You Can`t Win at the Table What You Can`t Win on the Ground - Saluting Centenarian Cde Harry Gwala

30 July 2020

Jenny Schreiner

100 years ago, on 30 July 1920, Thembayakhe Harry Gwala was born in rural KwaSwayimane, south-east of the town of Wartburg. It was in this impoverished community near Pietermaritzburg where he grew up, the son of a lay preacher in the African Congregational Church.  The Great Depression of 1929 had a devastating impact on the price of wattle which had been a source of income for many local families. His father, Philemon, who had been a prosperous peasant, lost his fortune, resulting in his mother Bella having to find employment in New Hanover as a domestic worker.

For the first time, his family had little food and faced poverty. His grandmother, as did many women, used to get up before dawn, walk to the neighbouring white farms with old rags on her feet to protect them, returning after dark, to do what was commonly known as togt labour for the measly wage of about 9 cents a day.

There were no schools in KwaSwayimane, resulting in Cde Gwala attending a Presbyterian Mission School in Mpolweni, 20 kilometres away until standard seven, today’s grade 9. Cde Gwala wanted to become a medical doctor, but when his father died, economic circumstances forced him to leave high school. At the age of 20, characteristically determined, he enrolled at the Adams College, in Amanzimtoti to complete his secondary education and train as a teacher, receiving his teacher’s diploma in 1941. It was here, at a College with a proud history of producing many political leaders, that he encountered the political discussion amongst students that laid the foundation of his political consciousness.

Cde Gwala started his teaching career at Slangspruit, near Edendale in the Pietermaritzburg area, with Moses Mabhida (minus his famous moustache) amongst his students. In 1942, Cde Gwala joined the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), and attended his first Party School in 1943. In 1944, the CPSA asked Cde Gwala to quit teaching to dedicate himself to organising workers into trade unions.

In that same year, he joined the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) and began organising workers in the chemical and building industries and established the Rubber and Cable Workers’ Union in Howick. Many of the workers in Howick were migrant workers, so it was difficult to maintain permanent structures, but he persevered.

In March 1950, the ANC (Transvaal), the CPSA, the Indian Congress and the African People Organisation organised a "Freedom of Speech Convention" in Johannesburg to protest against the Suppression of Communism Bill and a ban imposed on Dr. Yusuf Dadoo and Sam Khan that prohibited them from public speaking. 500 Convention delegates decided on protest marches and meetings to be held across the country, culminating in a national "stay at home" on the 1st May 1950. 

About 10 000 people attended the rally to endorse the Convention’s outcomes. Cde Gwala was one of the organisers of the national stay-away protests on 1 May 1950, in which the police opened fire on the protesters killing 18 and wounding 30 people. Cde Gwala’s commitment and determination to mobilise, educate and organise led to him being listed under the Suppression of Communism Act in 1952 when he was served with a two-year banning order.

By 1954, Cde Gwala was employed as a typist in a laboratory at the Edendale Hospital. True to his unionist background, he recruited hospital workers to become members of unions under the umbrella of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (Sactu) formed in 1955. He organised a doctors’ strike and was involved in the "Pound a Day" strikes. In 1957 Sactu demanded that workers earn one pound a day and launched the “Pound a Day” campaign with pamphlets, mass meetings and demonstrations.

Workers created songs and painted slogans 'We want to have a pound a day' and 'Asinamali - sifunimali' on walls. How relevant as we monitor the implementation of the national minimum wage today, to salute the contribution of Cde Gwala and others a full 63 years ago in the demand for decent wages for workers. In reaction to this organising work, Cde Gwala was dismissed from the hospital in 1958.

Cde Gwala played a leading role, along with Comrades A. S. Chetty, Archie Gumede, Dr C. Motala and D. C. O. Matiwane, in organising the Midlands delegation to Kliptown in 1955 to attend the Congress of the People where delegates from across the country adopted the Freedom Charter.

Cde Gwala was aware of the resuscitation of the Communist Party as early as 1954. But he was only  given direction to start a Marxist discussion group. He was offended by being excluded from the Communist Party. Cde Gwala was suspicious of the influence and the role of Bruno Mtolo and Solomon Mbanjwa who had been recruited to the Communist Party in the 1950s. It was not until 1962 that Gwala re-joined the Communist Party.

Cde Gwala was part of the organising of the All-in Africa Conference in 1962, in a hall which still stands in what is now Imbali, in Pietermaritzburg. This conference was the occasion of the last public speech of “The Black Pimpernel”, Cde Nelson Mandela, before his arrest outside Howick in August 1962.

With the changed form of organising and of political activity after the bannings, Cde Gwala joined the ANC and Umkhonto we Sizwe underground. In 1964, he was arrested, charged and sentenced to 8 years in prison for sabotage and for recruiting members for Umkhonto We Sizwe and imprisoned on Robben Island.

