Inkatha Attack Repelled at ANC Shell House Headquarters
On 28 March 1994, African National Congress (ANC) security guards opened fire on raging Inkatha impis, who were armed with guns, assegais and battle axes, marching and shooting towards the ANC Headquarters in Shell House, in protest against the 1994 elections. After several shots were fired during the fracas outside the building, nineteen Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) supporters were killed. ANC security guards claimed that the IFP supporters were storming the building, gunfire from the crowd rang out and bullets struck the walls of Shell House.
During the phase of establishing a constitution for South Africa and prior to the first free elections in South African history, which were scheduled for 27 April 1994, bloodshed frequently occurred between Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and the African National Congress (ANC). Both parties attempted to campaign in each other’s Natal strongholds, as well as in the Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vaal (PWV) Area suburbs and townships, wherein Inkatha used hostels as fortresses against the largely ANC-aligned communities. The conflict’s turning point was the 28 March 1994 shooting incident that took place at Shell House, the headquarters of the ANC, in central Johannesburg.
The incident triggered a state of emergency across eleven magisterial districts in the East Rand, as well as the whole of the KwaZulu Bantustan and Natal province. IFP leader Chief Buthelezi vowed to fight the AN
