Sometime towards the midnight of 29 to 30 January 1981, Dick Mtimkulu, the watchman on duty at the headquarters of Umkhonto we Sizwe’s (MK’s) Special Operations Unit in Matola, alerted four of his colleagues that there were a lot of soldiers outside. Mtimkulu then went upstairs to wake Montso “Obadi” Mokgabudi, the Unit Commander, who was sleeping on the upper floor with Solly Mayona, Mochudi and Sipho Thobela. Mtimkulu, Mokgabudi and Lati Ntshekang (who had been sleeping on the bottom floor) went outside, while Thobela tried to get back to sleep.
When the three men reached the gate, they saw black soldiers dressed in Mozambican Army uniforms. One of these soldiers ordered them to kneel down, and when they obeyed, the soldier confiscated Mokgabudi’s pistol and watch. The same soldier ordered them to take of their shoes, and after that instructed them to proceed to the white wall, where they were slashed around the sides of their faces and ears with what felt like razor blades or knives, causing them to cry out.
Sipho Thobela heard these cries and got up, seeing his comrades lined up as if by a firing squad, took his AK-47 and began firing at the men in the yard. The soldiers fired back, seriously wounding Montso Mokgabudi, while they also fired back at the house. Other members of the attacking force, who remained in the rear of the property as their colleagues went to knock at the front, opened fire and threw grenades at the house’s windows. Montso “Obadi