On his release at the end of his sentence in 1972, Cde Gwala was restricted to Pietermaritzburg and prevented from teaching and trade union activities. Cde Gwala’s response was to start a laundry-collection business as a cover for ongoing ANC underground activities and for organising work to revive Sactu which had been badly hit by repression and bannings of its leaders.

Cde Gwala was arrested again on the morning of 30 November 1975, when members of the Special Branch arrested him at his house together with his wife, Elda, for contravention of the Terrorism Act of 1967. They were taken to Loop Street Special Branch section, separated, severely tortured, and kept in solitary confinement.  There were 40 others detained in connection with this case. Cde Gwala and 9 comrades were charged in what became known as the trial of the “Pietermaritzburg Ten”.

In this trial in May 1976, horrendous reports of torture in detention were made. One of the detainees, Cde Joseph Mdluli, an MK operative, died in detention on 19 March 1976 just a day after he was arrested, from injuries sustained during torture at the Security Branch head office in Fischer Street, Durban. Cde Mdluli had been detained on suspicion of recruiting youths for military training outside South Africa. Members of the Security Branch were charged with culpable homicide, but found not guilty. Six of the accused in this case filed a summons against the Minister of Police for not responding to claims for damage as a result of torture.

Cde Gwala alleged that, during a break in his interrogation, Lieutenant Coetzee “walked around like a dog wanting to bite someone’s testicles. The Lieutenant said he would catch hold of my testicles and make me pass faeces.” Colonel Dreyer admitted in court that it was possible that Cde Gwala could have been interrogated for two days without sleep, and Captain Fourie defended interrogating Cde Gwala for a forty-three-hour stretch because of the crisis in the country.

In 1977 Cde Gwala was sentenced to life imprisonment to be served on Robben Island. His wife, Cde Elda, during the trial and thereafter, organised the wives of other prisoners and detainees into support groups, through which the International Defence and Aid Fund (IDAF) and the Dependents Conference were able to support the families of these political prisoners

Undaunted by being back in prison, Cde Gwala put his teaching skills to work and became known for his tireless political and educational work. Dozens of young political prisoners benefited from his clear and effective thinking skills. He was also an ardent and strident philosopher who believed that everything could be explained in theoretical terms. He read voraciously and famously used the Bible – the only book provided to political prisoners on Robben Island in this period – to teach communism and Marxist-Leninism, particularly among the young political prisoners.

In 1984, after a visit to Cde Gwala on Robben Island Cde Elda, died from an asthma attack while still in Gugulethu with her family. Cde Gwala was not allowed to attend the funeral. Cde Gwala was at pains to guide and strengthen his 3 daughters in the period after their mother’s death to make the adjustment and ensure the coherence of the family under the leadership of his daughter Lulu Gwala.

From late 1984, a motor neuron disease started to affect his health, gradually robbing him of the use of his arms, and eventually losing control of his neck muscles. During this time, while attending medical appointments at Groote Schuur, Cde Gwala enrolled with Unisa and pursued further studies. As his condition deteriorated, he applied for permission to have a typewriter, unable to hold a pen. His daughter Lulu initiated a process and campaign to get Cde Gwala released from prison in 1986. 

In 1987, he was transferred from Robben Island to Pietermaritzburg prison and at the end of 1987 given his typewriter. His declining health resulted in him being transferred in May 1988 to Westville prison, which had a prison hospital facility. The Release Mandela Campaign through its Natal machinery campaigned hard and successfully and Cde Gwala was finally released from prison in November 1988.  

Cde Gwala’s disability did not deter him from political activism.

As soon as the ANC and the SACP were unbanned, the raging apartheid-sponsored violence in KZN was intensified even more. Under pretext that buses to IFP areas in Edendale were being stoned, the IFP marauding amabutho supported by police and soldiers unleashed the Seven Day War, from 25 to 31 March 1990. About 200 people died and about 20 000 were displaced in just these 7 days. This IFP state sponsored violence spread to Gauteng and other areas, with amongst others, 21 people killed in the Katlehong massacre in April 992, and 42 Boipatong residents massacred by IFP hostel dwellers under the protection of the police in June 1992. 

Cde Gwala’s analysis of what was portrayed by the apartheid state as “black on black violence” correctly characterised this as the apartheid state’s initiative to dislodge the ANC and the liberation movement as a whole, and to therefore weaken the movement’s ability to engage in negotiations. Cde Gwala argued that “you can’t win at the table what you can’t win on the ground”.

His strong activism in defence of the community, which was manifest both in the Natal Midlands and in his mobilising of communities on the East Rand to stand firm, and his belief that one must meet war with war, earned him the titles of Munt'omdala and “The Lion of the Midlands”. He mobilised for comrades to train self-defence units (SDUs) in those communities under threat of state-sponsored violence. Cde Gwala described how in 1992, they were burying comrades every weekend, reinforcing his scepticism about the negotiation process that had begun in 1990.

