Umkhonto we Sizwe

... violence self defence units were set up with the aim of protecting township residents. The SDUs, as they came to be known, were trained by Umkhonto we Sizwe soldiers. One such SDU in the Moleleki section of Kathlehong had already been operating since 1992. The unit consisted primarily of ...

... 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

... 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, ...

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 ...

... 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 ...

One clue to Claire’s death might lay in the fact that she’d been recruited as an underground intelligence cooperative for Umkhonto we Sizwe in 1987. // We believe she took this responsibility seriously. She continued to have contact with ANC Military Intelligence when she moved to northern ...

... 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. ...

... 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 ...