Tambo Commemoration month: If OR was the President of South Africa only MK Veterans would be Cabinet Ministers

By Sakhile Khumalo

“Life turns bitchy when men with rifles fight for freedom only to be ruled by half-men in dark suits who never participated in a war - insatiable vultures ready to reap what they never sowed” – Ephraim Nomafu – Izazi Researcher…

Just imagine how OR would react if he came back to life today and found people in Parliament who never participated in the struggle for freedom

The names of the men who I am going to list here are MK soldiers, freedom-fighters, who died in the service of their country South Africa. I served with them and knew them personally, and can vouch for their bravery. The military pact between Joshua Nkomo’s ZAPU and the ANC obliged us to fight in present-day Zimbabwe, and free that country. These comrades died there, not in South Africa, and it seems to me everybody has either forgotten about them or never heard of them. We who survived to see Freedom Day have a duty to tell the nation and their relatives about them.

I will quote from a document of the African National Congress, ‘ANC Speaks’ wherein the names of these men are mentioned, to prove that I am not making up this story. On page 114 of ‘ANC Speaks’ it says:

‘The story of what came to be known as the Wankie Campaign would be incomplete without mentioning the comrades whose dauntlessness and courage will always be a source of inspiration to our people. These were:

1.  Delmas ‘Nsimbikayigobi’ Sibanyoni, a light machine-gunner who halted the advance of the Rhodesian African Rifles (RAR) platoon and never withdrew until his machine gun position was destroyed by a helicopter.
2. James Masimini, who though mortally wounded volunteered to cover the retreat of his comrades until he himself was killed by enemy fire.
3. Andries Motsepe the brave and energetic commander who tirelessly commanded his men, forcing the RAR to retreat under cover of darkness.
4. Charles Sishuba whose bravery was an inspiration to all the comrades.
5. Sparks Moloi, young and brave.
6. Nicholas Donda, powerful, tireless and ready to undertake any tough mission.
7. Robert Baloyi, machine-gunner, calm and determined.
8. Jack Simelane, that tower of strength, nimble and agile and always full of energy.
9. Paul Peterson, who single-handedly fought the Rhodesian Security Forces, refusing to surrender until he was killed.

On page 115 the ‘ANC Speaks’ has this to say: Among those who fell were:

1. Patrick Molaoa, former President of the African National Congress Youth League, and ex-Treason Trialist
2. Michael Pooe, who played an active role in MK activities in the Rand (formerly Johannesburg area)
3. Benson Nsele, affectionately known as the Commissar
4. David Molefe, who was a very young man when he joined and one of the longest serving members of MK

There are many others. Recently the President of South Africa, Comrade Jacob Zuma, went to Angola and visited the monument of those MK comrades who died in Angola fighting against UNITA and the South African Defence Force (SADF).

Others lie buried in Tanzania and Uganda. Why can we not bring them home to be buried?

We cannot speak about those who died in the Rhodesian and Angolan jungles in numerous battles we fought with them. Their bodies fed hyenas and other wild predators, and can therefore not be traced. The ANC needs to make this known to the Nation and their relatives. I will mention Alfred Sharp from Tshume in East London, Gandhi Hlekani from Cradock, Jacques Goniwe, Jimmy ‘Sigh No More’ Duncan Khoza from Durban and Mtawara, who cannot be traced to this day.

Where is Reggie ‘iBhungu’ Hlatshwayo, who died of tuberculosis in Khami Maximum Security Prison, and George Mothusi from E. London who also died in Khami? Has the Nation been told about these men? Have their families been informed about where, how and why they died? These are the forgotten men of the Revolution. Where is Stanley ‘Veza’ Tsotsi from Port Elizabeth who was cut in half by helicopter fire, but continued to fire at the enemy until the upper abdomen, separated completely from the lower abdomen, lost the power to pull the trigger?

The ANC has new heroes today, and the ones we mention here will have no place in the annals of our history because nobody remembers them. We cannot forget them, because we were with them in battle. We saw their courage and daring in the face of overwhelming enemy numbers and fire-power. We saw them stand resolutely with us against low-flying helicopter gun-ships and fighter-bombers. We repulsed, time and time again, the onslaughts of the formidable Rhodesian Light Infantry and the Rhodesian African Rifles. Yet, few know about them; they are forgotten.

