MK Special Ops Apartheid-Shattering Church Street Bombing
On Friday, 20 May 1983, at approximately 16:28, a huge blast on Church Street made a black plume of smoke to emanate from a car outside the Nedbank Square Building, which housed the South African Air Force Headquarters. The bomb had made a huge crater in the ground. When the bomb exploded prematurely, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Operative, Freddie Shongwe’s body was hurled some distance from a Colt Gallant and was crushed against a lamp post. His Comrade, Ezekial Maseko suffered critical injuries to the lower half of his body and was taken to hospital only to be pronounced dead upon arrival.
On the other side of the street was the Poynton Building, which housed the apartheid South African Defence Force (SADF) Directorate of Military Intelligence. Almost all the shops on both sides of the street were destroyed, as were three floors of the Nedbank Building. Worst hit, was the Golden Egg Restaurant on the ground floor of the Nedbank Building. Crushed bodies were lying in the street and in the restaurant, a young soldier’s face was charred and his eyes were blinded by the explosion. The smoke created an unnerving haze around Church Street, while a nauseating smell was accompanied by cries from people trapped inside the Golden Egg Restaurant.
Where did it all begin? It was in December 1982 that Aboobaker Ismail (aka “Rashid”) and Joe Slovo began discussing the Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Special Operations Unit’s n
