Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2015 13:06:59 +0000
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Subject: [New post] OPERATION ALIAS STILSTAND & THUNDERSTORM CRIPPLED THE
PEOPLES PARTY!!!
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Mayihlome News posted: "On the morning of
Tuesday 25 May 1993 – thirty years since the Organisation of African Unity
(OAU) was launched in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – the homes and offices of the Pan
Africanist Congress (PAC) of Azania were raided and more than eighty leaders
were d"
New post on mayihlomenews.co.za
OPERATION ALIAS STILSTAND & THUNDERSTORM CRIPPLED THE PEOPLES PARTY!!!
by Mayihlome News
On the morning of Tuesday 25 May 1993 –
thirty years since the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was launched in
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – the homes and offices of the Pan Africanist Congress
(PAC) of Azania were raided and more than eighty leaders were detained under
Section 29 of the Internal Security Act. Party documents and computers on a
countrywide basis were confiscated by the security police. Alias
The swoop on the PAC leadership at national level, in the provinces and
regions, and in the local branches, brought the negotiation process held at the
World Trade Centre in Kempton Park to a halt, and almost ruined the new
political dispensation for South Africa. The PAC had been singled out by the
top organs of the South African Police, covert intelligence agencies and the SA
Defence Force, as a clear and present threat to the envisaged outcomes of a
negotiated settlement.
The securocrats, as the opposing newspapers called them, unleashed a
combination of kragdadige (brute) force and recruitment of saboteurs, to bring
the PAC to its knees and hopefully crush it into smithereens. The security
branch police named their strategy Operation Stilstand, and the military
intelligence called theirs Operation Thunderstorm. The National Party cabinet
led by FW De Klerk, a man said to have integrity, claimed this was a routine
police operation. He also said he had not authorised the swoop on the PAC
leadership. His propagandists also let out the yarn that hawks in their midst
were doing things on their own. The doves, represented by Roelf Meyer and
Dawid de Villiers, were incredulous, or shamming it, in the face of journalists
and diplomats.
The conspiracy indications clearly pointed to the National Party and its fellow
travellers needing to erode the support of the PAC by crippling its popularity
ahead of the final preparations for general elections that the Negotiation
Council was seriously considering. The Multi Party Negotiations Forum, or
CODESA as it was popularly known, decided on a single agenda item to deliberate
on for the twenty six political entities represented in the Negotiations
Council. Chris Hani, secretary general of the SA Communist Party, had been
brutally murdered by right-wing assassins on 10 April 1993, and the Azanian
masses had now become fed up with the filibustering tactics employed by the
enemies of change to delay the final outcomes of negotiations.
Right-wing political parties and bantustan authorities formed themselves into
the Concerned South African Group (COSAG’), to stall the process and maintain
the status quo. These were the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), Conservative
Party, Afrikaner Volksunie, and the Ciskei and Bophuthatswana ruling parties.
They stood to lose the most.
Coming in from the cold, the PAC was warming up to the broad public as a true
custodian of their best interests. It’s proximity to the masses - through its
legitimate support structures internally and indirect platforms in the open
public forums – always provided an alternative agency to the established
authorities. From February 1990 when it was unbanned, it was growing its
support base in leaps and bounds.
Polls conducted by Markinor in May 1992 and Research Survey in March 1993 found
that the PAC was poised to emerge as the single most powerful electoral force –
behind the African National Congress. A country-wide poll by the Human Sciences
Research Council (HSRC)suggested that the PAC was on the rise in potential
voter support. Independent academic researchers confirmed in their findings
that the PAC was the second most popular political party in South Africa.
The PAC leadership applied a strategy of talking and fighting. The country’s
future could not be discussed without the Party’s input, and the Azanian masses
could not be killed like flies while APLA stood idly by. The bullet would only
be abandoned when the ballot was secured. The government of the day was
frustrated by this approach. They campaigned to kick the PAC delegation out of
the negotiations forum unless they signed a declaration to foreswear violence.
