Statement by the ANC on the expulsion of a Conspiratorial Clique

11 December 19751

A small discredited conspiratorial group of dissidents, some of them formerly active in the African National Congress, and other splinter movements, have recently intensified their campaign of lies, slander and malicious distortions intended to cause disruption within the ranks of the African National Congress and create confusion and demoralisation among the oppressed people of South Africa and the world public.

Determined, at all costs, to attract public attention to themselves, they deliberately conspired to use the name of the late Robert Resha and the solemn ceremonies connected with his death and the unveiling of his tombstone for an outright and unprecedented attack on the African National Congress of South Africa, its policies and its leadership. The attack was carried under cover of a booklet ostensibly published in memory of the late Robert Resha. This action was the culmination of a persistent and prolonged treacherous and subversive campaign by some of the ringleaders of this faction.

The overwhelming majority of the members of the African National Congress of South Africa have, for a little less than a decade, been aware of the activities of some of the leaders of this faction, their arrogant defiance of decisions of the movement as well as their clandestine and futile attempts to discredit the organisation and its leadership.

Every effort was made to try and persuade these ringleaders to desist from their acts of subverting the struggle but the tolerance and constructive approach of the movement was mistaken for weakness on its part and rewarded by these conspirators by an intensification on their part of attempts to sow division and confusion.

The mature silence of the organisation in public about the activities of the clique apparently made them shout their slanders louder and louder, and publish and distribute documents which challenged the very basis of the policies and decisions of our organisation. In fact from their clandestine meetings, mainly confined in the U.K., they proceeded to create an organized clique with a constitution contrary to the principles and policies of the ANC of South Africa.

It was clear that what the faction tried to exploit as a London or U.K. problem arising from the decisions of the 1969 Morogoro Conference was a mere subterfuge for their activities against the ANC as a whole, its policies and its leadership of the revolution in South Africa against the fascists and their allies.

Whilst proclaiming loyalty to the principles of the ANC they were in fact propagating by example, deeds, and words reckless defiance of the decisions and instructions of the organisation.

This is not surprising, two of the ringleaders of the faction, Ambrose Makiwane and Alfred Kgokong Mqota were suspended from the National Executive Committee for 6 months in 1969 for their factional and disruptive activities and for defiance of the instructions of the organisation. They never abandoned their subversive campaign.

The roots of this clique therefore existed before the Morogoro Conference in 1969.

Consistent with their plan of sowing disloyalty and defiance among the members of the ANC, the group decided on a campaign of not participating in the work of the African National Congress in the U.K. Their intention was to create a superficial crisis and stalemate which is so eloquently stated in their treacherous constitution.

When any person seriously and sincerely joins an organisation, particularly a national liberation organisation like the African National Congress of South Africa charged with leading the struggle against the fascist-racists and imperialists who plunder our country, he joins to PARTICIPATE in the struggle as a member of the organisation.

Disloyalty

Because of the heavy sacrifices involved, imprisonment, arrest, torture, etc., nobody at any time has ever been compelled or conscripted into joining a revolutionary struggle. To say you are a member of an organisation but you do not want to participate in its activities is the height of disloyalty and dishonesty.

There are no sleeping partners in a national liberation struggle, history has proved this over and over again. As a member of the organisation there are basic rights and basic duties, the two are inextricably bound together.

One of the rights is to take part, within the channels and platforms of the organisation in the formulation of policy and decisions for the common objective, - the defeat of the enemy. One of the basic duties of any member is to carry out these decisions irrespective of whether he agrees with them or not, until such time that they are changed by the organisation - this is what DISCIPLINE means, and this is democracy in practice.

Members of this faction who boast that they were not participating in the activities of the ANC yet were loudly claiming to be members, in what were they participating, under whose discipline were they? Once more, the activities, composition, statements and documents of this clique answer these questions clearly. They were basically anti-African National Congress of South Africa and its allies and anti-the South African Communist Party`s members participating in the ANC.

These questions are not new to the ANC of South Africa and in due course we shall answer the questions as to who benefits by the emergence of a clique based on the slogans of racialism, anti-ANC and anti-Communism.

Let it be made abundantly clear that the policies of racialism and anti-communism have been and still are diametrically opposed to the policies, traditions and practices of the African National Congress of South Africa. Pieces of legislation of the racist regime of South Africa like the Suppression of Communism Act was not only vigorously opposed by the ANC in 1950 but it never in any way deterred or changed the policy of the ANC regarding communism or its communist members and leaders. There certainly will never be an endorsement of the suppression of communists within the ANC.

Indeed the lengthy Treason Trial involving people of all racial groups in our country charged with a communist-inspired conspiracy based on the Freedom Charter to overthrow the fascist Government did not in any way result in a call for the review of the ANC`s policies. On the contrary it fortified these policies. The abusive word that the ANC has become a "front" of the communists is a word borrowed by the clique from the most reactionary sources and enemies of our people inside and outside the country. It will continue to be used by those who try to discredit the ANC and subvert the struggle of our people.

What is even more treacherous is that this campaign has as an objective the isolation of the ANC from its natural and dedicated allies inside the country and throughout the world. This campaign is being carried out against the ANC of South Africa which, in its struggle, has to face a concentration of imperialist power greater than anywhere else on the African continent.

It now becomes clear why the behaviour and activities of the Mqota-Makiwane group has received wide and thorough coverage in the South African and imperialist press. The enemy press and radio have blown the so-called `divisions` in the ANC out of all imaginable proportions for their own propaganda ends.

The oppressor regime of Vorster has always tried to split the National Liberation Movement on ideological and other grounds - using as its main instrument the weapon of anti-communism, racial prejudice, black chauvinism and tribalism.

