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 miss