The PAC made a distinction between reactionary violence that destabilised
township communities with a clear hand of the state machinery behind it, and
revolutionary defence against state sponsored violence.
When Chris Hani was brutally murdered by a right-wing assassin at his Dawn
Park, Boksburg, home on 10 April 1993, the country descended into a very
serious turmoil. The PAC option seemed favourable.
This turn of events had become a worst case scenario for the National Party and
their Western backers, who envisaged a power sharing model to protect and
preserve the last bastion of settler-colonialism in Africa.
The regional commissioner of police on the East Rand, Lieutenant General Koos
Calitz, took a surveillance trip by helicopter over townships in the area
around 13:45 on Monday 24 May 1993. The SAP chopper was shot at by guerrilla
operatives in the Kathorus townships, and it started losing fuel rapidly with
possibilities of crashing down. The skillful and experienced pilot, Captain
McClay, took it out of the danger area, flying low until he safely landed at
the nearby Rand Airport in Germiston.
This incident got the ire of the generals in the securocrat. One of them
nearly died, and they blew their top. The Minister of Law and Order, Hernus
Kriel, complained of increasing radicalism on the left. The left in the
liberation movement was the PAC.
The next morning at exactly 02:00, more than 200 homes of members of the PAC
were raided in a countrywide swoop by the police and military intelligence
officials. They also raided the National African Council of Trade Unions
(NACTU) offices in Potchefstroom and Durban, and detained its Secretary
General, Cunningham Ngcukana, and some leaders of affiliate unions, including
Sithembele Khala of the Media Workers Association of South Africa (MWASA) and
Elias Maila of the Food and Beverage Workers Union (FBWU).
The PAC announced that almost 60% of its national executive council members
were detained under Section 29 of the Internal Security Act. Those arrested
included national organiser, Maxwell Nemadzivhanani; secretary for political
affairs, Jaki Seroke; secretary for environmental affairs, Dr Solly Skosana;
secretary for finance, Thomson Gazo; secretary for religious affairs, Mike
Sello Matsobane; publicity director, Waters Toboti; and, chief of staff in the
president’s office, Enoch Zulu. The head of the PAC’s task force, Abel Sgubhu
Dube, was also detained.
Kriel told a parliamentary session that day that 73 PAC and Azanian Peoples
Liberation Army (APLA) cadres were detained, including seven top structure
members. The commissioner of police, Lt General Johan Van Der Merwe said they
would lay criminal charges against some of the detainees. They however faced a
backlash from their critics who saw the significant impact the raid had on the
ongoing negotiations.
The securocrats had also gone on to detain their negotiating counterparts –
Nemadzivhanani and Seroke - in one on one government-to-party talks on the
cessation of hostilities between APLA and the security forces. Seroke was also
a PAC delegate at the Negotiations Council.
The police detained a wheel-chair bound paraplegic. One of the detainees was
taken while on heavy influenza medication. Another was eight and half month
pregnant. A few youngsters were below sixteen years of age. Even though press
reports said a detainee died during the PAC raid, it was not supported with
clear evidence.
SAP spokesperson, Col Johan Mostert said the detainees faced charges of murder,
unlawful possession of explosives, and possession of unlicensed firearms.
It was not possible to give a credible reason for the attack on a legitimate
political organisation that was engaging the government, in concert with other
parties, to resolve the national question in South Africa. Civil society
movements who looked askance at the PAC’s stance on armed struggle began to
question the sincerity of their own pacifist approach. The townships in the
East Rand had become the killing fields, and Natal and Kwa Zulu townships and
villages were a bloodbath and no-go area for contending political
organisations. The National Party leadership was itself talking and conducting
low intensity warfare against the African people.
Sabelo Phama, PAC secretary for defence and APLA commander, stated that “APLA
would not be taking the detention of PAC leaders and cadres lightly ... and
warn the settler regime that any assault, torture and death in detention of any
of them will result in very serious consequences.”
The field commissar of APLA, Vuma Ntikinca, said “APLA couldn’t guarantee the
safety of those who stood by the side of the settler regime.”
