The Mamre training camp

MK recruits underwent military training in December 1962 at a farm in Mamre, which had been hired by Denis Goldberg for this purpose. The group included Albie Sachs, Archie Sibeko, Chris Hani, Mountain Qumbela, and Reggie September. A number of tents were set up on the farm ‘some distance from the road, behind some large bushes’. The cadres were divided into six groups of four people each, led by a ‘sergeant’, and guards were deployed around the camp at night ‘to warn against any possible intruders’. The three week training course included, ‘among other things, lectures on politics, economics, the workings of the internal combustion engine, first-aid, the use of field telephones and judo classes’. They were given lectures on guerrilla warfare, the Cuban revolution and the writings of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. Each morning the cadres engaged in physical exercises. They were provided training in sabotage, ‘how to handle guns, how to communicate, and so on’. There were 38 cadres in the camp, and Denis Goldberg was in charge of the whole group. The training was supposed to take three months, but the group was discovered before the month was over. Farmworkers on the farm noticed smoke coming from the area where the group had set up camp. They investigated and revealed the presence of the group on the farm to the police. The camp was raided by policemen and soldiers who were dropped on the scene by helicopters. The senior cadres were arrested, while the rest were released. Ultimately, it was the arrest of two recruits who were being smuggled out of the country that led to the arrest of Mountain Qumbela, and then the entire regional command, in 1963.