Women of MK will not be forgotten
NDWANDWE was, “brave. Very, very brave”. This statement, according to Karyn Maughan, a legal journalist, was made by one of the men who murdered Phila Ndwandwe.
Phila Zandile Portia Zandi Ndwandwe was an inspirational, energetic and tenacious woman. She was full of verve, vigour and the word fear did not feature in her lexicon. Zandile, as she was known in Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) circles, was one of the most powerful commanders of MK.
She was recruited into the ANC in 1985 while a dental therapy student at the-then University of Durban Westville (now University of Kwazulu-natal). She lived with General Ramlakan and his wife, who had turned their house into MK headquarters in Kwazulu-natal.
Phila was light in complexion, well built, short, round-faced and beautiful. She preferred jeans andtshirts.
She served in the UDW students representative council, though in a silent way. She was instrumental in the formation of the Progressive Youth Committee, which was based at UDW, whose main task was to allow students who came from townships around Durban to share their experiences about apartheid police brutality.
She also participated in the formation and activities of the Umlazi Youth League in the 1980s.
Zandile was a sister, a schoolmate, a friend and a commander to many comrades who were at UDW between 1985 and 1986. In 1986, when she left the country, she had been in her second year of dental therapy.
I was at UDW in 1986 and was fortunate to witness Phila’s courage, not only in MK activities but also in socio-economic issues of the time. I remember vividly in 1986, when Phila orchestrated a student protest march to the university management offices demanding better working conditions for mainly Indian women employed as cleaners by the company called Sneller.
Students who participated in the march included Lenny Naidoo who in the same year left to join the ANC in exile.
It is now history that on June 8, 1988, Naidu and three women MK comrades, Makhosi Nyoka, Lindiwe Mthembu and Nontskilelo June Rose Cotoza, were gunned down near Piet Retief in an ambush co-ordinated by former police colonel, torturer and assassin under the command of the apartheid government, Eugene de Kock.
One other student who participated in this march was Kumi Naidoo. Naidoo’s biography states that he is, “the international executive director of Greenpeace International. He led various campaigns to end poverty and protect human rights. He was involved in anti-apartheid activities which led to several arrests before living in exile in England. After Nelson Mandela’s release, he returned to South Africa to work on the legalisation of the ANC and led adult literacy campaigns and voter education efforts.” He holds a PHD in political sociology.
At this time Phila had made UDW a hive of political and MK activities. There were registered students who participated in MK activities, but there were also “students” whose mission was to heed the call made by the ANC to “render the apartheid government ungovernable, take the struggle to the white areas”. This latter group masqueraded as students, in that they came to campus almost daily and they carried books in bags, but were never registered.
According to ANC archives, Phila was part of the Natal Machinery of Umkhonto we Sizwe under the leadership of Muzi Ngwenya (Thami Zulu or “TZ”) operating from Swaziland. She was in the unit headed by Ayanda Dlodlo that was responsible for the infiltration of ANC cadres into Natal.
The security police in 1986 discovered that the ANC had formed an Area Political Military Committee that committed numerous acts of violence and sabotage in Natal under the code name Operation Butterfly. Fifty-four people were arrested by the security agents for these acts of sabotage. Phila was among those who were arrested. She was released after having made a statement, to be called as a State witness and listed number 38 in a list of 72 witnesses. She, however, left the country and did not testify.
Theroleof armedstruggleshould not be undermined and the role of umzana, women in MK, should not be swept under the carpet. Long live the spirit of Phila Ndwandwe, Long Live!!! Amandla!! Matla!!! Wathint’ abafazi,wathint’imbokodo, Uzokufa!!!