Reinforcing the Butterfly Unit

On the evening of 4 December 1985, at the home of Mapiki Dlomo, in Lamontville, a recently infiltrated Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) cadre, Andrew Zondo, was engaging with Jacob Mofokeng on the next operations they were supposed to undertake. Zondo was collected by Sibongiseni Dhlomo from Ingwavuma in November, with other two MK cadres, “Sandile” and Terence Tyron, to reinforce “Operation Butterfly”.

On this day he was there to provide Mofokeng and Dlomo with the kind of training in the use of actual weapons that Lulamile Xate (aka “Tallman”) referred to when he briefed them in January 1985. Later on that night, at around 22:00, the three walked in the direction of a local Anglican church, which had a concealed bush and tall grass and illuminated slightly by a high electricity post in an area close by.

Zondo then placed his hand into the bush and withdrew a bag from which he took out an AK-47 assault rifle. He then began instructing Mofokeng and Dlomo in dismantling, reassembling and using the cloth to clean the rifle.

Early in June 1985, Vijay Ramlakan, an activist of the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) had arrived at Unit 2 Shopping Centre in Bayview, Chatsworth, Durban, where he took his comrade, Raymond Sakloo, in his white Toyota Cressida. Ramlakan then informed Sakloo about his plan to petrol-bomb the house of a member of the House of Delegates, in the Tri-cameral Parliament, as one of his operatives in Chatsworth informed him of this.

While they were talking, Sakloo recognised another African person in the car, who was wearing Ray-Ban sunglasses and a hat. Ramlakan then introduced the other person as “Lincoln” (real name Lulamile Xate), and he said he was a member of the underground structure of the African National Congress (ANC) and an internal commander of MK’s Natal Region.

According to Ramlakan, “Lincoln” was there to recruit and train more Indians into the MK underground. Based on this, Ramlakan informed Sakloo that from then onwards he was going to be part of an MK underground, and should abandon his plans to attack the house. When Sakloo, Derrick Naidoo, Lenny Naidu, Savid Maduray and Richard Naidoo attacked Armichand Rajbansi’s house on 4 August 1985, they used a limpet mine instead of a petrol bomb.

Subsequently, in August 1985, the Commander of the Natal Machinery, Thami Zulu, met with Jacob Zuma in Mozambique to discuss the establishment of a new politico-military structure for Natal in line with the recommendations of the Kabwe Conference.

After Zuma had given the go-ahead to draw up a plan, Zulu then assembled Edward Lawrence, Sue Rabkin and Terence Tyron in Maputo where they developed a structure based on “area mobilisation” within Natal, meaning the mobilisation of Indian and African communities on a separate basis. The operation was code-named “Butterfly” in honour of Zweli Nyanda, who used the term when discussing a very similar project with Charles Ndaba and Rayman Lalla in 1982.

On 27 September 1985, the impact of the structure began to be felt with operations undertaken by Audway Msomi, Thuso Tshika and Bafo Nguqu in Durban. The three had already undergone training in April 1985 under Mduduzi Sithole (aka “Belgium”) in Folweni.

By October, “Operation Butterfly” had taken off, as Linda Moni left Angola for Mozambique, where he met Sibusiso Mbongwa (aka “Sihle Khumalo”) and Sandile Sizani (aka “Master”). The three were then joined by Edward Lawrence of the Natal Machinery, who informed them about the requirements of Operation Butterfly.

On 30 September 1985, Thami Zulu arrived at a Manzini resident where Linda Moni, Sihle Khumalo, “Master” and Sibongiseni Dhlomo were present. After a short meeting, “Moni” and “Master” were transported into South Africa through Jozini, where they were collected by Vijay Ramlakan and Sibongiseni Dhlomo, and they were taken to the Alan Taylor Residence of the University of Natal in Wentworth.

At this residence the group were met by Lulamile Xate, who introduced himself as “Mr X” and then allocated each of the newcomers rooms on the premises.

Operation Butterfly was aimed at settling a group of middle ranking, externally trained political and military cadres of proven discipline in the Durban area. Primarily the focus was to re-organise the local underground from the top downwards, asserting authority over existing and isolated underground units, and to ensure that these reflected the principle of integrated political-military command in structures. Ultimately this was to result in preparing the ground for the clandestine entry into the area of more senior leadership.

According to the plan, Operation Butterfly was to have a single line of command from exile to the district committee in Durban, which would operate as a single unit, jointly controlling all specialised operation activities in the Durban area. Under the district committee was to be specialist units dealing with mass mobilisation, propaganda, logistics, communications, security and intelligence. The Military Headquarters in exile was not going to be granted its own, parallel, line of command to military units involved in the Operation.

Nevertheless, the challenges and the failures of this well-conceived Operation were attributed to security leaks that occurred in Swaziland. Years later, in 1989, one of those who were involved in drawing up the Butterfly plan, Edward Lawrence (aka “Ralph”), apparently admitted to being a long-term apartheid security agent.

Castro Khwela
Good day fellow Compatriots!