The Massive Post-Rivonia Arrests: August 1963 – July 1964

The Massive Post-Rivonia Arrests: August 1963 – July 1964

On 3 August 1963, in the early hours of the morning, Stephen Mtshali was arrested at his aunt’s home, in Durban, and was taken to the Wentworth Police Station for interrogation by apartheid Detective Warrant Officer Nicolaas J. Grobler. On the same morning, at a house in Durban’s Windsor Park suburb, Ronnie Kasrils gave Bruno Mtolo some money to buy some meat and vegetables at Kloof, and to arrange for Stephen Mtshali to visit the recently established hideout. Mtolo left the hideout at around 11:00, and when he reached Kloof Railway Station, he was apprehended by Officers Grobler and Wessels, who then took him to Pinetown Police Station.

On 7 August 1963, the apartheid Security Branch, under the leadership of Lieutenant Steenkamp, arrested Sonny Singh, who was working as a waiter in a Durban restaurant. Two days later, on 9 August, two members of the apartheid Security Branch went into the main section of the library of the University of the Witwatersrand, where they found Ruth First searching for specific books. Ruth First was arrested, as the students were watching in silence, and placed under the ninety-day clause.

During this Rivonia era, African National Congress (ANC) members who were not arrested and remained inside the country continued with the struggle and were involved in different activities such as helping cadres to find their way into exile. Women also played a crucial role in ensuring that the underground network of the ANC was fully functional. By mid-1963, three members of the underground National Executive Committee (NEC) were in detention, being among those arrested at Rivonia or shortly before.

The President-General of the ANC, Inkosi Albert Luthuli, was banned and restricted to Groutville in rural Natal, and the Deputy President General, Oliver Tambo, as well as NEC members Moses Kotane and Duma Nokwe were in exile. The coordinator of the National Secretariat, Govan Mbeki, as well as Secretariat members Alfred Nzo, Bartholomew Hlapane, Henry Makgothi and John Mavuso were either in detention or had been sentenced to terms of imprisonment.

Ruth Mompati and Thomas Nkobi had been smuggled out of the country. The remaining leaders in the National Secretariat were Gabula Mahlasela, Michael Dingake and Dan Tloome. Josiah Jele was co-opted onto the National Secretariat during the second half of 1963 in order to augment the structure. The clampdown on opposition organisations in the wake of the arrests at Lilliesleaf Farm placed all structures under siege, requiring a reassessment of the South African Communist Party’s (SACP’s) approach to underground operations.

In late 1963 and early 1964 an underground document headed “Time for Reassessment” circulated, discussing new police bugging devices, the dangers of detention and the seductiveness and reality of betrayal. In response, it also outlined a series of safeguards: each cell was now to have a security officer to monitor the safety habits of its members; disguises were recommended as an expedient within the repertoire of underground life; if a member of the SACP were detained, special precautions had to go into immediate effect; no one was to be regarded as wholly reliable.

The Party had been under surveillance for some time, with meetings being tape-recorded, infiltration by police agent Gerard Ludi, and interception of mail at a post box opened by Ludi for Party use. In addition, by mid-1963 most of the legal congresses, which had provided an important platform for communication with ANC members and sympathisers, had been rendered inoperative. The Congress of Democrats (COD) was banned in 1962, while the South African Indian Congress (SAIC), Coloured People’s Congress (CPC) and the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) were in disarray following the arrest, banning or departure into exile of their leaders.

In these most challenging of circumstances, the ANC leadership still inside the country concentrated on keeping the organisation intact. Propaganda became a priority, as pamphlets and leaflets became largely produced to refute government claims that the ANC had been decimated. Political slogans were also painted on the walls of buildings in urban areas, with the assistance of the legal entities within the Congress movement. The underground ANC structures also used these propaganda items to commemorate certain historic events, such as December 16 (Heroes Day), 26 June (Freedom Day), and to boost morale among the startled membership.

There were no messages that were being given, particularly organising political messages, because the membership had lost touch with the leadership. The leadership was leaving the country or was underground. Wilton Mkwayi, Michael Dingake, Dan Tloome and Josiah Jele, for example, moved from one safehouse to another for months at a time. Activists played a central role in finding secure accommodation and meeting places for these leaders. Later on, Radio Freedom came about, at least members could listen to Radio Freedom and take back to the people what was happening.

At that time members had to deal with the situation as it was, since there was no real ideological mobilisation. Nonetheless, the ANC underground was also instrumental in assisting the families of members who had been imprisoned by providing them with money for their daily needs. MK and ANC leaders still in the country faced the constant threat of arrest, and many chose to go underground. The arrests really undermined the capacity to organise because the structures were quite depleted, and there was a lot of disorganisation, and coordination with the regional [MK] commands was very difficult.

