MK Armed Actions Disrupting 20th Apartheid Republic Celebrations
On 26 May 1981, the Rand Daily Mail newspaper reported that the African National Congress (ANC) had claimed responsibility for the Johannesburg explosion, which was one of a series of actions on 25 May 1981 that were aimed at disrupting apartheid South Africa’s celebrations of twenty years as a republic.
In the early hours of 25 May 1981, after spending one day in Soweto, Jerry Mosololi and Sydney Molefe performed the mission assigned to them in Matola by their Commander, Siphiwe Nyanda. In Matola, early May 1981, Mosololi and Molefe were briefed by Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Transvaal Urban Machinery Commander Nyanda on their mission, which involved infiltrating South Africa and executing acts of sabotage in the Soweto area.
Nyanda, Mosololi and Molefe were then joined by “Keith” and “Lake” in a car driven by “Dunkin” to the Mozambique-Swaziland border. Following their penetrating South Africa, Mosololi and Molefe placed charges on the railway lines connecting New Canada with Mzimhlophe and Mlamlankunzi Stations. The Mzimhlophe detonation did not succeed because the explosive charges fell off the line, but Mosololi himself managed to electronically detonate the other explosions in the early hours of the morning, at 02:32.
As part of a series of other Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) operations throughout the country, which were aimed at making apartheid South Africa hot during the celebrations of tw
