for Beijing. When they arrived, the Chinese authorities, interpreters, and their comrades Mthembu, Gqabi, Mkwayi and Naidoo were waiting at the airport. They exchanged greetings, hugs and laughter. So began their year-long experience in China and their rigorous preparations to liberate their people back home.
The South African trainees’ last days in China were spent rather differently. The tight military programme had come to an end and for the whole of October and three weeks of November 1962 they toured Shanghai, the Chinese city Andrew Mlangeni regarded as the ‘Johannesburg of China’ because of its sophistication. Andrew found everything in Shanghai elegant. The city was huge and full of people – going up and down and minding their own business, day and night. Andrew was impressed that so many people there spoke English. The trainees had also been taken to the British colony of Hong Kong, and Andrew would later remark that there was more English spoken in Shanghai and Hong Kong than in any other part of China that he had visited.
He was also impressed with the natural landscapes of China, and by the immense pride the Chinese people held in their cultural and heritage sites. For nearly two months the new trainees explored what Andrew would later describe as the wonders of the Chinese people. He saw a nation united in love for its country and with a shared hatred of its adversaries. He observed the power of the spirit of patriotism and positive nationalism. At that time he did not care whether loyalty to the country’s flag was voluntary or enforced – he cared only about the bond that created a nation jealously guarding its resources and sovereignty. China reinforced in him his own bond with his country and his people.
By late-November, when arrangements for their trip back home were finalised, and he had gathered insights about the Chinese, he had to accept that it was time to return. The feeling among all six of them was a mixed bag of emotions. They had grown close to their trainers and other people they had met, the warmth and hospitality. Andrew was particularly impressed by the hardworking people of China. ‘Each Chinese citizen realised that the country could be made better through hard work,’ he later remarked. But they also longed to be home, to see their families, and to put into practice what they had learned.
Naidoo left two days before Andrew and the other four comrades, and headed for London to continue his studies. The rest of the trainees flew to Moscow. They were met by a Russian comrade whom Andrew would later describe as friendly and energetic and who was not shy to display his passion for the Communist Party and his country – a Russian version of the patriotism he had seen among the Chinese and that he hoped one day to see in South Africans. Such character, he thought, would never betray the struggle of the people, or let down the freedom achieved. During the time he had spent in China, Andrew had come to believe that in any event the struggle did not end with the attainment of political freedom but continued afterwards, to defend freedom and its gains. What they had learned should be required learning for all South Africans. ‘It’s a pity we can’t bring everyone here,’ he said.
The Russian comrade was excited to have met them and confirmed that the Russians were already committed to training members of the ANC in conversional education and military instruction. None of the South Africans found out the exact position and rank of this man in government or in the Communist Party, but he seemed very informed about developments around the world and within his party. He told them that the Communist Party was having a conference and to show that he had some degree of authority in the Party he invited them to attend it. They could not, they said, as they would have missed their flight and would have to pay for a new one. But he promised that the Party would take care of all their expenses, flights included, if they were to disrupt their travel plans – another sign of his significant authority and influence. To persuade them to attend, he mentioned that the conference was very important and intimated that the chairpman of the SACP, Dr Yusuf Dadoo, was in attendance. They decided to give him an answer the following day after they had discussed it among themselves. They were thrilled to hear that Dr Dadoo was there. In fact, their promise to consider staying on was mainly driven by that information.
They were to be accommodated at the house of another comrade of the Communist Party. He was himself busy at the conference, but there was enough time to discuss the issue among themselves in his house. Andrew and Mhlaba argued that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and that they had to take it. Gqabi, Mkwayi and Mthembu argued that they could not divert from the programme in case they were wanted at home urgently to undertake the very important task of training people internally in the bush. Democratic centralism won the day. Andrew and Mhlaba had to go with the majority. They decided to turn down the offer. They learned later that Dr Dadoo was not there – it was all a ploy to persuade them to stay.
After spending two days in the cold Moscow winter they proceeded to Cairo on the morning of the third day. They spent the whole day in Cairo at the airport and flew the following day to Tanzania where Oliver Tambo was waiting for a briefing from them. At the airport in Dar es Salaam they were met by James Hadebe, popularly known as Jimmy or Jobe. He was the ANC’s head of the East Africa mission, based in Tanzania, having replaced Makiwane, who had been posted to Ghana as the head of the West Africa mission. Hadebe took them to Luthuli House, the ANC headquarters in Dar es Salaam, where Tambo had an office.
Andrew knew Hadebe very well, having worked with him when Hadebe was the Transvaal provincial secretary of the ANC during the 1950s, and as one of the accused in the treason trial. He respected and admired him a great deal. Like Andrew, Hadebe hailed from the Orange Free State. As a direct descendant of the nineteenth-century Hlubi king, Langalibalele, Hadebe was, by heredity, a born leader in the African sense. He had been detained for five months following the state of emergency in 1960, after which he left South Africa and went into exile where he had become one of the significant men in the ANC’s foreign mission.
At the headquarters of the ANC they found some of the trainees who had just arrived from Ethiopia. Tambo had organised a warm reception. The five comrades were received like real heroes of the struggle. There was food fit for heroes, and comfortable beds were made up for them. By Andrew’s account, they slept so peacefully that they forgot they were in a foreign country. It was only the following morning that they regretted the comfort they had been offered by the leadership, when they were shocked to find out that Tambo was lying on the floor. He had made way for them to be accommodated in the beds and he was willing to compromise his status and position to honour them. Tambo was the most senior leader of their movement, but there he was on the floor while they enjoyed the comfort of beds. For Andrew, Tambo was not just his political leader but his former teacher as well. Andrew would later describe this as ‘a true attestation to all of us that Tambo was truly a revolutionary’. In fact, for the rest of his life, Andrew would declare that he had never seen a true revolutionary such as Tambo whom he would describe as ‘down-to-earth and true to the course of the struggle’. Seeing Tambo lying on the floor while he and his comrades were made comfortable in beds did not please Andrew and nor did it please his comrades. It was summer in Tanzania, and excessively hot. Sleeping naked was something the people had become used to and so had Tambo. Andrew saw him lying there on the floor naked, with a huge scar on his chest that he had never seen before and that he thought he should not have seen at all. ‘None should have seen it.’ But out of curiosity he enquired about it and Tambo explained that he got the scar during the boys’ stick fights, in his youth in the Eastern Cape.
Andrew and his comrades took a unanimous decision that they were not going to allow their leader to sleep on the floor. They decided that Mhlaba and Gqabi would share a bed and give the other to Tambo. Tambo did not seem to be perturbed, but he welcomed their gesture.
They were the first group in MK to be properly given military training and Tambo wanted them to brief him on all aspects of the training, the logistics and also the terrain to which they had been exposed. After all, Tambo was the ANC head of external mission and back home he was the deputy president of the ANC and his seniority in the party entitled him to a full briefing. For the next few days, they briefed Tambo fully about their Chinese experience. They also gave him Mao’s advice that the conditions in Algeria were similar to those of South Africans and that it would be prudent and economic to