On 10 July 1964, when Steve (aka “Nandhagopal” or “Nandha”) Naidoo was arrested at around 17:00, while he was walking on Wills Road, close to 21 Pearse Street, where he had been residing with Mac Maharaj since the middle of 1963. Nandha Naidoo had agreed to the request of the African National Congress’s (ANC) leadership to report to Johannesburg for further engagement in Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) activities.

His arrest followed the arrest of Lionel Gay by apartheid Security Branch policemen, in the morning of 27 June 1964, at his home on 13th Street, Parkhurst, in Randburg. Lionel Gay then served on the logistics committee of the MK National High Command before the Rivonia arrests. In mid-1964, while serving on the second National High Command, he was detained because of political activities on the Wits University campus and subsequently appeared as a state witness in the trial of members of the second High Command.

Lionel Gay joined the Congress of Democrats (COD) in Durban, in 1961, and was recruited into the regional technical committee of MK by Ronnie Kasrils. After moving to Johannesburg to take up a post at the University of the Witwatersrand, Gay was recruited by Kitson into the Johannesburg MK technical committee. David Kitson had taken Joe Slovo’s place in MK on behalf of the South African Communist Party (SACP) when Slovo left the country in May 1963 to seek outside help based on orders from the Central Committee.

On 3 July, the same year, the Rand Daily Mail newspaper reported that in the previous week, several Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) members had been arrested in separate swoops, which included Ian David Kitson, John Edward Matthews and Cyril Jones. Again, on 4 July, the Rand Daily Mail reported that raids and searches were conducted on 3 July resulting in “at least 17” people being jailed under the ninety-day clause.

On 5 July 1964, the apartheid Minister of Justice, John Vorster, released a statement in Pretoria to the effect that “Certain persons have also been detained, and it is expected that the various discoveries made will possibly lead to the destruction of the Communist-inspired subversive campaign”. The following day, after John Vorster’s statement, on 6 July 1964, Mac Maharaj and his wife Tim were arrested at the servants’ quarters where they were staying in Pearse Street, Doornfontein.

The Rivonia arrests became a major breakthrough for the police, who had gained the upper hand against the revolutionary upsurge. People came to believe the ANC had been annihilated, as the power and reach of the state exerted every effort to ensure that people believed the ANC was dead. Newspaper coverage of the ANC in this period became infinitesimal, primarily due to restrictive legislation, but what coverage did occur was extremely negative or dismissive in tone, reflecting the bias of the white-owned newspapers.

To the extent that the ANC was building an underground presence within the country, its existence depended on highly secretive and unobtrusive organisational activities. The stakes were very high; the odds were stacked against such efforts. Any publicity would have doomed these attempts. In this sense the conditions of underground operations in general had come – at the level of appearances or visibility – to lend support to the view of the ANC’s absence.

The arrests at Rivonia, and subsequent trials, ended the first phase of MK activity – the sabotage campaign between December 1961 and mid-1963. By mid-1965, not only MK but also the ANC had effectively been decimated within South Africa. ANC members who were not arrested and remained inside the country continued with certain aspects of the struggle and different activities such as helping cadres to find their way into exile, especially women who played a crucial role in ensuring that the underground network of the ANC was fully functional.

In 1968 ANC President Oliver Tambo acknowledged the dominance of the apartheid government: “… the bonds of bondage that bound millions of black people in South Africa twenty years ago have since been tightened”. “Tambo had observed, as early as 1968, that the ANC’s exile status had forced upon the liberation movement ‘a gap’. The important task, he reflected, was to maintain strong and durable lines of communication between the leaders inside and outside. ‘It is to be expected that these lines of communication constitute one of the main targets of attack by the enemy,’ he added” (Luli Callinicos, 2004).

Sources:
South African History Online (SAHO).
Gregory Houston, “Chapter 15: The Post-Rivonia ANC/SACP Underground”, The Road to Democracy in South Africa, Vol. 1, 1960 – 1970, South African Democratic Education Trust, 2015.
Raymond Suttner, “The ANC Underground in South Africa to 1976: A Social and Historical Study”, Jacana, 2008.
Thula Simpson, “Umkhonto we Sizwe: The ANC’s Armed Struggle”, Penguin, 2016.
Luli Callinicos, “Oliver Tambo: Beyond the Engeli Mountains”, David Philip, 2004.

Castro Khwela
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