Flag Boshielo Captured and Killed with Three of His Comrades
On 20 August 1970, just after the African National Congress (ANC) Morogoro National Consultative Conference, Flag Boshielo, a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) and the Revolutionary Council (RC) and leading Chief Political Commissar of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), led a team of fighters on a mission to cross into South Africa. The team consisted of Castro Dolo, Victor Ndaba and Bob Zulu, which ran into an ambush in the Caprivi Strip, South West Africa (Namibia), being betrayed by a local apartheid agent.
The four perished without any trace and it was recorded that three of the men were killed instantly in a shootout at Ishuwa by the apartheid Security Branch’s counter-insurgency Units. In the Caprivi Strip villages of Ivilivinzi and Ihaha, the shots were clearly heard, and from the near side of Ivilivinzi people were able to see the apartheid police spotlight in the distance. Later the following day, after the police had departed, a few curious boys went to examine the site. They found spent cartridges and reeds that were damaged by bullets. It took a few days before the villagers dared to pass Ishuwa again. However, when they did, they found footprints indicating that there had been a survivor.
On 22 April 1970, five comrades, including Fanele Mbali, held a meeting in Lusaka, Zambia, wherein Boshielo told Mbali that they needed a volunteer to join them, somebody who could keep a secret and act
