Politico-Military Committee (PMC) Replaces the Revolutionary Council (RC)
On 2 September 1983, the African National Congress (ANC) official journal “Sechaba”, in the Editorial of its September 1983 issue, mentioned that the Movement had established a new organisational structure to replace the Revolutionary Council (RC) that had been established by the Morogoro Conference. The new structure reflected the ANC’s fear of being cut-off from the Forward Areas before it had established politico-military structures within South Africa to guide the struggle inside the country.
According to the Editorial, the new structure consisted of a “Politico-Military Council (PMC) with its sub-departments, and the External Co-ordinating Council (ECC) with its sub-committees. By definition the latter will co-ordinate our external work.” When designing the new organisational structure, there was thorough consideration of whether the Movement’s existing priorities were correct, whether resources were being concentrated where they were most required, and whether existing structures were effective and efficient enough in implementing policy objectives.
The Editorial further added that there had been a lot of speculation about the new structure whether it was signifying “the end of the phase of armed propaganda” and the “beginning of people’s war”, or an attempt to “revamp” the ANC’s externally-based operational and military structure to enable an intensification o
