Towards the end of 1980, the apartheid South African security forces devised a plan (codenamed “Operation Beanbag”) for a simultaneous attack on African National Congress (ANC) properties in Swaziland and Mozambique. The attack on Swaziland was charged to the security police, while the attacks on Mozambique were allotted to the SADF Special Forces. During the midnight of 30 January 1981, the apartheid South African Defence Force (SADF) Special Operations Group, consisting largely of former Rhodesian Selous Scouts, attacked three houses belonging to the ANC in Matola, west of Maputo, in Mozambique, disguised as FRELIMO soldiers.
The first house that was under attack was the residence of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Special Operations Unit at which a shootout took place resulting in several casualties and wounded personnel on both sides. The second residence to be attacked was one belonging to the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU), which was hit with rocket launchers, resulting in William Khanyile (a protégé of Harry Gwala in the Natal trade union and underground movement) lying dead after being killed by a rocket that was fired through the wall of the bedroom in which he was sleeping.
In the third property, which was used by the MK Natal Urban Machinery, Mduduzi Guma (aka “Nkululeko”) and Lancelot Hadebe (aka “Sobantu”) were killed instantly when an upstairs bedroom was struck by a rocket. Another MK Cadre, Krishna Rabilal (aka “Goodwin”), stagge
