THE harsh conditions of life in exile in Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) came sharply to mind with the recent death of Buyisile Ntoni, known in exile under his MK travelling name, Mazolane Skwebu.
A man who brushed with death during the mutinies in MK in Angola in 1984, he passed away after a long illness at Mer cantile Hospital in Port Elizabeth on March 30.
His funeral service took place at Lin gelihle Methodist Church in his home town, Cradock, on Saturday.13 April at 9h00.
Born in Cradock on November 29, 1955, he was one of the generations that gave new life to MK when as youngsters they streamed across the borders into exile after the violent suppression of the school pupils’ march in Soweto in protest against Bantu education on 16 June 16 1976.
Skwebu joined MK in Lesotho in 1980, and was sent to train at Camalundi and Caculama camps in eastern Angola, fol lowed by military training in the former Soviet Union.
In 1983 he was deployed to fight against the forces of the Angolan opposition political movement, the National Union for the Total Indepen dence of Angola (UNITA) on the Eastern Front, at a time when UNITA was in political and military alliance with the South African Defence Force.
During the course of these operations, many MK troops came to the conclusion that no serious struggles were taking place in South Africa and that their lives were being wasted in Angola in a civil war.
They wanted to be sent back to South Africa to fight.
When they demanded a national con ference of the ANC to discuss this and other issues, including their demand for democratic elections for the ANC’s national executive committee, this was not accepted by the leadership, headed by OR Tambo.
This resulted in the mutiny at Vienna camp outside Luanda in February 1984.
At the request of the ANC leadership, MK troops at Vienna camp were then surrounded by armoured troops of the Angolan presidential guard. They sur rendered their weapons peacefully, after they were guaranteed that there would be no reprisals.
But this did not happen.
Instead, 34 MK troops – including all members of the Committee of Ten, which had been elected by the troops to rep resent their demands to the leadership – were arrested by the ANC security department (known as Mbokodo, the grindstone) and detained at Luanda Max imum Security prison, where they were tortured by Mbokodo.
Skwebu and the remaining soldiers at Vienna camp were then sent to Pango camp in northern Angola.
Conditions at Pango were very harsh but they remained committed to seeking the national conference. Two months lat er Mbokodo started torturing the sol diers at Pango.
The troops rebelled and took over the camp in violent combat in May 1984, with deaths on both sides.
A week later Mbokodo received reinforcements to take over the camp.
In armed conflict against superior forces, about 16 troops at Pango, including Skwebu, man aged to break through the encirclement by ANC loyalist troops and went to Uige province.
While they were away, seven of their comrades were executed by Mbokodo and buried in mass graves.
Skwebu and his group asked for asylum at a base staffed by Soviet personnel, who betrayed them and handed them over to Mbokodo.
They were captured, tortured and some of them like Jonga Masuku died.
Buyisile Ntoni (Skwe bu) appeared in front of a military tribunal and was sentenced to death by firing squad. But his life was saved by Gertrude Shope, the head of the ANC Women’s Section and wife of Mark Shope, former general secretary of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (Sactu) and former commissar of MK troops at Novo Catengue in south-west ern Angola.
Skwebu was later sent to the notorious Quatro Prison.
Under all these experiences of bru tality, he remained loyal to his organisa tion, the ANC, guid ed by the policy of the Freedom Charter not to follow individ uals. On returning home he integrated into the new SANDF, but later resigned.
He was deployed as the only MK councillor by the ANC in Chris Hani district municipality and served as pro vincial deputy secre tary of the umKhon to weSizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA) in the Eastern Cape.
Buyisile Ntoni (Comrade Skwebu) is survived by his wife, Xoliswe and three children.
May his soul join the souls of his mass graved comrades at Pango camp and those in other unmarked graves else where on the African continent.
Luvo Mbengo is a survivor of the Pango mutiny of 1984
Insight: The harsh life of an MK soldier in exile
A man who brushed with death during the mutinies in MK in Angola in 1984, he passed away after a long illness at Mer cantile Hospital in Port Elizabeth on March 30.
His funeral service took place at Lin gelihle Methodist Church in his home town, Cradock, on Saturday.13 April at 9h00.
Born in Cradock on November 29, 1955, he was one of the generations that gave new life to MK when as youngsters they streamed across the borders into exile after the violent suppression of the school pupils’ march in Soweto in protest against Bantu education on 16 June 16 1976.
Skwebu joined MK in Lesotho in 1980, and was sent to train at Camalundi and Caculama camps in eastern Angola, fol lowed by military training in the former Soviet Union.
In 1983 he was deployed to fight against the forces of the Angolan opposition political movement, the National Union for the Total Indepen dence of Angola (UNITA) on the Eastern Front, at a time when UNITA was in political and military alliance with the South African Defence Force.
During the course of these operations, many MK troops came to the conclusion that no serious struggles were taking place in South Africa and that their lives were being wasted in Angola in a civil war.
They wanted to be sent back to South Africa to fight.
When they demanded a national con ference of the ANC to discuss this and other issues, including their demand for democratic elections for the ANC’s national executive committee, this was not accepted by the leadership, headed by OR Tambo.
This resulted in the mutiny at Vienna camp outside Luanda in February 1984.
At the request of the ANC leadership, MK troops at Vienna camp were then surrounded by armoured troops of the Angolan presidential guard. They sur rendered their weapons peacefully, after they were guaranteed that there would be no reprisals.
But this did not happen.
Instead, 34 MK troops – including all members of the Committee of Ten, which had been elected by the troops to rep resent their demands to the leadership – were arrested by the ANC security department (known as Mbokodo, the grindstone) and detained at Luanda Max imum Security prison, where they were tortured by Mbokodo.
Skwebu and the remaining soldiers at Vienna camp were then sent to Pango camp in northern Angola.
Conditions at Pango were very harsh but they remained committed to seeking the national conference. Two months lat er Mbokodo started torturing the sol diers at Pango.
The troops rebelled and took over the camp in violent combat in May 1984, with deaths on both sides.
A week later Mbokodo received reinforcements to take over the camp.
In armed conflict against superior forces, about 16 troops at Pango, including Skwebu, man aged to break through the encirclement by ANC loyalist troops and went to Uige province.
While they were away, seven of their comrades were executed by Mbokodo and buried in mass graves.
Skwebu and his group asked for asylum at a base staffed by Soviet personnel, who betrayed them and handed them over to Mbokodo.
They were captured, tortured and some of them like Jonga Masuku died.
Buyisile Ntoni (Skwe bu) appeared in front of a military tribunal and was sentenced to death by firing squad. But his life was saved by Gertrude Shope, the head of the ANC Women’s Section and wife of Mark Shope, former general secretary of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (Sactu) and former commissar of MK troops at Novo Catengue in south-west ern Angola.
Skwebu was later sent to the notorious Quatro Prison.
Under all these experiences of bru tality, he remained loyal to his organisa tion, the ANC, guid ed by the policy of the Freedom Charter not to follow individ uals. On returning home he integrated into the new SANDF, but later resigned.
He was deployed as the only MK councillor by the ANC in Chris Hani district municipality and served as pro vincial deputy secre tary of the umKhon to weSizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA) in the Eastern Cape.
Buyisile Ntoni (Comrade Skwebu) is survived by his wife, Xoliswe and three children.
May his soul join the souls of his mass graved comrades at Pango camp and those in other unmarked graves else where on the African continent.
Luvo Mbengo is a survivor of the Pango mutiny of 1984
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