Umkhonto we Sizwe

On the last day of the armed forces hearing the ANC’s armed wing Umkhonto we Sizwe came under the spotlight. But after the two massive ANC submissions already made to the Truth Commission there was little that had not already been heard before. However, Cabinet Minister Mac Maharaj did respond ...

... truth and morality are the first casualties. In South Africa the brutalised sometimes became the brutalisers. // Teddy Williams, a former member of Umkhonto we Sizwe, was sent to the ANC’s Quatro rehabilitation camp for taking part in a camp mutiny. // What traumatized me most is to see people ...

... year. The skeletal remains of Bheki Mkwamasi, Mbova Mzimela and Phila Ndwandwe were discovered in unmarked graves; all of them were members of the Umkhonto we Sizwe cell, the ‘Butterfly Unit.’ They’d all been murdered by policemen in 1988. For years their families had no idea what had ...

... that much of this emanated from Transkei, that the apartheid government was party to an agreement allowing the ANC to continue to recruit for Umkhonto we Sizwe for training outside South ...

... 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 ...

In 1988 Durban policemen led by Col Andy Taylor blew up three members of the Umkhonto we Sizwe unit known as ‘The Swimmers’ here at Phoenix Railway Station. The dead were all KwaMashu student activists. Their names were Vusi Mtshali, Sibusiso Ndlovu and Mazwi Vilakazi. But the MK unit had ...

In the late 1980s a number of Umkhonto we Sizwe cells operating in the Western Cape were cracked and leading members detained. Once detained the men who had hunted them down, all members of the police terrorist tracking unit, had two goals. The first was to extract information about arms, contacts ...

... more information than the actions of the applicant. This is the story of how police confessions have lifted a cloud of suspicion from a member of Umkhonto we Sizwe who was blamed by his community and his colleagues for the deaths of three of his comrades. ...

Umkhonto we Sizwe soldier Robert McBride was given three death sentences for planting the bomb. After four years on death row he was reprieved and in 1991 given amnesty. He is now a diplomat at the Department of Foreign Affairs. This made the sisters of one of those killed in the Why not Bar, ...

... 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 ...

The Commission also heard of some of the many exiles who left the area during the 1980s. // In 1993 Umkhonto we Sizwe celebrated its 32nd anniversary. The Spear of the Nation had hit home and would soon be incorporated into a new shield, the South African National Defence Force. // ‘Soon we’ll ...

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 ...