July 1961. Both Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu wanted to come to some conclusions at the ANC NEC meeting, particularly around the question of transforming the ANC into an order of command and implementation using violence. This position was strongly opposed by M.B. Yengwa on the basis that it would subject members of the organisation to unavoidable arrests.
Nevertheless, Mandela and his supporters made the case that the ANC should take the lead in orde