Activists in the Natal Midlands, and those who engaged with Cde Gwala in national campaigns, knew him to be an outstanding orator, particularly in isiZulu where his imagery had enormous depth and the quality of his language was extraordinarily excellent. Comrades have described how even in his last years, with his arms disabled, his neck encased in a brace, when Cde Gwala stood up in a meeting, instant silence would descend. Irrespective of whether this was a closed doors ANC meeting, or a mass rally, comrades knew they were going to hear fireworks, passion and incisive analysis.

When the ANC was unbanned, Cde Gwala was appointed interim ANC Chair for the Natal Midlands, and was officially elected to the position in December 1990. In 1991, he was elected to the ANC NEC, having very unsuccessfully contested the position of Deputy President against Cde Walter Sisulu. It was on these platforms that he warned against rapprochement with the IFP. His uncompromising stance and firebrand oratory particularly in the context of the Midlands War, made him popular with the movement's foot soldiers. In recognition of his outstanding role in the struggle, he was awarded the ANC‘s highest honour, the Isithwalandwe-Seaparankoe Award on 8 January 1992. The 1994 election outcome resulted in Cde Gwala taking his seat in the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature where was appointed ANC Chief Whip.

Comrades who served with Cde Gwala on that first Midlands REC, reflect how despite his tendency towards militarism in practice, he emphasised that cadres must be armed to defend the community not just with arms, but with politics. As chair of the REC he held weekly meetings, and not one was without a political education session. One of his favourite texts was Engels on The Origin of the Family Private Property and the State, and over a number of months they would read 10 pages and hold a discussion.

At the 1993 SACP Congress held at Shaft 17 in Soweto, Cde Gwala was elected to the Central Committee. In June 1994, his SACP membership was suspended for six months for "breaching SACP internal party discipline" in his repeated criticisms of Party comrades, and for refusing to submit himself to an internal investigation into his alleged involvement in violence against fellow Party members.

He came to understand that he had been misled by agents who had infiltrated the ANC and had planted information against key comrades in the region. To his credit, he took the steps to meet with the comrades whose lives had been in jeopardy, to apologise and to be reconciled with them. He remained in the SACP until his death from a heart attack in Midlands Medical Centre on 20 June 1995. He was survived by his daughters and grandchildren.

Worth quoting in full given recent statements that portrayed this period differently, the SACP General Secretary, Cde Charles Nqakula said this at the time of Cde Gwala’s death: “I like to believe that the SACP, in this respect, made a very important contribution to the negotiated transition in our country. If we did make such a contribution, it was only because we had comrades of the calibre of Joe Slovo and Harry Gwala who, as communists and loyal ANC members, were prepared to go toe-to-toe against each other in public debate. Neither of them settled into backroom manoeuvres against the other.

“At the beginning of 1994, and with great reluctance, the SACP Central Committee suspended comrade Harry's membership of the Party for six months. There had been serious allegations of sectarian behaviour in the Midlands region, and we had failed to secure comrade Gwala's co-operation in trying to get to the bottom of the allegations.

“Some of the white liberal controlled media presented the suspension as a battle between "doves" and "hawks", "reformers" and "Stalinists" in the SACP. It was nothing of the sort. Our move was not related in the least to comrade Harry's political views.

“A life-time Communist, comrade Harry was deeply hurt by the suspension. But he was also a very proud individual, and so we were pleased, and relieved, when he began to co-operate with us in the latter part of last year. In December 1994, the suspension was lifted, although he did not stand for re-election to the CC in April this year.

“He, like us, had become convinced that, in the war-zone conditions of the Midlands, he had been manipulated by certain individuals with dubious motives. The truth of all of this will, sooner or later, emerge more fully.

“For our part, we are proud that Gwala died a Communist. Hamba kahle, comrade Harry - teacher, tribune of the people, man of steel.”

At Cde Gwala’s funeral, Cde Nelson Mandela, said: "The fact of his disability, as a result of the motor neuron disease he contracted later, did not deter Mphephethwa. Instead, his fortitude increased with each day. To him, the mission of liberation knew no obstacles. When he was released, he again threw himself into the thick of things. It was precisely because of the recognition of Mphephethwa’s tenacity that the African National Congress awarded him its highest honour, Isithwalandwe-Seaparankoe". Madiba also had this to say about Cde Gwala: "Mphephethwa was a great 'political teacher' who taught generation after generation of struggle. Many of today's leaders drank from the deep well of Mphephethwa's political wisdom. But such was the nature of his teaching that the products of his education would themselves develop into political giants in their own right, using the tools he gave them to develop independent thought and analysis."

The grave of Gwala is located at Swayimane, the same rural area where he started his life’s journey 100 years ago. There is a project to have the grave declared a heritage site. Edendale hospital as well as the stadium where professional football is played have been named after him. There are moves to name a park in the middle of Pietermaritzburg after him as recognition in his home area. 

So today, 100 years later, we salute a great political teacher who taught generation after generation, in the classroom, in factories and organisations, in prison and in the undergound, in times of war and times of peace.

Cde Schreiner is an SACP Central Committee and Politburo member and a former MP, Director General, MK combatant and political prisoner