Former ANC Member of Parliament, Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and Minister of Communications, Yunus Carrim, has shared the history of the ANC’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Special Operations Unit in his book titled Attacking the Heart of Apartheid: The ANC’s MK Special Operations Unit. 

Carrim, who is from Pietermaritzburg, was also a senior lecturer in sociology and a freelance journalist. 

He was inspired to write the book because, in the 35 years since the unbanning of political movements in the country, ‘no one had written about the ANC’s MK Special Operations Unit, beyond a few articles’. 

He said many of the unit’s operatives have died, and others have aged and it was important to interview those who were still around and record the role of the important MK unit. 

“But one shouldn’t make too much of the writer. I didn’t make that history. They did. They need to speak for themselves and need to be interviewed by the media, where possible,” Carrim said. 

The book is based on interviews with 48 individuals, conducted over 10 years. 

The MK unit was established in 1979 to conduct high-profile, high-impact operations against strategic economic and military targets, thereby bolstering the mass struggles. 

“While it was a unit within MK, it was directly answerable to ANC President Oliver Tambo through senior ANC and SACP leader Joe Slovo. The unit’s members received specialised training and were allocated more resources. However, it has to be understood as part of MK and the ANC’s overall strategy to overthrow apartheid,” Carrim explained. 

The book, explained Carrim, locates the armed struggle as an interdependent part of the ANC’s other pillars of struggle – the mass, political underground and international parts. It deals with the context and strategy of the Special Ops Unit and its operations. 

These include the 1980 Sasol, 1981 power stations, 1981 Voortrekkerhoogte, the 1982 Koeberg, the 1986 rescue of the arrested Gordon Webster from the Pietermaritzburg Edendale Hospital, and other operations. The 1980 Sasol operation was perhaps the most significant MK operation and made world news. So, did the Koeberg operation.

“But the book doesn’t romanticise the armed struggle and sees it as an unavoidable prong of the ANC’s strategy. What it does do, though, is convey the courage and willingness of its operatives to give their lives for our democracy. And suggests the need for all of us to do what we can to make our frayed democracy work,” Carrim said. 

With the proceeds of the book allocated to the families of the combatants, Carrim said he served 30 years in parliament, and the 10 years before that, he was a university lecturer. Taxpayers paid his salary, and he has a decent pension. He does not think he must get any money out of the book. 

“In a way, the book wrote itself out of the wonderful interviews the Special Ops cadres gave me. So, it’s more their book than mine,” Carrim said. 

Carrim said that if he had to choose his favourite part of the book, it would have to be Patrick Chamusso’s story, for the way he came into the ANC and his arresting personality—also, the sense of selflessness that David Moisi conveys. 

“A lesson for us all in these challenging times in our country,” Carrim said. 

Carrim stated that individuals have the freedom to choose whether or not to read the book.

“Whether we agree with the ANC or its armed struggle or not, the book deals with a part, however small, of our collective history. And we can’t fully understand our present and chart an effective way forward without coming to terms with our past,” Carrim said. 

The book was launched last month in Cape Town at the Book Lounge. Jeremy Cronin facilitated the conversation with Carrim about the book.

thobeka.ngema@inl.co.za

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