Influential newspaper columnist, Allister Sparks, described the swoop on the
PAC as “a fishing expedition in the hope of catching something that would
justify the raid on criminal grounds”.
Cyril Ramaphosa, chief negotiator of the African National Congress, suspended
the negotiation sessions and called for a Negotiation Council meeting on
Thursday 27 May to focus on Kriel’s supposed misbehaviour.
Nelson Mandela stated at a press conference, after meeting with the secretary
general of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyauko, that “we’ve been negotiating
since ’86 and we’ve had countless problems (such as this) since then. The
democratic process will be strong enough to overcome the problem.”
The securocrat generals and their political leadership, as represented by
National Party cabinet member Hernus Kriel, were under heavy fire for their
unintended consequence of placing the negotiations for a political settlement
in danger. They back-pedalled and to save face declared their intention to
charge some members of the detained PAC leadership with contravention of the
Firearms Act. After the night-long session of the 26 party Negotiation Council
at the World Trade Centre, it was resolved that:
• Mofihli Likotsi, Toboti and Dr Skosana would be released immediately
• Seroke will be charged with possessing an unlicensed firearm.
• Further investigations would be made on Zulu, Nemadzivhanani and Dube.
• Sixty two PAC members would be released without charges.
• Nineteen members would be charged with offences like murder and
unlawful possession of ammunition.
• The rest would be released after questioning.
• A PAC delegation – represented by Gora Ibrahim, Bennie Alexander,
Willie Seriti and Patricia de Lille - would engage the National Party and
government to sort out outstanding matters between themselves.
The “sufficient consensus” principle, adopted to gain critical mass and popular
approval to sustain the negotiations, was used to placate the PAC and persuade
it to return and participate in the Negotiation Council where an interim
constitution had already been agreed upon.
On 3 June 1993, the Negotiation Council agreed to hold general elections on 27
April 1994. The date was proposed by the ANC, and seconded and endorsed by the
PAC.
The criminal charges for unlawful possession of firearms against Seroke and
Nemadzivhanani, and a case of murder - allegedly committed in 1977 in the
village of Ingwavuma in Kwa Zulu - against Enoch Zulu, were all dismissed by
the courts.
The negative outcomes of the police raid on the Pan Africanist Congress of
Azania exposed the poor planning and incompetence of the SADF military
intelligence, the national intelligence service, and the front end security
branch of the SAP. It was no longer possible, according to a military
intelligence spokesperson, to try the PAC leadership with treason charges. The
botched plan meant they had to go to Plan B – destroying the PAC from within.
Sowetan newspaper’s investigations editor, Mathatha Tsedu, reported on a
German-based observer of military intelligence and spying activities editorial
comment on the swoop.
Michael Opperskalki, editor of Top Secret journal, said the swoop was part of
an exercise code-named Operation Thunderstorm. The operation was aimed at
destabilising the PAC – and other like-minded organisations - in the interest
of conserving white supremacy.
It was aimed at creating divisions within the PAC and driving a wedge among the
various political tendencies in the party, while isolating the revolutionaries
from the moderates and conservative elements. It was a carrot and stick grand
strategy to weaken and sabotage the rise of the PAC during the transition
period.
The detention of the PAC leadership was a ploy to persuade the liberation
movement to suspend armed struggle, and thereby create a position that would
engulf the Party in protracted arguments among its own membership that would
weaken and even split it into chaotic groupings.
According to Opperskalkis, “militants within the PAC and APLA [and in the ANC,
uMkhonto we Sizwe, and SA Communist Party] would be targeted for smear
campaigns, detentions and eventual assassinations.”
The killing of Chris Hani was part of the operation. They used right-wing
organisations to conceal the involvement of the SADF military intelligence. On
the day of Hani’s assassination, an anonymous caller to Radio 702 claimed it
was an APLA operation. However, a white woman eyewitness in the neighbourhood
had immediately called the SAP 10111 police response unit with details of the
killer and the car registrations. Janus Waluz, a Polish immigrant, was
arrested with a Z88 pistol not far from the scene of crime. The APLA
involvement was dismissed for the lie it really was.
