Three Senior ANC Cadres Arrested in Swaziland

Three Senior ANC Cadres Arrested in Swaziland

Fifty years ago, on 22 March 1976, Jacob Zuma and Albert Dhlomo were arrested in Manzini, Swaziland, and were found with ammunition and a military educative drawing. The following day, when Thabo Mbeki was apprehended on the roadside from Mozambique to Manzini, he did not know that Zuma and Dhlomo had been arrested. Officially, Mbeki and Dhlomo were representatives of the African National Congress (ANC) in Swaziland and were declared to be not connected with the military wing, whereas Jacob Zuma was illegally visiting Swaziland, as he was running the ANC underground machinery in Natal.

This was Mbeki’s first assignments in which he was sent to Swaziland to become the Acting Head of the ANC mission there. One of his main tasks was to brief new exiles and to help build up the ANC’s structures in the frontline. Thabo Mbeki completed his bachelor’s degree in economics in Sussex University in May 1965 but, at the exhortation of ANC Deputy President OR Tambo, enrolled for a master’s in economics and development instead of returning to Africa to join Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the ANC’s armed wing.

He then completed his master’s degree in October 1966 and moved to London to work full-time for the Propaganda Section of the ANC’s United Kingdom headquarters. He thereafter, in February 1969, was sent to Moscow in the Soviet Union to receive Marxist-Leninist political and ideological training, with the last part of his training including military training.

Dhlomo had left the country in 1972, following years of repeated arrests on Robben Island for Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) activities since the early 1960s, to study Politics and Economics at the University of Exeter in Devon, in the United Kingdom. He proceeded to the University of Middlesex in London where he obtained a master’s degree in politics and economics. In 1975 Dlomo resumed working for the ANC with Thabo Mbeki in exile underground in Swaziland to facilitate the movement of ANC guerrillas between South Africa and Swaziland.

Zuma began engaging in the anti-apartheid struggle at an early age and joined the ANC in 1959. He became an active member of MK in 1962, two years after the ANC was banned. In the same year, Zuma was arrested with a group of 45 recruits near Zeerust, in the western Transvaal and was convicted and sentenced to ten years imprisonment, which he served on Robben Island. After his release from prison, Zuma got involved in the re-establishment of ANC underground structures in Natal. He left South Africa in 1975 and was initially based in Swaziland, where he was moving in and out of the country to strengthen the underground structures.

During this time of their arrest, Mbeki, Dhlomo and Zuma were in serious trouble, as they faced deportation to South Africa, which could mean a certain trial, imprisonment and possibly even death.

It all began on the morning of 22 March 1976, when three Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) recruits, Sipho Makhubo, Jabulani Mdluli and Sibongiseni Vilakazi escaped from the safe house in Fairview, Manzini, Swaziland, to the nearest police station. They reported their story and demanded to be deported back to South Africa. They had left two African National Congress (ANC) operatives, Jacob Zuma and Albert Dhlomo, sleeping at the safe house.

When the police made two visits to the safe house, they didn’t find anybody there. However, they decided to wait, and later they saw Jacob Zuma approaching, and they arrested him. Later that afternoon, Albert Dhlomo was also arrested when he was approaching the safe house in another direction. The following day, Thabo Mbeki was arrested on the roadside between Manzini and the Mozambique border, where he had gone to expedite the withdrawal of Makhubo, Mdluli and Vilakazi to Maputo to be interrogated by ANC security.

The three recruits were part of a group of seven, also including Sipho Chiliza, Bheki Miya, Bafana Khuzwayo and Sifiso Mpanza, who had been brought to Swaziland by Samson Lukhele, following arrangements between Jacob Zuma and Joseph “Mkhuthuzi” Mdluli. Samson Lukhele had transported them to the border near Piet Retief in his maroon and white Volkswagen Combi, where they were collected by Zuma and Joseph Nduli. They crossed the border early in the evening on 18 March into Swaziland and were transferred to Fairview, about four kilometres out from the Manzini city centre.

The whole debacle led back to Durban, where the seven recruits were converted into being police agents and had managed to get themselves recruited into the ranks of the ANC. Smelling a rat, Zuma had decided the new recruits needed to be taken to Mozambique to undergo security vetting, and Mbeki had gone to the border to fast-track the process.

Following their escape from the safe house, the three recruits caused serious damage to the underground project: their intelligence led to the arrest and subsequent murder of Joseph “Mkhuthuzi” Mdluli; the arrest and detention of Mbeki, Dhlomo and Zuma that had serious consequences; the arrest and detention of their courier, Samson Lukhele; and the cross-border kidnapping, brutal torture and imprisonment of Joseph Mpisi Nduli and Cleophas “Gash” Ndlovu, who were MK operatives based in Swaziland.

As soon as he heard of the arrests, ANC President, Oliver Tambo, dispatched Moses Mabhida and Thomas Nkobi to Swaziland to find out what had gone wrong. King Sobhuza II met Tambo’s emissaries with a complaint, as to why the ANC had sent “young boys” such as Mbeki, who were “hotheads intent on a bloodbath with South Africa”.

A deal was ultimately struck that Swaziland will grant the ANC official status, with Moses Mabhida as Chief Representative, and the three prisoners were to be deported to a friendly African country. A month after their arrest, Thabo Mbeki, Albert Dhlomo and Jacob Zuma were escorted across the border into the newly independent Mozambique.

Sources:
Wikipedia.
South African History Online (SAHO).
Mark Gevisser, “Thabo Mbeki: A Dream Deferred”, Jonathan Ball, 2007.
Thula Simpson, “Umkhonto we Sizwe: The ANC’s Armed Struggle”, Penguin, 2016.
Dennis Abrams, “Modern World Leaders: Thabo Mbeki”, Chelsea House, 2008.
Adekeye Adebajo, “Thabo Mbeki: Africa’s Philosopher-King”, Jacana, 2016.

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