The Motshabi Commission Report
On 2 May 1975, the Motshabi Commission delivered an interim report on the condition of the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) existing People’s Army abroad. The “Commission on the State of Affairs in Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) in East Africa” was established by the ANC Revolutionary Council on 17 April 1975, with a mandate to investigate the causes of and possible remedies for the “deterioration of the standard of military life and discipline in the MK establishment” in East Africa, which was the region where the vast majority of MK members abroad were based.
The Commission, which was chaired by John Pule Motshabi, started its work on 21 April 1975, when its three members met the MK East Africa Command, which consisted of Julius Maliba (Regional Commander), Julius Mokoena (Political Commissar), Joseph Shumo (Chief of Staff), Bunny Pinny (Medical Officer) and Morris Selabogo (Chief of Logistics). The commission presented its work on 2 May 1975, the same day Dingo Lamani, one of the Commission members passed on.
The difficulties experienced by the ANC leadership in exile in grappling with the changes of being in exile produced potentially disintegrative internal strains in the second half of the 1960s decade, which could be viewed as the main catalyst behind the call for a Consultative Conference in Morogoro in 1969. The Commission’s interim report confirmed that there was indeed a marked deterioration in the standard of mili
