ANC Headquarters in London is Bombed
On 14 March 1982, the African National Congress (ANC) headquarters in Islington, London, England, was bombed. Historically, these offices served as the ANC’s headquarters in Europe since the 1960s. The offices were wrecked by an eleven-kilogram bomb which exploded against the rear wall at 09:00 in the morning, with windows up to 400 yards away being broken. The caretaker, an ANC voluntary researcher, Vernet Mbatha, who was sleeping in a flat above the offices, suffered slight injuries on his foot.
Significant damage was caused to buildings on White Lion Street and Penton Street, where the offices were located. Windows of neighbouring buildings were also shattered, including the Samuel Smith pub and the White Lion Free School, both on White Lion Street and situated metres away from the explosion. Debris from the blast was found nearly 400m away, windows of buildings up to 500 metres away and the explosion was heard as far away as Stoke Newington.
General Johann Coetzee, former head of the apartheid South African security police, and seven other policemen, claimed responsibility for the attack and applied for amnesty before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Coetzee’s accomplices were Major Craig Williamson, John McPherson, Roger Raven, Wybrand du Toit, Major John Adam, Captain James Taylor and Colonel Eugene de Kock. The task of assembling the team was assigned to Colonel Piet Goosen, then Head of Section G (foreign