I have seen the ones who survived all these battle hazards and imprisonment in foreign battle-fields and prison, and came back to South Africa. They are old, sick and they die of treatable illnesses like tuberculosis and high blood pressure because they have no medical aid. They live in shacks, and earn a meagre pension which does not last a month. Their children ask them why they are so poor when they struggled for so long? What can they say?

For the first time since 1994 people are hearing about a thing called Ministry of Defence and Military Veterans. Did the ANC not know that it has Military Veterans all along? Of course it did! Until Polokwane it was unofficial ANC policy to marginalize and ignore Veterans. Many died of this neglect, and our leaders did not come to their funerals. There was not a single ANC leader when we buried Oscar ‘Nikita’ Shabalala at Avalon Cemetery. He fought in our ranks in the Wankie Campaign, and came home to lead a life of grinding poverty and die a pauper’s death.

Freddie Mninzi is mentioned in the book I have quoted from; ANC Speaks’. We were together in Kongwa Camp in Tanzania. He fought on the Eastern Front in Rhodesia and became one of the very few survivors. We were together on Death Row in Her Majesty’s Salisbury Maximum Security Prison in Rhodesia. Our sentences were later commuted to life imprisonment. We were released on the same day, May 8th 1980, from Grey Prison in Bulawayo under President Robert Mugabe’s general amnesty. When we came out of prison, after 13 years of imprisonment, there was no one to meet us. We stood in the street, in a foreign city and a foreign country, and nobody was waiting for us.

That was when I took a decision to go back to school because I had a vision of what would happen to us Veterans when South Africa was free….we would be deserted by our own organization. That decision, to go back to school, saved me from the misery that comrades like Freddy Mninzi came back to South Africa to endure. When MK was being integrated into the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), Freddy Mninzi was given the rank of Sergeant, a battle-hardened veteran. He died in Khayelitsha recently, a broken-hearted veteran, abandoned and disillusioned.

This is our Roll Call, the citation of all the men and women who joined the ranks of MK and fought, who are today not mentioned anywhere when honours are given. Their spirit lives with us and we shall mention them every time people talk about how the country was liberated. How can we forget them? When medals are issued, they are accompanied by what is called a citation: ‘For actions in combat beyond and above the call of duty’. Surely, some of these men I have mentioned here, quoting an ANC document, engaged in combat actions beyond and above the call of duty.

Former President Jacob Zuma and MK War Veterans drilling the same way they used to drill in the military camps in exile

We are in government now, and every year the government makes a list of people it wishes to honour ‘for their contribution to the establishment of a democratic order’; I do not remember a single MK veteran, dead or alive, being included in such a list. MK was an army; it fought many battles inside and outside South Africa. 

Were there no heroes in this army? The men we saw firing automatic rifles at diving bombers do not qualify to be honoured? Why is the ANC so shy of honouring the men and women who fought and died to bring about a democratic order in South Africa? When we marched to battle in Rhodesia men of the Luthuli Detachment sang: "Mhla ebizwa amagama amaqhawe nam’ elami likhona" (When the Roll Call of the Heroes is called, my name will also be there). It was the least that these valiant men hoped for, not positions and tenders.

The late Martin Thembisile Chris Hani, MK Commander who led the Wankie Campaign in 1967

The Victors of World War II are marching in the Red Square in Moscow today, and the veterans who contributed to the defeat of Nazism are marching with the soldiers of the victorious armies. In South Africa Veterans dare not march when victory over Apartheid is being celebrated. In Zimbabwe, where a titanic military struggle was fought to overthrow white colonialism, no Veterans are buried at Heroes Acre. You need to have died a Minister to be buried at the Heroes Acre, even if you never came within a mile of where the fighting took place. In our country too, only Ministers, Premiers and other dignitaries are given State Funerals.

We joined the ANC and MK when it was perilous to become a member of either organization. We fought all the MK battles and earned the title of Veteran. Today, all it takes to become a member of the ANC is to pay R20. Then you can participate in the fight for positions and tenders, and you can bring disrepute to the ANC by indulging in corruption. That is what we Veterans see today, and we wonder whether this organization, which have celebrated a century of existence, will survive the next twenty years with such a cadreship. 

"Though we no longer are that force which in the olden days moved heaven and earth
That which we are, we are
One equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate
But still strong in will to strive, to seek, to find…and not to yield”. - Lord Macaulay

*Note from the writer: The views expressed in this article are mine; except for quotes from the ANC Speaks