Hazel Friedman
Secret liaisons with the Soweto Committee of Ten. Dangerous midnight manoeuvres through townships to meet banned activist Albertina Sisulu during the height of South Africa’s State of Emergency.
This is what it took to maintain one of the best-kept secrets of the anti-apartheid struggle: a clandestine Israeli-ANC initiative — the Israeli and South African Centres for International Co-operation (ICIC and SACIC) – — established to shore up anti-apartheid activities in the Middle East, United States and South Africa, with the aim of training future leaders for a post-apartheid South Africa.
Conceived when Israel’s Palestinian policies, and its links to the apartheid government, had earned it international pariah status, both organisations operated in strict secrecy. But now, a decade after the inception of the SACIC, both have finally emerged from the closet with an extraordinary story of tenacity and triumph in the face of overwhelming odds.
From modest beginnings in make-shift offices with a skeleton staff, the US-Aid-funded SACIC now boasts 600 graduates, among them the mayors of Johannesburg, Soweto, Cape Town and Milnerton, trade union leaders, parliamentarians and leaders of NGOs and civic associations.
“It was a trial by fire, and at the time we had no idea of how successful the programme would become,” recalls Professor Shimshon Zelniker, executive director of the ICIC, and the man responsible for transformig the ICIC- SACIC dream into reality.
“It began in 1986 when Clive Menell of Anglovaal invited members of Israel’s Labour Party to meet Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Soweto Committee of Ten to form an action committee with the aim of developing an educational programme for activists.”
Initially their response was negative. But a day later, Zelniker received pledges of support from prominent community figures such as Dr Ntatho Motlana and Sally Motlana, Emma Mashinini, Fanyana Mazibuko, Stix Morewa and Bishop Nkwe. Deborah Mabiletsa and Ellen Khuzwayo, who were were forced to go underground because of assassination threats, also sent messages of support.
But there was one proviso to participation: no publicity .
“If our plans had got into the wrong hands, it would have been disastrous. Can you imagine the most prominent anti-apartheid organisations — all of them United Democratic Front-affiliates — explaining how their members got cosy with a country regarded as apartheid’s sweetheart. And can you imagine the reaction of a racist regime to the news that Jews from Israel — South Africa’s only friend — were trying to stoke the fires of revolution.”
Zelniker recalls being telephoned by journalist Tom Friedman from The New York Times who had bumped into two of the trainees in Israel. “He thought he’d discovered the story of the century: ‘ANC and Azapo forge secret ties with apartheid’s ally’, or something to that effect . But luckily he was persuaded not to run it.”
Zelniker also had a close encounter with the paranoid arm of the South African Police, when “suspicious-looking” documents were discovered in his briefcase. “I unhesitatingly explained that the documents were connected with the People’s Organisation in Community and Nation Building, which is what we were first called before we changed our name. In those days, people, community and nation had seditious connotations. After that, I never brought documents into this country again.”
Remarkably the SACIC remained free of infiltration by government spies. But in 1987, during an international conference on women’s issues held in America, a South African “delegate” took the podium and berated “neo- colonial traitors inside the UDF” for collaborating with Israel. Sally Motlana was on her way to Israel at the time.
“But Fatima Meer was at the conference,” says Zelniker. “She stood up in front of everyone and said that the women who go to Israel for training do so for the good of the movement. The troublemaker — we discovered he was an SAP spy — quickly disappeared.”
Zelniker describes the first years of the programme as “tougher than pulling teeth. From 1986 to 1988, I literally had to walk the streets like an anthropologist interviewing thousands of potential candidates to go to Israel for training. We had little money and our credibility rested on us finding the right people with influence and integrity.”
But by 1988, the programme — initially designed solely as an initiative for Johannesburg and surrounding areas — had attracted the support of UDF affiliates, black consciousness movements, teachers’ associations and civic organisations countrytwide.
The only organisation precluded from joining the programme was Inkatha because, according to Zelniker, “that would have destroyed the delicate thread of unity and solidarity in the SACIC”. He adds: “Cosatu was virulently against the programme in the beginning. But while the unions could not give official support, they agreed not to stop their members from joining the programme in their individual capacities.”
The programme, which entails spending several weeks in Israel, is “action orientated”, he explains. “There they learn about maximising their skills and resources. But most importantly, we developed a programme around the principles of empowerment within a post- apartheid context. We were implementing the RDP way before the term was even invented.”
He adds: “As a Jew I have learnt that liberation it is not simply about taking the people out of the ghetto. It means taking the ghetto out of the people.”