Efforts to Revive the M-Plan in the 1970s

Efforts to Revive the M-Plan in the 1970s

On Sunday morning, 13 April 1975, Bhekisisa Nxasana was in the yard of his house in Clermont, Durban, when a man approached him and introduced himself as Russel Maphanga. In January 1974, Nxasana had been approached by Raymond Nkosi, who later introduced him to Joseph Nduli, formerly of the reconnaissance group in the joint Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK)-Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) Wankie campaign.

Nduli had explained that he was sent by the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) to see what conditions were like in South Africa, in order to revive the ANC in accordance with the M-Plan (the Mandela Plan). Russel Maphanga was part of the underground structures in Natal, operating with other stalwarts of the ANC, such as Judson Khuzwayo and Shadrack Maphumulo.

Moments later Jacob Zuma arrived at Nxasana’s house in the company of William Khanyile. Jacob Zuma had been arrested in one of Essop Suleiman’s Combis in June 1963 for attempting to leave the country illegally and served ten years on Robben Island before his release in 1973. William Khanyile was an ANC activist from Pietermaritzburg, who also belonged to SACTU and the South African Communist Party (SACP). He had been arrested in 1963 with Antony Mfenendala Xaba for belonging to a banned organisation, the ANC, and was sentenced to eight years in Robben Island. On his release in 1972, he was placed under a banning order and restricted to a village in the rural areas.

In a bedroom in Nxasana’s house, Khanyile mentioned that he had received a message from Albert Dhlomo (an ANC member who had been a refugee in the United Kingdom and Swaziland since the mid-1960s) to the effect that the ANC was to be revived in accordance with the Mandela Plan. Khanyile indicated that conditions in Mozambique had created fertile grounds for such a reconstitution.

Zuma elaborated Khanyile’s statement, and while he was explaining the workings of the cell system, he drew a diagram. He then said that after the cells were formed, recruits would be obtained, who will then be sent to Mozambique for training. When the trainees had returned to South Africa, the cells would be required to protect them from the police.

The M-Plan began in the 1950s being prompted by a belief that political conditions were becoming more repressive, especially with the introduction of the Suppression of Communism Act of 1950, which led to the banning of the Communist Party and restrictions on many leading figures in the Congress Alliance, and other structures linked to the liberation movement. The ANC and other Congress Alliance partners had to adapt to the changing circumstances and to develop organisational structures that were conducive to these changed conditions.

According to Raymond Suttner, “Mandela confirms that the NEC had instructed him to draw up a plan that would enable the organisation to operate from underground. The M-Plan embraced a number of elements. On the one hand, it may have been conceived simply as a preparation for a future underground existence of the organisation as a whole. It may have also had a more limited purpose – greater security to prevent falling victim to the increasing repression, manifested in careless use of sensitive documents. But it was also the extension of modes of operation that were already in existence. Many in the leadership, despite being subjected to heavy banning orders, were already carrying out Congress activities in secret, meeting among themselves and with those who were still allowed to operate legally.”

The future was planned with a sincere consideration of the existing circumstances and imminent prospects, thus making the organisation to be prepared to continue to exist and operate “under conditions of illegality by organising on the basis of the cell system”. Everything was kept in secret, from the national level the instructions came to the structures through the leadership of the region and these had to be taken to the branches; the branches had to take it to the area committees and the area committees had to take it to the street committees. The smallest unit was the cell, which in urban townships consisted of roughly ten houses on a street. A cell steward would be in charge of each of these units.

What needs to be noted, however, is that the M-Plan was not a classic conception for a tightly knit vanguard-type, as the Communist, underground. Despite the greater security involved, the plan also envisaged expansion of the membership and organisation. The notion was that every cell and street steward should know every person and family in the area, so that the steward would be trusted by the people and would know whom to trust.

Each street had its own steward whose task was to recruit within the street. The steward had to inform on the types of people in each street, whether there were for example policemen. The most important task for the steward was to know everything happening within the street, be it a social event like a funeral, an initiation ceremony or a fight.

The cell steward arranged meetings, organised political classes and collected dues, and therefore became the cornerstone of the plan. Considerable weight was placed on political education, in motivating the plan and many people appear to have gone through some form of internal education where a common understanding of Congress politics was developed, through lectures and discussion on the history of the liberation struggle.

Secondly, they needed to know the day-to-day issues which affected them, to make them understand exactly why they were treated the way they were treated. These lectures were meant not only to educate but to hold the organisation together. They were given in secret by branch leaders. Those members in attendance would in turn give the same lectures to others in their homes.

“After a shaky start, the ANC underground organisation began to function reasonably well, consolidating its structures and work. MK performed well and its call for volunteers led to an ‘unprecedented’ response from the youth. Regions, areas, streets and cells, through their structures, exhorted the membership to observe some elementary rules of security: change venues of meetings, be punctual at meetings, don’t discuss your role in the organisation with other members of the organisation who are not working directly with you, be careful whom you talk to and what you say, etc.” (Suttner).

Sources:
Wikipedia.
South African History Online (SAHO).
Nelson Mandela, “Long Walk to Freedom”, Abacus, 1994.
Thula Simpson, “Umkhonto we Sizwe: The ANC’s Armed Struggle”, Penguin, 2016.
Raymond Suttner, “The African National Congress (ANC) Underground: From the M-Plan to Rivonia”, South African Historical Journal, No. 49, November 2003.

Castro Khwela
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