The 'Hani Memorandum'--Introduced and Annotated (Commentary) (Chris Hani‪)‬

The 'Hani Memorandum', a document produced and signed by Chris Hani and six other members of the African National Congress (ANC)'s armed wing Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) early in 1969, following the failure of the Wankie and Sipolilo campaigns, is frequently cited but there appears to be no complete copy in a public archive. It has been published only once and that was 30 years ago in an obscure exile journal without identification, date, context, or the names of the signatories--not surprisingly, it seems then to have passed unnoticed. (2) In his book ANC: A View from Moscow Vladimir Shubin (1999) provides an accurate summary of the memorandum's contents, but the copy to which he had access in the Soviet archives seems to have been produced for circulation to the diplomatic community and contained no names and no signatures. (3) The unavailability of the memorandum has not prevented its continued citation for political purposes and it is still influential 40 years after its production. Speaking at the launch of the Chris Hani Municipality's Liberation Heritage Route at Hani's birthplace, Sabalele, near Cofimvaba in the Eastern Cape on April 10, 2008, the 15th anniversary of his death, the ANC's then recently elected secretary-general, Gwede Mantashe, who was also chairman of the South African Communist Party (SACP), made intriguing use of the Hegelian/Marxian dialectic--thesis, antithesis and synthesis--to link three major conferences in the history of the ANC: Morogoro (1969), Kabwe (1985), and Polokwane (2007). Drawing a parallel between the three, he saw each of them as coming after a period of dissatisfaction with the leadership, if not actual mutiny, as providing an opportunity to confront and to discuss the outstanding issues, and as heralding a period of reform and consolidation.