Thenjiwe Mtintso Interview
What Chris Hani contributed to the ANC's victory
"For the wretched of the earth, the 90 percent of
humanity
living in capitalist society,
socialism is the only answer, history has not ended . .
.
we will mold a new,
just society."
(Chris Hani, Pyongyang,
Korea, April 16, 1992)
Chris Hani was the chief of staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe
(MK), the armed wing of the African National Congress. He
fought for 25 years in southern African liberation struggles,
from Zimbabwe to Angola. He also built the ANC underground in
South Africa
After receiving the highest vote after Nelson Mandela on the
ANC executive at its first legal congress in 1991, he stepped
down from his ANC responsibilities to become General Secretary
of the South African Communist Party, part of the "Tripartite
Alliance" in the liberation movement with the ANC and the
Congress of South African Trade Unions.
"The armed struggle has brought about the present crisis of
apartheid," he wrote when he returned to South Africa in
triumph. In 1993, the apartheid system lashed out in defeat to
assassinate Hani, one of the principle architects of the
victory, in order to stem its losses and sabotage the
settlement for ending apartheid. The apartheid system blamed
Hani--more than any other
single individual--for its demise.
Key Martin and Gloria Rubac interviewed Thenjiwe Mtintso,
also an MK commander, about Hani. Mtintso is now the deputy
secretary general of the ANC, the highest ranking woman in that
organization, and a member of the SACP's central committee. She
spoke in Houston during a tour organized by the National
Lawyers Guild. This interview is part of a series being
conducted by the Peoples Video Network for the upcoming
documentary "Hani."
MTINTSO: Chris was not, in my view, your local or
national leader. I think he had the potential to develop into
an international leader of acclaim. And his stature in South
Africa was that.
I first met Chris in Lesotho when I went into exile. I was
an activist in the Black Consciousness Movement. It was only
when I met Chris that I began to understand who I was.
He had a better understanding of "Black Consciousness,"
which I thought I was a product of, than I had. It was the
first time that I was introduced seriously to the notions of
socialism and communism. It was not just in the theoretical
sense but in giving meaning to my own life as a worker.
In the Black Consciousness Movement we believed "you are
Black first, before you are anything," so there wasn't a class
content, there wasn't a gender content. After meeting Hani, I
began to understand the relationship between class, race and
gender.
The MK combatants came to rely on Chris to give the
revolution leadership that was unwavering. Much as he was our
commander, he was with us, whether it was in your camps, or
your forward areas. You found Chris everywhere. He was one
leader that you were quite sure you could find if you needed
him.
The people of South Africa identified with the Angolan
struggle, the struggle in Namibia and the struggle in Zimbabwe.
There was an alliance between MPLA, ZIPRA, Umkhonto we Sizwe,
and Frelimo. Our own combatants fought side by side with FAPLA
forces in Angola.
Chris was in the trenches with his cadres. This is what gave
us the momentum to go on.
Cuito Carnavale [in Angola] was the last battle and one of
our best moments. And it was with the Cubans. You would have
thought it was MK's victory. That's the kind of solidarity we
had with these fighting forces. And Chris's own role as MK
commander was to pull us together.
You must also remember that some of the cadres in the MK and
the ANC were quite young, so the political school was in the
camps themselves and our political commissar was Chris himself,
giving politics and meaning to what we were doing.
I was reading his work on "why I joined the Communist
Party," and he explained it was because he "had no choice,
there was no other way." He gave his life story, where he came
from, how he used to fetch water, how he used to watch his
mother suffer. He said, "I couldn't find any other way except
to change the life of my mother, of those around me."
For women comrades generally, the relationship between
class, race and gender was articulated clearly, even in his
behavior. You find there are comrades who bow to the question
of gender equality but in terms of their own behavior are quite
different.
On a theoretical level he led us to understand the question
of gender oppression, class exploitation, and racial
discrimination. The respect of all cadres, men or women, was
there, the giving of opportunity to all of us equally. He gave
me responsibility. He treated me equally, but recognizing the
fact that women were disadvantaged, and acting in a way that
would actually show you that he understands that struggle.
He had risen to such stature that his death was not only a
blow to the revolutionaries within the ANC, the Alliance, SACP,
MK, but hit the whole country. Our own view is that it was a
well-planned plot. You had this low-intensity warfare that was
going on and this projection of what Chris stood for, building
up these emotions against communism in general, and against
Chris Hani in particular.
This buildup didn't only come from the internal forces. The
West was projecting Chris as that, whether it was the American
press, the British press, or the CIA kind of things that would
be said about Chris, it generated this anti-Hani phobia.
[Among] the Nationalist Party [that ran the apartheid regime
for decades] and the right wingers there was a concerted effort
to project Chris in a particular way, that whoever killed Chris
shall have done society "a favor." Whoever killed Chris
physically was actually fulfilling a bigger and broader mission
set by other forces.
Therefore you cannot look at Clive Derby-Lewis and Janusz
Walus and just say they are the killers. There are killers that
are still roaming loose who are responsible for Chris Hani's
death.
Unfortunately the Truth and Reconciliation Commission didn't
expose who exactly were involved in terms of the organizations,
groupings, and individuals. This is why we were happy that
Lewis and Walus didn't get the amnesty because they didn't tell
all. And the Nationalist Party still has to tell us about its
own role.
At the same time that Chris Hani was being projected as a
"terrorist," he was talking about the need for a negotiated
settlement. A few years earlier I was in the camps in Uganda. I
was one of the commanders. We were against the negotiations. We
were convinced it was a sell-out.
Hani was able to explain, just like he explained the
relationship between the political struggle and the armed
struggle in years earlier, that the armed struggle was part of
the whole, and therefore the negotiations also are part of the
whole. That is very Chris Hani.
It didn't matter what Chris was saying, they had to "root
out" this Communist. These attacks against some of our leaders
are a targeted effort against the Communists and the "danger"
they are considered to be to the ANC. Countries like the U.S.
would say, "When are you getting rid of these Communists?"
The Alliance is ever questioned because of the fear of the
influence of the Communist party on the ANC. The regime, or
whoever was behind the assassination, thought they were
snuffing out an idea, they were snuffing out an ideology, they
were snuffing Communists, by killing Chris.
Chris was very popular in the liberation movement. He was
everywhere with us. I don't think that by the time he died
there was one corner of the country that he had not
touched.
If there ever was one sad moment it was when that
announcement came on the radio. Soweto burst. That very day
people were in the streets, demonstrating, crying, toytoying.
It was a simultaneous, spontaneous coming out. There was anger,
there was sadness, there was fear. There were these feelings
that we need to do something here and now to avenge Chris's
death. And yet if we were to try to do anything in venting our
anger we were playing into the agenda of those trying to
undermine our revolution.
We didn't need to organize buses for the funeral. People
came. People came a full day before the funeral. By evening of
the day before that stadium was full, full, full to capacity.
People were so disciplined, expressed their anger, their
solidarity, their commitment to continue the struggle.
Chris was very powerful. I still have never gotten over his
death. At a personal level, I have never dealt with that. He
was not that kind of leader that stood there and said, "I am
the leader." You just experienced his leadership. He had a very
rare style of leadership, and if more of us could emulate that
quality, our liberation movement could go very, very far.
Because Chris is a figure that is quite fresh in our young
people's minds, we are able to draw a lot of examples from his
teachings.
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