Oliver Tambo on the Criticality of the Armed Struggle
On 28 May 1979, African National Congress (ANC) President Oliver Tambo delivered a presidential address to a sitting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) in Tanzania, outlining the state of the struggle. According to Tambo, some years back the NEC took a decision that the process of the intensification of the struggle inside the country required the leadership to begin to move closer to home.
He then asked what was then the position with regard to this proposal. Based on the on the information he had been provided, out of the total of twenty NEC members, six were based permanently in countries bordering South Africa, five in departments that dealt with internal work, while others participated in discussions dealing with aspects of internal work.
With regard to the armed struggle, Tambo argued that “We must admit among ourselves that our roar is indeed very thunderous while our claws are virtually absent. To correct this situation and strike as effectively as we roar, we must, with utmost seriousness, set about the task of building up a people’s army within South Africa, among the masses of our people.” Given this priority, “military combat within the country now, today can only have the intention of assisting in our organisational and mobilisation work. We must therefore plan for it – plan for our operations to have maximum political impact. The recent operation at the Moroka Police Station in Sowet
