Umkhonto we Sizwe

Lunchtime January 25, 1980. Three Umkhonto we Sizwe storm into the Silverton branch of Volkskas bank, but it wasn’t a robbery. It is one of MK’s strangest operations. They kept 25 people hostage for six hours.

... Trade Centre negotiating their way towards change the Pan Africanist Congress was playing a different sort of game. While liberation armies like Umkhonto we Sizwe laid down arms, the PAC was arming and training young cadres in the townships to intensify a ‘people’s war.’ For the PAC this ...

KwaZulu-Natal Midlands ANC leader Reggie Hadebe and that he carried out one of the worst mass murders in the province.’ // ‘Mr Luthuli, a former Umkhonto we Sizwe soldier and IFP field organizer, has fled his Ulundi home and entered a state witness protection programme to disclose damaging ...

... else. For Jeremiah Matli who was born in a black, hidden part of town, bravery meant using the mountain of his childhood as a route out to join Umkhonto we ...

story of prison life on the island, Andrew Masondo, Hanry Makgothi and Johnson Mlambo; all arrived on South Africa’s Alcatraz in 1963 as convicted Umkhonto we Sizwe and Poqo ...

... it means is that it’s not a bunch of ex soldiers getting together having a braaivleis and swopping bush stories. What it is, is SWAPO, ANC, APLA, Umkhonto we Sizwe, Koevoet, Recces, all the units, every single unit, everybody whoever was trained in any way militarily getting together and just ...

of Parliament. Malan appealed for the acceptance of the bona fides of the members of the former Defence Force. He said he accepted the bona fides of Umkhonto we Sizwe in the furtherance of their aims, irrespective of the merits of their ...

You have got 200 people sent for paramilitary training and you have, if you look at the Umkhonto we Sizwe certified personal register of members who are eligible to be integrated into the National Defence Force: 18, 19 maybe even 20 000 members of MK, you put these two things in balance and you ...

16 December 1991. Many Afrikaner families celebrated the day of the Vaal or Dingaan’s day, the commemoration of the battle of Blood river. Umkhonto we Sizwe celebrated its thirtieth birthday on the same day. But CODESA was on the horizon, the ruling National Party and the liberation movements ...

Within three years of joining the ANC underground Phila was commanding all Umkhonto we Sizwe operations in Natal from her base in Swaziland. She was 24, with a makarov pistol on one hip and a baby boy on the other, but the same leadership qualities which turned tiny Phila Ndwande into respected MK ...

... was hidden, that we should be ashamed of, that needs to come out during these hearings. The overwhelming majority of the South Africans who joined Umkhonto we Sizwe, whether they went out of the country or stayed in the country were not traitors. They were not traitors, they didn’t sell out, ...

... you might want to refer to which was I think was described at the time as the Silverton bank siege. This is the only instance in which cadres of Umkhonto we Sizwe took hostages. There were three cadres who were going on some operation. They realised that they had been spotted by the police, ...

I’m not going to talk about apartheid anymore. I’m not going to campaign against it; I’m going to fight against it. If I have to burn apartheid, I am going to do that. And I was on my way after that to Umkhonto we Sizwe.

... Before she converted to Islam Zara was known as Greta Appelgren, a fiery activist from Wentworth in Natal. In 1986 she was recruited into an Umkhonto we Sizwe unit by Robert McBride. She was willing because she was already very frustrated with aboveground political ...

This is a matter which preoccupied the leadership of the ANC for a very long time. From the beginning, as we tried to indicate, when Umkhonto we Sizwe was established its instructions were that there should be no loss of life. It’s why there was mention of strategic roads and communication ...

... against a government whose reply is only savage attacks on an unarmed and defenceless people’ // The PAC formed Poqo and the ANC created Umkhonto we Sizwe, the Spear of the Nation. Leadership went underground. But the National Party had these fledgling liberation armies outmanned and ...

... a prisoner is alone 23 hours a day, deprived of human contact, an attack on the mind and the soul. This is the story of Zahrah Narkedien, a former Umkhonto we Sizwe cadre who was confined in a basement for seven ...

... amnesty for the murders. The bones of one of the bodies taken out of the soil are those of Phila Ndwandwe. At the age of 24 she was a commander of Umkhonto we Sizwe in KwaZulu-Natal. When she was abducted from Swaziland nine years ago, police denied all involvement. ...

... on the long journey he’s just started and the other child victims of our bitter past. Now to another unfortunate chapter of our history. After Umkhonto we Sizwe was formed in 1961 it established camps in neighbouring states: Zambia, Angola, Tanzania, Uganda. Suddenly in the aftermath of the ...

This incident happened during 1986, the precise date I cannot remember. At that stage Mamasela used the MK that is Umkhonto we Sizwe name of Mike to move around Mamelodi. He came to me one day and told me he was approached by some of the more militant youths who asked if he could not possibly ...