MK Armed Actions Disrupting 20th Apartheid Republic Celebrations

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 twenty years as a republic, rail traffic on the Durban-South Coast line was disrupted after a bomb explosion near Lamontville Station in the morning. In central Durban, the police confiscated an unexploded leaflet bomb containing some 1 500 pamphlets purportedly produced by the African National Congress (ANC), calling on people to reject republic festival activities.

Likewise, in Umtata, thousands of anonymous pamphlets were scattered, calling on people under the Transkei Bantustan to boycott work and buses for three days in protest against the “white Republic of South Africa”. Furthermore, in Fort Jackson, eleven kilometres from East London, a grenade attack was reported on a police station, while a police vehicle carrying three people, including the Head of the Ciskei Intelligence Services, Brigadier Charles Sebe, was attacked shortly afterwards in the nearby township of Mdantsane, which was under the Ciskei Bantustan.

Meanwhile, earlier in May, back at the Transvaal Urban Machinery’s premises in Liberdad, Maputo, Moses Mbatha and Suzman Mokoena were briefed by Johannes Rasegatla and Thabo Motaung about the Mabopane area, which was next to Pretoria. Motaung was explaining how they were to find a particular bus stop in Mabopane, which was to assist them to engage with their contact in the township. They were then told by Rasegatla that they were to receive further instructions in Swaziland.

On 25 May 1981, at the bus station in Mabopane, Suzman Mokoena found Thabo Motaung waiting at one of the stops, and they subsequently went to a meeting at Ga-Rankuwa Station, with Moses Mbatha, Theophilus Sidima Dlodlo (aka “Viva Zenge), Solly Shoke (“Jabu”) of the G-5 Unit that attacked the Moroka, Orlando and Booysens Police Stations, and a third man, “Budis”. Motaung then informed them that they were at that time considered to be the G-7 Unit, and Solly “Jabu” Shoke will be the Unit Commander, Theophilus “Viva” Dlodlo the Commissar, while Mbatha, “Budis” and Suzman “Kid” Mokoena as unit members. Motaung said since the five had undergone the survival course, “eMagojini”, they were expected to find a location somewhere in the mountains surrounding Ga-Rankuwa, near Medunsa University, where they should construct a base.

On 26 May 1981, near the Medical University of South Africa, often known as Medunsa University, Dlodlo, Mokoena, Budis and Mbatha received zinc plates, picks and shovels from Thabo Motaung and Solly Shoke, and began to dig an underground dwelling or dugout with tunnels for the G-7 Unit. Even the Commander-in-Chief of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), ANC President Oliver Tambo, was very proud of the achievements of these guerrillas in their ability to coordinate their military actions with the political campaigns happening in various parts of the country.

In the January 8 Statement of the same year, Tambo said, “An important additional feature to all these campaigns was the growth of the level of unity in action among the fighting contingents. The necessity of all of us to build on this achievement cannot be over-emphasised. … In this connection the attack by a unit of Umkhonto we Sizwe on the enemy’s railway communications which was timed to reinforce the Soweto campaign against rent increases was highly commendable. Even more so were the heroic and daring armed operations carryout out by the Umkhonto we Sizwe during the Year of the Charter and the Year of the Worker. Once more our combatants re-affirmed in action that they remain true to the tradition of combat established by our forefathers at Isandlwana and elsewhere.”

According to Tambo, “Silverton, Booysens, Sasol and Chiawelo will go down in the history of our struggle as glorious forerunners of the people’s war that has already started. A vitally important feature of these actions is that they were an integral part of a militant country-wide mass struggle of the people fighting on all fronts. They helped to raise the level of overall struggle and heighten its impact. In addition, against the background of industrial strikes, schools’ boycotts, the arrest of church leaders and numerous forms of resistance against the notorious apartheid regime, the armed actions by Umkhonto we Sizwe gave a new dimension to the solidarity of the people of the world with the oppressed, the exploited, the democratic and fighting people of South Africa. We congratulate our people’s army, Umkhonto we Sizwe.”

Issuing out orders for the unfolding year, President Tambo gave the following instruction: “On May 31st this year, the racist regime will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fascist republic imposed on us in 1961, in the face of our determined opposition under the leadership of Comrade Nelson Mandela. Undoubtedly, the oppressor regime will try to embroil us in activities organised to mark this occasion. But the racist Republic Day cannot by any stretch of the imagination be a day for the oppressed, for the black people of South Africa, or for any democrat.”

“We can have nothing to do with May 31”, Tambo continued. “We refused to recognise the legitimacy of the apartheid republic in 1961. We have much less reason to recognise it today, when the burning demand is for a People’s Government. Indeed, to re-inforce this demand we need to initiate a Campaign Against Republic Day. … Our unity is, and always will be, one of the principal fountains of strength in our march to victory. The high level of unity generated by the struggles waged last year itself became a mighty weapon in our hands.”

Sources:
Wikipedia.
South African History Online (SAHO).
President OR Tambo, “Extend and Defend Our Revolutionary Gains! President O.R. Tambo’s January 8th, 1981, Statement,” Sechaba, March 1981.
Thula Simpson, “Umkhonto we Sizwe: The ANC’s Armed Struggle”, Penguin, 2016.

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