Post-Nkomati Accord Challenges in Swaziland
On 19 April 1984, a combined Swazi Police and Army contingent went to a house in Manzini’s Old Ngwane Park, in Swaziland, where they experienced gunfire and grenades being directed at them from the house, to which they responded, and a shootout ensued. After a while, the Swazis took a decision to bomb the house in order to flush out the guerrillas, and the bomb ripped open a hole in the roof. Following this bombing, two heavily armed young men were killed. Sporadic fire continued throughout the evening, until approximately 22:00 at night. In the early hours of the morning, three guerrillas voluntarily gave themselves up, and the Swazi contingent got into the house, finding one of the guerrillas lying dead with his head blown off.
This exchange of fire between combatants of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) and the Swazi armed forces was a result of previous confrontations that were encouraged by the signing of the Nkomati Accord between Mozambique and apartheid South Africa on 16 March 1984. Following its signing, on 24 March, at least twelve homes of African National Congress (ANC) activists in Maputo were raided, including the residence of Joe Slovo, the then Chief of Staff of MK. According to ANC officials, four people were detained, weapons were confiscated, including Slovo’s handgun, as he was not at home at the time, busy appointing a “Co-ordinating Committee” that was tasked with overseeing ANC political and military work
