The Moshaneng-Witkleigat Episode

The Moshaneng-Witkleigat Episode

On 1 August 1978, Constable Solomon Sehume took a call at the Swartkopfontein Gate at the South African-Botswana border post, while Warrant Officer Albertus Smit was listening in on another line. According to the caller, who was the black owner of a café in Moshaneng, near Witkleigat, there were two men at his store who were purchasing huge quantities of tinned food, and appeared to have lots of money. He was actually suspecting that they were the ones responsible for the break-in at the store the previous Sunday, 30 July 1978, whereby R700 was stolen.

He then mentioned to the apartheid police that he was going to try and delay them until they were able to apprehend them. Immediately, Smit grabbed his service revolver and left with Sehume in a police van, and along the Welgevonden Road they approached two men who were dressed in civilian clothes carrying boxes. When they saw the shop owner a short distance behind the men, standing next to a bunch of trees, they then stopped the van and approached the two men and ordered them to drop the boxes.

When the van approached them, the two men, Richard Mmapela (aka “Authu Muzorewa”) and Wilfred “Windy” Marwane attempted to run away, and Smit warned them in Afrikaans to stop or he was going to shoot them. Marwane stopped running, and began to beg Smit not to shoot, while Muzorewa kept running, while he was at the same time looking for his weapon. Smit began firing at Muzorewa, but missed with his service revolver, as Muzorewa fled the scene, leaving the boxes of tinned food behind.

As they attempted to pursue Muzorewa, he fought back firing at Smit, but missing him, while he also pulled-out a hand grenade that he threw at Sehume, which exploded without causing any harm. Muzorewa managed to escape the scene, without being caught, while Marwane surrendered and was placed in custody. When they attempted to further pursue Muzorewa, they realised that there were other men in the hills running to some bush for cover, with one carrying a firearm. The policemen then speeded back to Swartkopfontein to call for backup.

Later that day, when an apartheid police counter insurgency (COIN) unit, under the command of Colonel H.A. Mouton, arrived in Witkleigat supported by a contingent of the Bophuthatswana National Guard, they attempted to pursue the “fugitives” inside the bushy hilltop area. During a search, the apartheid security forces came across Barney Molokoane (aka “Budah”) and John Mofokeng Sekete (aka “Willie”), and an intense fire-fight took place, after which the two guerrillas managed to break off the engagement and fled into the bush.

After a short skirmish, of about “three hours of a running gun battle”, according to Stanley Manong, “because it was getting dark, Barney ordered his unit to retreat tactfully towards the border of Botswana. He was the last person to retreat. At night, under the cover of darkness, Barney returned to the battle scene. He only discovered then that he had been shot in the leg but that did not hinder him. He went to retrieve the AK-47 of Wilfred “Windy” Marwane as he had left it behind when he had gone to the shop with Muzorewa.”

“Arriving at the battle scene”, Manong continues, “he observed that the police were there before and had put cotton wool on the trees and bushes around the battle scene. The police did not take anything as they intended to return the following day when they would be able to reconstruct the battle scene. Limping, he grabbed the AK and other ammunition and retreated back to Botswana long after the rest of the comrades had gone. He thought the rest of the comrades might have gone to Mochudi. He was at the rail station also trying to board a bus to Mochudi.

Meanwhile at the battle scene, the policemen found some blood drops, which meant one of the guerrillas was hit. Following some sporadic shooting in the hills, and after two Frelon helicopters were employed to search for the guerrillas, the search was called off, as the exercise was deduced to be fruitless. The Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) combatants who were involved in the fire exchange with the apartheid security forces managed to arrive safely back to Botswana, with Barney Molokoane having a bullet wound in his leg.

The operation was planned at a meeting, which consisted of Victor Modise and Stanley Manong of the MK Botswana Machinery, and operatives Barney Molokoane, who was the Commander, Authu Muzorewa, the Chief of Staff, Ace “Molotoane” Phetla, John Msibi, Wilfred “Windy” Marwane, John Sekete, Patrick Dipholo, Dennis Ramphomane and Mooki Motsoaledi. The nine-man unit was intended to enter South Africa and establish routes and bases around the Pilanesberg and Soutpansberg mountain ranges.

Prior to this operation, following a briefing on the mission, Molokoane mentioned the need for food supplies to be transported into the country before they could undertake any operations. He then also volunteered to do this that night with Ace Phetla, in preparation for infiltration the following day. Victor Modise refused to allow this and instead proposed to arrange for a courier to deliver the food, who failed to do this, hence they were forced to buy food.

According to Manong, “After his arrest at Moshaneng/Witkleigat, Sibonego Wilfred “Windy” Marwane was sentenced on the 28 November 1978 to 15 years by the Supreme Court of Bophuthatswana in Mmabatho under the Terrorism Act. He successfully appealed to the Appellate Division in Bloemfontein against his sentence on the grounds that Section 2(1)(c) of the Terrorrism Act he was charged under, was inconsistent with Section 12(3) of the Constitution of Bophuthatswana, which enshrines the right to liberty and security of persons. By the time of his arrest, Bophuthatswana had already been granted ‘independence’ by South Africa on the 6 December 1977.”

On 19 May 1982, the Appellate Division reduced “Windy” Marwane’s sentence to three and a half years as he was only charged for the possession of a hand-grenade, which was found in his possession at the time he was captured. As he had already served three and a half years of his sentence, he was immediately released from jail. Upon his release, he was mysteriously shot dead on 19 January 1987 outside his home in Emdeni, Soweto. It is presumed that members of the Vlakplaas Unit under the command of Dirk Coetzee and Eugene de Kock, shot and killed him outside his home, as they were not satisfied with his acquittal.

One of the cadres who did not return to Botswana, was John “Willie” Sekete, who was reported to have refused to go back to Botswana after they had retreated from the hillock. He instead opted to go inside the country and fight against the apartheid system. As he was originally from Rustenburg, reports we received years later that Willie was ultimately arrested and sent to Robben Island. He was arrested on 22 November 1978 in Phokeng, a township near Rustenburg, whilst trying to recruit people for an underground MK cell. He was charged as accused number one with eleven other cadres in the now famous “Pietermaritzburg 12 Treason Trial”, which sentenced James Mange to death.

During this period, MK was grappling with expanding the armed struggle into guerrilla warfare, which the 1969 Morogoro Conference had recognised to be a protracted phase. The biggest challenge was inhospitable terrain to establish bases so as to encircle the urban areas, as would often be the case with classical guerrilla warfare. The dearth of inaccessible mountains or forests in the rural areas, as was the case in most southern African countries that experienced guerrilla warfare, made the expansion of this phase to be onerous. Nevertheless, combined with the other three pillars of the revolution, as espoused in the Morogoro Strategy and Tactics document, the efficacy of the armed struggle had to be combined with mass mobilisation, the underground and international solidarity.

“Shona malanga! Sesizodibana, nge-bazooka ehlathini!”

Sources:
Dikgang Nene, “Richard ‘Barney’ Molokoane”, Dawn – Journal of Umkhonto we Sizwe, December 1986.
Yunus Carrim, “Attacking the Heart of Apartheid: The ANC’s MK Special Operations Unit”, Penguin, 2025.
Thula Simpson, “Umkhonto we Sizwe: The ANC’s Armed Struggle”, Penguin, 2016.
Stanley Manong, “If We Must Die: An Autobiography of a Former Commander of Umkhonto we Sizwe”, Nkululeko, 2015.

Castro Khwela
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