IAN MUNRO PHILLIPS
When I served on the first REC, we had a whole range of titles and things, but one of my functions was to perform political education role for the ANC generally.
	However, it was identified, because at that same time I was a member of a structure called the Military Research Group which was an ANC/MK aligned NGO, if you like, operated in Johannesburg, which was part and parcel of the ANC's negotiations around the military transition and military transformations that would need to be taken.
	It was identified that with my knowledge of that particular area and the political education experience, I would be used from time to time, quite frequently as it became clear in the 1990's, to deal directly with communities on the issues of self defence, the policies of the organisation, how the ANC perceived self defence in the overall strategy that we had, multiprong strategy that we had to try and secure democracy in the country.
	So mostly and again because teaching at the University, my time was taken up mostly during the day, a great deal of our work, was conducted at night or in the evenings and that type of thing.
	Comrade Jeff has already referred to the frequent formal meetings, conferences, workshops that were organised by the Regional ANC on an ongoing basis during this period, but besides those, there was frequent contact, not only of individual REC members with different branches of the ANC, but ourselves, myself and Mandla used to travel around very, very frequently or if we were accompanying comrade Jeff, while comrade Jeff is addressing a particular function or meeting on this particular level, we would be having a discussion with other people in turn, trying to instill the types of discipline and organisational skills that were necessary in those areas.
	The major difficulty if I may just add, was - if I can make a comparison with the benign atmosphere of the University lecture hall, it is wonderful to have the time to prepare your lectures and to present them to a class of students, who themselves are allegedly, or have allegedly prepared for that particular class and conduct lessons in that manner.  When we were conducting political education in the Region in Southern Natal, we were doing it on the hoof, there was absolutely no time for the types of deep thinking and seminaring and workshopping that can go on because these were communities under fire and so time was of the essence, and frequently, perhaps the message that we needed to put across, wasn't put across as clearly as it could have been in those circumstances.