The Backroom Boy. Mandla Mathebula

the freedoms of anyone deemed to be a communist. People could be banned from certain places or from talking about politics. The Act was worded in such a way that any person could be barred from running for public office and attending public meetings, restricted from entering a specific portion of the country or even jailed, simply because the minister of justice deemed him to be a communist.

      The Act also defined communism and its aims so sweepingly that anyone seeking to change a law could be considered a communist. Since the Act specifically stated that one of the aims of communism was to stir up conflict between the races, it was frequently used legally to gag critics of racial segregation.

      To deal with the implications of the Act the CPSA closely monitored the developments around its promulgation. On 5 and 6 May 1950, it convened an emergency meeting of the Central Committee in Cape Town to discuss the Bill declaring the propagation of communism illegal. There was a view within the Party that the Bill earmarked its forcible dissolution and the laying down of various measures that the government aimed to take against members of the CPSA, and the meeting considered how to deal with the government’s threat. Six days before the Act was passed, on 20 June, the CPSA Central Committee meeting in Cape Town also discussed the impending banning of the organisation and various options for the Party, including going underground or dissolving rather than facing a host of breaches of law and subsequent penalties, which would curtail members’ ability to fight the cause. Leaders such as Dr Yusuf Dadoo argued for the Party to go underground. Moses Kotane, JB Marks and Edwin Thabo Mofutsanyana pointed out the dangers of going underground without preparation. After much debate, the meeting declared that the CPSA would dissolve a few days before the Suppression of Communism Act was passed. For Andrew, that was a serious setback. ‘It was a bad decision for the Party to dissolve itself. Some of us wanted it to soldier on to face and deal with any counter-revolutionary action.’

      The minister of justice responded quickly to the declaration by appointing a liquidator, a Mr J de Villiers Louw, to wind up the affairs of the Party. Louw made several claims that the CPSA still continued to exist, as it had not been dissolved in terms of its constitution. A court ruling followed, and the dissolution of the CPSA went ahead. When the Act was finally promulgated six days later it was the voice of the ANC that was heard declaring that the day be marked as a day of mourning for the 18 CPSA members killed during the May Day strike on 1 May 1950. In the general strike that followed, Andrew saw with pleasure the manner in which leaders of the South African Indian Congress (SAIC), African People’s Organisation and the dissolved CPSA pledged support for the strike called by the ANC. Even more interesting was to see the strike being organised by a joint coordinating committee of which Walter Sisulu and Ahmed Cachalia of the SAIC were joint secretaries. The strike reverberated through the cities of Durban and Cape Town. Andrew was encouraged by this response – Africans and Indians were coming together to fight an unjust system. Importantly, the ANC and the SAIC were rallying behind the CPSA. ‘This would be significant in the struggle for the total emancipation of the majority.’

      The urge to be actively involved in the liberation struggle became stronger and louder. He had his own view on how he could assist the struggle and was certain that the promulgation of the Suppression of Communism Act in 1950 and the discontinuation of the CPSA would not dampen his spirit. If anything, it may have pushed him closer to the ANC – and it appears to have done the same to many of his peers in the CPSA and YCL. Alfred Nziba, a young man whom Andrew had known very well, was one of the members of the YCL to have actively drifted into the ANC mainly because of the discontinuation of the CPSA, and would influence Andrew to lean towards the ANC as well. (A Fort Hare dropout, Nziba was said to have spent eight years at the university without completing a degree and to have gone around boasting that he may not have gained any degree but he had managed to obtain 16 courses, enough to grant him a degree and few subjects for a second one – he apparently changed from one degree to another to avoid the rule that could have disqualified him from proceeding with his studies on campus.)

      At the beginning of 1951, a few months after the dissolution of the CPSA, Nziba called a meeting of some selected young people at Phomolong, in the house belonging to the family of Jacob Matshaneng. Also present was another influential young man, George Mhlakaza from Orlando East. Jacob Motshaneng was a rather unusual character in Andrew’s opinion. He lived with his parents and sister and, as the only son in the family, was regarded as a ‘cheeseboy’ or ‘mother’s boy’, which is perhaps confirmed by the fact that he did not marry until his mother had passed away, fearing that a wife would compete with her for space (nor did being Andrew’s best man at his later wedding pump up the urge in him to get married). It was Jacob who excitedly told Andrew about the meeting, at which Nziba did all the talking and everyone else just listened. His speech was about the ANCYL, its importance and meaning to the country’s youth and its role in broader society; and the need for them to join the organisation as active members and not merely as part of the crowd. He described it as the grooming ground for future leaders of the ANC. That meeting persuaded Andrew to be actively involved in the ANCYL – but it was an extra commitment, and he was still juggling his political with his married life, having married a few months earlier.

      From the beginning of the 1950s, Andrew had observed that the dissolution of the CPSA and its forced hibernation had propelled the ANC into the leadership of the struggle. ‘Before these developments, the CPSA had been more influential and more prominent in the workers’ struggles than the ANC,’ he said. ‘The miners’ strike in the 1940s was, perhaps, a clear testimony to this.’ Therefore, in Andrew’s opinion, the harassment of the CPSA by the government was a catalyst for the coming together of the CPSA and the ANC, albeit with some resistance from prominent members of the ANC. Both organisations had members in each others’ structures but it was not going to be plain sailing, especially in the initial stages, as Andrew would later learn. The growth of the ANC, in particular, and its attraction of people from all walks of life and races, were to bring far-reaching implications for the ANC as an organisation and for its campaigns. The Defiance Campaign of 1952 and the Congress of the People gathering in Kliptown in 1955, as well as the infamous treason trial of the late 1950s, were to characterise the manner in which South Africa was going to be liberated.

      The steady dominance of the ANC in black people’s struggles was beginning to have unintended consequences. In the Johannesburg area, Andrew observed some signs of Africanist ideology emerging among the ranks of the ANC, through the Bantu National Congress under Peter Makhene which emerged as early as 1953. Makhene was supported by James Maseko, a member of the CPSA – an indication that the recalcitrant faction included members from both ANC and CPSA ranks. Andrew knew both men very well as he had worked with them in the CPSA. He regarded them as hecklers, and dismissed their followers as just like them (the reason he didn’t take them seriously was their approach to political mobilisation – an attack on the ANC rather than bringing something new into the political arena). However, insignificant as the organisation may have appeared in Andrew’s mind, it represented an ideology that would have an impact in struggle politics later on. The Bantu National Congress was soon followed by another organisation, the national-minded Block. Its public face was Josiah Madzunya and its activities were along the lines of distributing leaflets with messages advocating the Africanist agenda and denouncing the increasing movement of whites into the ANC. Andrew Mlangeni’s dismissal of these competing organisations speaks not only to his loyalty but also to his political common sense.