MK Botswana Machinery Unit Compromised

MK Botswana Machinery Unit Compromised

On the morning of 13 January 1979, an Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Botswana Machinery Unit of seven combatants were waiting in the bush on their route to Ga-Rankuwa, after being infiltrated on Friday night, 12 January 1979, near the village of Sikwane in Botswana, which is close to Derdepoort, a small town in South Africa. The unit decided to rest under trees in dense bushes as they could not walk for a long distance because the terrain in front of them was sparsely populated with vegetation. The intention was to wait until darkness had descended, which would make it easy for them to proceed with their journey.

While they were waiting, one of the cadres, Thabo Makgage, who was operating the Unit’s Light Machine Gun (LMG), asked to be allowed to relieve himself as he had a “runny” tummy. He then left the LMG with the Commander of the Unit, Authi Muzorewa, who had been injured in August the previous year, with Barney Molokoane, during a confrontation with the apartheid security forces in Witkleigat. Muzorewa was appointed as the Commander in the absence of Barney.

The current group was an initiative of the Botswana Machinery to resume infiltrations into the country, and they selected a Unit of seven MK cadres that were taken from Lobatse in a Toyota light delivery vehicle. Six of them were armed with AK-47 assault rifles, one LMG, and each of them had four defensive and two offensive hand grenades, TNT explosive blocks, and a tin of food.

When Thabo Paulos Makgage (aka “Jacob”) left the Unit to relieve himself, he instead made his way to the nearest road, where he saw a vehicle approaching being driven by a white man. Makgage managed to stop the vehicle and asked the driver to take him to the nearest police station. Speaking in Tswana, the white driver asked him why, and he responded that he was trained guerrilla from Angola and he produced a hand grenade, which he gave to the white man. He was then informed to jump into the car, and it made a U-turn in the direction of the police station at the Derdepoort border post.

When they reached the police station, Makgage surrendered himself. At around 16:00, a contingent of twenty apartheid counter-insurgency policemen was gathered, and they followed Makgage through a thick bush near the Derdepoort checkpoint.

Approximately 800 metres into the bush, Makgage pointed out two men at a farm called Klipdrift, and Major M.D. Ras, who was the commander of the police contingent, took aim at them with his R1 rifle. Ras then screamed at the two guerrillas, and when one of them turned around with the LMG in his hand, Ras shot him dead. Immediately a skirmish ensued between the guerrillas and the policemen until darkness stopped the exchange of fire.

During the early hours of the following morning, the apartheid police contingent began to search the area, where they found a corpse of a man who had a bullet wound under his nose. When they searched his pockets, they found a rough map of the north-western Transvaal as well as a passbook with his photograph, which identified him as “Patrick Opa Tawa”. Later on, Makgage confirmed him to be “Authi Muzorewa”, and his fingerprints established his authentic identity as Richard Mmapela.

The previous night, Stalin Ngwekazi and China Msibi had courageously decided to return to the battle scene where they found the lifeless body of Muzorewa lying prostrate. They managed to cover the body with shrubs which was surrounded by a pool of blood before retrieving the Unit’s LMG. During the course of enemy fire directed at them, Muzorewa asked the unit to retreat whilst he was covering them. Ultimately, the police managed to supress his fighting back and eventually killed him. However, Muzorewa’s fighting back at the police contingent with the LMG, was an outstanding act of gallantry, as he saved the lives of five of his comrades in the process.

Both Stalin and China re-joined the Unit, including “Mike Mhlongo”, “Magaqa” and “Moscow”, as they retreated back to Botswana. Muzorewa was part of a group that trained in the Soviet Union in the beginning of 1976. From the Engineering Camp he was deployed in Zambia as an instructor of Military Engineering in the ZIPRA (Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army) camps. He then met Barney Molokoane and Ace Phetla (aka “Ace Molotoane”) who came to the ZIPRA camp for a survival course which lasted two months. Muzorewa requested to join Barney and Ace in undergoing the “toyi-toyi” survival course. The three of them, together with a few other comrades, constituted the very first unit of MK after 1976 to have undergone the survival course at the ZIPRA camps.

Makgage later became an “askari” who operated at Vlakplaas under the command of Eugene de Kock, where he also became a regular State witness in political trials involving captured MK soldiers. Actually, Makgage was among the first askaris to be stationed at Vlakplaas, alongside Jeff Bosigo, Peter Kgoadi, Steven Mbanda, Kimpani Peter “Piet” Mogoai, Gladstone Mose, Joe Mamasela, Brian Ngqulunga and Ernest Ramatlala. Vlakplaas was a farm established by Colonel Johan Viktor, a veteran of the 1967 – 1979 war of liberation in Rhodesia. As a counter-insurgency expert, Victor had learned from the Rhodesians that captured liberation war guerrillas could be “turned” against their former comrades and made into an effective weapon against the liberation struggle.

Counter-insurgency experts, such as Colonel Victor, were assured of their successes against the liberation war guerrillas and believed that they could teach the whole world about their proficiency. Considering the French and the United States being humiliated in Algeria and Indochina (Vietnam), Rhodesian-experienced veterans even boasted that future handbooks about COIN (Counterinsurgency) operations will have to be rewritten, based on the art they had developed in fighting guerrillas. Amongst the avant garde of this art, was the use of “askaris”, which became an effective instrument of war against revolutionary forces.

Sources:
South African History Archives (SAHA).
Truth and Reconciliation Commission Amnesty Committee, “On Resumption: 8th September 1999 – Day 3: Recall of Eugene Alexander De Kock”, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 8 September 1999.
Jacob Dlamini, “Askari: A Story of Collaboration and Betrayal in the Anti-Apartheid Struggle”, Jacana, 2014.
Stanley Manong, “If We Must Die: An Autobiography of a Former Commander of Umkhonto we Sizwe”, Nkululeko, 2015.
Thula Simpson, “Umkhonto we Sizwe: The ANC’s Armed Struggle”, Penguin, 2016.
Robin Binckes, “Vlakplaas: Apartheid Death Squads, 1979–1994”, Pen and Sword, 2018.

Castro Khwela
Good evening fellow Compatriots!