Operation Thunderstorm was designed to debilitate the firm resolve of patriots
of the national liberation struggle to fight to the end, and to have these
patriots, out of self-preservation, being concerned with their own survival.
The National Party later announced a new spokesperson for their 1994 general
election campaign, in the person of “former PAC firebrand” David Chuenyane.
Control and management of the crisis slipped out of the hands of the leadership
at a very crucial moment in its history, and engineered anarchy was let loose
within the PAC. The vitals of the PAC were being dismembered bit by bit as
preparations for the elections were going on. The PAC began haemorrhaging and
experiencing internal power fights - by elements whose agent provocateur agenda
stems from the 25 May 1993 dawn raid on the PAC. Sabelo Phama had said that
“some people are saying they are going to parliament [no matter what]. Even if
it is in the kitchen of the parliament. They say it is better than being
outside.” Phama himself died in a dubious car crash on the treacherous roads of
Tanzania on 9 February 1994, in circumstances almost similar to the death on
the road in Mozambique on 26 December 1979 of the commander of ZANLA forces,
Josiah Magama Tongogara.
On the other hand, the African National Congress dominated the liberation
movement space. They were funded heavily by the Scandinavian countries to
campaign effectively, and went on to hire the services of Stan Greenberg, Bill
Clinton’s chief campaign strategist in the 1992 United States of America
elections. Mandela and De Klerk went on a charm offensive visiting
international forums and US and western governments. They jointly won the 1993
Nobel Peace Prize. The new world order as seen by the US and European military
and economic powers was extending its influence on the globe.
The discourse of revolutionary Pan Africanism is today as relevant and
evergreen as it was when the OAU was first established in 1963. The OAU was
itself a compromise between the revolutionary Casablanca and the moderate
Monrovia groups. The political legacy of Pan Africanism should be adapted to
suit the modern socio-economic challenges of Africa. More so, the PAC’s
resurrection must happen with the clear understanding that the weight of
history rest on its shoulders.
By Jaki Seroke
The writer is a political stalwart of the PAC. He is an NEC member of SANMVA
and chairs the Pan Africanist Research Institute (PARI).
Mayihlome News
| June 6, 2015 at 1:05 pm | Tags: 1993 Nobel Peace Prize, 25 May 1993, Abel
Sgubhu Dube, Addis Ababa, Afrikaner Volksunie, Afrikaner Volsunie, AIDS, ANC,
APLA, Benny Alexandra, Bophuthatswana, Captain macClay, Cheif Emeka Anyauko,
Chris Hani, Ciskei, CODESA, Commonwealth, Conservative Party, COSAG, Cunningham
Ngcukana, Cyril Ramaphosa, David Chuenyane, Dawid de Villiers, Dr. Solly
Skosana, Elias Maila, Enoch Zulu, Ethiopia, FBWU, FW De Klerk, Gora Ibrahim,
Hernus Kriel, HSRC, IFP, Ingwavuma, Jaki Seroke, Janus Waluz, Johan Mostert,
Johan van der Merwe, Josia Magama Tongogara, Kathorus, Kempton Park, Koos
Calitz, Markinor Research Survey, Mathatha Tsedu, Maxwell Nemadzivhanani,
Michael Opperskalki, Mike Sello Matsobane, Mofihli Likotsi, Multi Party
Negotiations Forum, MWASA, NACTU, National Party, Negotiation Council, Nelson
Mandela, OAU, Operation Stilstand, Operation Thunderstorm, PAC, Pan Africanism,
Pan Africanist Research Institute, PARI, Patricia De Lille, Roelf Meyer, SA
Communist Party, SA Defence Force, SANMVA, Sithembele Khala, South Africa,
South African Police, Stan Greenberg, Thomson Gazo, Vuma Ntikinca, Waters
Toboti, Willie Seriti, World Trade Centre, ZANLA
| Categories: Feature Articles
| URL: http://wp.me/p4RIso-X1
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