Added to that, the enemy press has seized the emergence of this faction for sowing the seeds of pessimism and lack of confidence among the liberation ranks and the people in the victory of the South African revolution. Indeed the emergence of this group has been welcome to the enemy especially at this stage of the development of our struggle because it also has the effect of diverting the attention and energies of the people from their main task - the prosecution of the revolution.

In all revolutions, defeated and counterrevolutionary elements resort to the Mqota-Makiwane method, and ultimately club together with the enemy. For example, it has already leaked out that this "ultra black" faction has made contacts with the Bantustan leaders with the aim of going back and working under the Bantustan leaders. They are already attacking what they call "non-Africans", and are indirectly portraying themselves as the Bantus - a concept that is in full accord with the enemy`s policies.

Resolute Action

In all revolutionary movements, such trends and tendencies sooner or later fall prey to the manipulations and intrigues of international imperialism and its agencies. What is taking place now in Angola has made it abundantly clear whose interests the counterrevolutionary and neo-colonial forces in that country are serving. It is precisely for this reason that the MPLA, the true spokesman and defender of the true interests of the broad masses of Angola is being bombarded and attacked on all fronts by reactionary and imperialist forces. We do not expect the South Africa Revolution to be an exception to such stages of development because they occur in all revolutions. What is needed is vigilance, firmness, and resolute action against such manifestations before they take firm roots and cause serious harm to the cause of the revolution.

The policies of `divide and rule` have always been and are still being used by all oppressor regimes and imperialist circles.

In South Africa, as a matter of state policy, the white supremacists have also sought to give the Coloured and Indian people a stake in white domination by allowing them some preferential treatment as well as injecting them with notions of superiority over the African people.

This was destined to prepare a basis for the recruitment of Coloured and Indian people to the side of the White supremacists, should the need arise, as it inevitably will, when the White oppressor nation alone can no longer withstand the onslaught of the oppressed masses.

It is therefore natural that such a society, based on racial privilege and exclusiveness should give birth to feelings of hostility on the part of the most oppressed and the most exploited section of the population, the African majority, towards all privileged sections of the population.

Vanguard

The ANC, as a vanguard organisation, the mobiliser, organiser and guide of our people, has had to contend with this situation for decades.

It has approached it in both a serious-minded and revolutionary manner. It has recognised the need and worked for the strongest possible revolutionary links among all the black oppressed people, for the isolation of the white oppressor nation. This is a principal task to which, to this day, the ANC pays and needs must pay maximum attention. It is not and can never be a revolutionary approach to seek to isolate ourselves from any actual or potential allies in the struggle for the liberation of our country. This is particularly so with respect to other nationalities in South Africa who are themselves oppressed, whatever slight privileges they may enjoy at the enemy`s pleasure.

As a serious-minded, revolutionary organisation, the ANC further does not believe that the unity of the whole white population as an oppressor nation is either natural or permanent. Neither does the ANC believe that unity is both forced and transient. As the struggle intensifies, the correctness of this position will be amply demonstrated.

For us, now, it remains a constant task to win over to our side all those whites who recognise the injustice of extreme national oppression in our country and are prepared to fight for its destruction, however primitive the level of that recognition and however timid that preparedness. It can never be a revolutionary approach on our part to seek to increase the cohesion and to raise the level of unity of the enemy. It is a revolutionary approach, rather, to seek to divide him, to win over to our side whatever sections are prepared to come over to us, to neutralise those that we can and to fight the rest without giving in an inch until we emerge victorious over them; until we impose democracy and liberation over the diehard forces of racism and reaction.

In its organisational work, the ANC observes the principle of democratic centralism, taking into account the conditions imposed by the exigencies of underground work. This principle requires, among other things, that once policy has been decided, the minority must abide by the decisions adopted on the basis of the views of the majority. It also recognises the subordination of lower organs to the higher, - in our case, the subordination of other organs to the National Executive Committee. It further recognises the right and duty of all members at periodic intervals to participate in the review of work and formulation of policy.

Yet under the guise of "restoring internal democracy" in the ANC, the anti-ANC clique constituted itself as an independent organisation within the ANC, and refused to subordinate itself to the decisions or to recognise the authority of the ANC.

Conferences Held

Over the last 10 years, the National Executive Committee of the ANC has sought and obtained the guidance of the broad membership through conferences attended by delegates drawn from all levels of the organisation and reflecting different shades of opinion on issues affecting the struggle.

Members of the Mqota-Makiwane clique have either participated in, or if they did not, voluntarily stayed away from these conferences. Invariably, however, these meetings were a great success and the resolutions were unanimously adopted.

This has enraged the Mqota-Makiwane clique to such an extent that it has begun to denounce these meetings as "bogus conferences". This, of course, was to be expected as these conferences consistently re-affirmed the political and organisational unity of the ANC that accounts therefore for the alacrity with which Radio South Africa sprang to the defence of this clique.

The ring leaders of the faction were each called upon to denounce the treacherous activities in which they participated or to face expulsion from the organisation. Alfred Kgokong Mqoto, George Mbele, Ambrose Makiwane, Jonas Motlou, Tennyson Makiwane, O. K. Setlapelo, Pascal Ngakane, and Thami Bongo have categorically and arrogantly refused to denounce their counterrevolutionary activities and are now busy intensifying their anti-ANC activities.

The National Executive Committee of the ANC hereby declares that these traitors stand expelled from the African National Congress of South Africa.

Alfred Nzo,
Secretary General
African National Congress (S.A.) P.O. Box 680
Morogoro, TANZANIA