The Pango Mutiny: Part 1 – the Brutal Sunday

The Pango Mutiny: Part 1 – the Brutal Sunday

On 13 May 1984, at the Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) camp in Pango, approximately 45 kilometres from Quibaxe town, north of Luanda, a group of armed mutineers attempted to disarm the guards keeping watch of the armoury. When one of the guards refused to surrender his weapon, he was shot and injured by the armed mutineers, and it ended in a bloody takeover of the camp by the mutineers.

This situation had been simmering for some time, three months after the suppression of the mutiny at Viana camp, and the arrest of the first group, in Luanda. The group considered to be the main instigators and ringleaders of the mutiny were arrested on 16 February 1984, while the remaining soldiers at Viana were transported in military vehicles to two MK camps, north of Luanda, Pango and Quibaxe.

These two camps, Pango and Quibaxe, were part of the oldest camps of the African National Congress (ANC) in Angola. Quibaxe was established in 1977, and Pango was created following the closure of Novo Catengue, colloquially known as “The University of the South”, in Benguela Province, in March 1979. The two camps were evacuated in 1983 following a mobilisation of the entire MK forces in preparation for the war against the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), known as the “Luta Contra Bandidos”, in Malanje province, leaving them with only a few guerrillas to man their defences. On their arrival, the guerrillas from Viana had to go through interviews with the Stuart Commission, which was trying to establish the motives behind the mutiny and to recommend remedial measures to the leadership.

With the Stuart Commission gone, the former protestors who had been sent to Pango were officially deemed to be undergoing a six-week reorientation course. However, some were showing defiance and were set aside from the rest in a section of the camp which was colloquially dubbed “Pollsmoor”. Those who were kept at “Pollsmoor”, who were regarded as hardliners, began discussing how to arm themselves. They had been planning this dangerous mission for weeks until 12 May, when one of the mutineers, “Stopper” Nyembezi (real name Mandla Reuben Jele) returned to Pango after having been to Luanda without permission. He refused to give-up his weapon and was forcibly disarmed.

On 13 May, when he was to be punished for insubordination, 21 of the “Pollsmoor hardliners”, led by Ronald Msomi (real name Cekiso Hoyi), stormed the camp’s outer guards’ posts with “a clear mission to fight, kill and capture weapons” (Ellis). According to the hardliners, the reorientation programme was introduced arrogantly with sinister political motives. What they wanted to achieve with this deadly act, was to restore “order”; to attract the attention of the leadership, to secure the release of the Committee of Ten and others detained after the original protest in Viana; to have the Stuart Commission Report immediately published; and to force the ANC leadership to convene a national conference.

Furthermore, the mutineers demanded a meeting with officials of the United Nations (UN) and the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to make their demands globally known and acknowledged. For instance, historian Hugh Macmillan argued that the tragic mutiny in Pango Camp was certainly linked to the signing of the Nkomati Accord in March 1984, as cadres who were desperate to be deployed inside South Africa were demoralised by the effective closure of Swaziland and Mozambique, which were the most effective routes into country at that time (The Lusaka Years).

The takeover of Pango camp was said to be known prior to the incident by 19 of the mutineers, with nine of the group being labelled as the main plotters. On that fateful Sunday, 13 May, after the hardliners stormed the armoury, disarmed the guards and shot one who refused to surrender his weapon, they thus had access to the weapons. Subsequently, gun battles ensued throughout the night between the hardliners and those loyal to the administration of the camp, resulting in Zenzile Phungula, who was the Camp Commissar, Wilson “Willie” Sithole, the Staff Commissar, Duke Maseko, who was the security officer guarding prisoners in the camp prison, being shot during the fighting that night. Phungula was finally killed the following day, after he was found by the hardliners, still alive and wounded.

Another administration loyalist, Cromwell Qwabe, was found dead in the bush with bullet holes, and two camp officials, Mvula and Norman, were reported as missing in combat. Two of the mutineers, Difuba (because of his fitness) and Mgedeza (an indlamu – Zulu dance – aficionado), were noted for displaying horrifying brutality in their attacks on fellow Comrades. The Camp Commander and those forces that were loyal to the administration managed to escape and the camp was occupied and run by the mutineers for about a week. The mutineers attempted to reach the local authorities in Pango Town to report the matter, but the team was intercepted by MK security forces and after a short battle they managed to retreat to safety.

All the MK camps in the vicinity of Quibaxe and Pango towns were placed on high alert, particularly Camp 13 in Quibaxe, which had other Viana mutineers that could have been instigated by what was happening in Pango; as well as Camp 32, known as “Quatro”, a detention camp set up in 1979 and named after Section Four of Johannesburg’s notorious Old Fort Prison Complex, now part of Constitution Hill, a place of brutal punishment. Officially named the Morris Seabelo Rehabiliation Centre, the abandoned buildings of a remote banana ripening centre were recycled into a rehabilitation and detention camp. ANC President OR Tambo regretfully referred to Quatro as “one camp the ANC could do without” (Callinicos – Beyond the Engeli Mountains).

Following the takeover of Pango camp by the mutineers, the MK Regional Command mobilised a crack force of all its loyal cadres in all its camps and establishments in Angola, and they were slowly but surely encircling the recalcitrant guerrilla base. All loyal MK cadres were assembled to recapture the camp in order to restore order and to ensure that authority was reestablished. The campaign was to be led by Regional Commander Timothy Mokoena, real name Godfrey Ngwenya (aka “Bra T”), who was a firm commander of the Eastern Front in Malanje, and Lennox Lagu (aka “Mjojo Zuma”), a veteran of the Wankie and Sipolilo Campaigns, who later became the ANC Chief Representative in Mozambique (to be continued).

Sources:
Luli Callinicos, “Oliver Tambo and the Dilemma of the Camp Mutinies in Angola in the Eighties”, South African Historical Journal, Vol. 64 No. 3, 2012.
Stephen Ellis, “External Mission: The ANC in Exile”, Jonathan Ball, 2012.
James Ngculu, “The Honour to Serve: Recollections of an Umkhonto Soldier”, David Philip, 2009.
Paul Trewhela, “Inside Quatro: Uncovering the Exile History of the ANC and SWAPO”, Jacana, 2009.
Hugh Macmillan, “The Lusaka Years: The ANC in Exile in Zambia – 1963 to 1994”, Jacana, 2013.
Luli Callinicos, “Oliver Tambo: Beyond the Engeli Mountains”, David Philip, 2004.

Castro Khwela
Good evening fellow Compatriots!