The ‘Indian Chap’: Recollections of a South African Underground Trainee in Mao's China

Abstract

Little is known about the first South African underground group sent for training in China in 1961 before the Sino-Soviet breakdown. As a member of that group, for over 50 years I have not spoken publicly about the experience but, at 79, feel obliged to overcome previous reticence in the interest of adding to our country's knowledge of its complex past. I outline here the personal and political environment that shaped my views on justice and freedom and the journey that took me, as a student from Natal to London, where I participated in early campaigning against apartheid, and from there to the Peoples' Republic of China. I describe joining Wilton Mkwayi in Prague and Raymond Mhlaba, Joe Gqabi and Patrick Mthembu in Beijing where Mao Zedong spoke with us. I give a detailed account of the training in radio communication and technology that I received with Andrew Mlangeni in Mukden/Shenyang. While disappearing from my family's radar, my mother died and I was unable to honour a commitment to my father. I describe how, on my return to South Africa, although not formally recruited to any organization, I took instructions conveyed through Mac Maharaj, mainly after the reconstitution of the High Command following the Rivonia Trial. My subsequent arrest, interrogation (‘Rooi Rus’ Swanepoel), and trial, ending in acquittal, were followed by escape to Botswana where I remained among South African refugees for a year before managing to reach exile in England. My narrative indicates a need to explore the tension between developing critical-thinking cadres and the demands of organizational discipline; and that between personal and political commitment.