Gugulethu Seven

Last updated

The Gugulethu Seven was an anti-apartheid group of men between the ages of 16 and 23 that were shot and killed on 3 March 1986 by members of the South African Police force. The seven men included Mandla Simon Mxinwa, Zanisile Zenith Mjobo, Zola Alfred Swelani, Godfrey Jabulani Miya, Christopher Piet, Themba Mlifi and Zabonke John Konile. [1] It was later uncovered that the police operation that unearthed the Gugulethu Seven's plans had been in the works for some time.

Contents

Prelude

In the mid 1970s and 80's, there was a rise in uMkhonto we Sizwe or MK operatives, the 1961-founded, armed wing of the ANC. [2] In response, General Griebenouw of the Western Cape Security called upon Brigadier Schoon of the Security Branch Headquarters in Pretoria as well as the assistance of the Vlakplaas, a government death squad. [3] [4] Vlakplaas commander, Eugene de Kock chose Rian Bellingan to lead an operative team ordered to intervene with anti-apartheid operations. [1] The men chosen as part of the team were Thapelo Johannes Mbelo, Joe Coetzer, and other Vlakplaas askaris like Gladstone Moss, Eric 'Shakes' Maluleke and Jimmy Mbane. [3]

The operative team was based in Koeberg and in early January 1986, drove into Cape Town aboard three vehicles; one was a minibus with weapons and explosives concealed inside. After failed attempts to infiltrate Mbelo into the Gugulethu Seven, Mbane and Maluleke were sent in. [3]

Mbane and Maluleke, who reported to Bellingan and Liebenberg, were successful at slipping in and gaining the trust of the Gugulethu Seven over time. At first they were given weapons and grenades and went to the home of Yamile (the squatter leader). There, they told Yamile that they were commanders from exile and showed him their weapons in the minibus. Yamile then introduced Mbane and Maluleke to Piet, a member and the supposed leader of the Gugulethu Seven. It is said that Mbane and Maluleke even helped fix Piet's faulty AK-47 at one point. [3]

Over the next two months, Mbane trained the youth in basic military combat while Maluleke gave them a political education; Piet seemed to be the only youth that had previous combat training. Mbane and Maluleke also had the youth write their own biographies, which was a standard practice in liberation movements. It was later discovered that Mbane gave those to Bellingan. [3]

Eventually, an attack was planned for 3 March that would target a police bus that took senior policemen to Gugulethu station every morning. Mbane told Bellingan and Liebenberg this, who prepared for the event. [3]

Incident

On 3 March 1986, 25 heavily armed police were briefed and deployed at Wingfield Naval Base at 3 a.m. The intended target area was surrounded and occupied by police by 5 a.m. Mbane, driving a stolen bakery van, dropped the seven youth off at the site around 7:25 a.m. [3] Allegedly, grenades were thrown by the Gugulethu Seven and the police started firing from all sides. Reports say that Piet was the only one who had time to fire back. [1] The police officers at the scene included: Warrant Officers Barnard and McMaster, Majors Johan Kleyn, Dolf Odendal, and Stephanus Brits, Captain Charles Brazzelle, Sergeants John Sterrenberg, Andre Grobbellar and Rian Bellingan, and Constable Thapelo Mbelo. [1] [3]

For their help in exposing and leading the Gugulethu Seven into fire, Mbane and Maluleke were given ZAR7000 - one thousand for each victim. [3]

It was later reported that Piet suffered 12 bullet wounds to his head. [3]

Aftermath & Mother's Testimony

Piet and the Gugulethu Seven's deaths led to an inquest in 1986, and a trial in 1987, which later reopened in 1989. [3] The findings by Wynberg magistrate, Mr. Hoffman, were that the seven men had died in a legitimate anti-terrorist operation. In her 27 November 1996 Truth and Reconciliation Commission Gross Human Rights Violations testimony, Piet's mother Cynthia Nomveyu Ngewu said the trials in court were dissatisfying and she couldn't understand the language being spoken; the proceedings were in Afrikaans. [5]

Ngewu said she had to see her dead son being dragged with a rope around his waist, broadcast on television. The police told her that her son had shot at the police and they later came by her home to look for weapons. [5] Ngewu later expressed her forgiveness and reconciliatory beliefs in regards to her son's killing:

"We do not want to return the evil that perpetrators committed to the nation. We want to demonstrate humanness towards them, so that they in turn may restore their own humanity". [6]

The South African Police that applied for amnesty for the killings were Rian Bellingan, Thapelo Mbelo, and Xola Frank 'Jimmy' Mbane. [1] They received the amnesty.

Memorial

On 21 March 2005, Human Rights Day in South Africa, a monument was erected in Gugulethu honoring the lives of the Gugulethu Seven. It is outside the Gugulethu police station on the corner of NY1 and NY111 right near where the Seven, including Christopher 'Rasta' Piet, were shot. [7] [8]

Movie

In 2000, a film of the events surrounding the Gugulethu Seven, directed by Lindy Wilson, was released. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Day of Reconciliation</span> Public holiday in South Africa on 16 December

The Day of Reconciliation is a public holiday in South Africa held annually on 16 December. The holiday came into effect in 1995 after the end of apartheid, with the intention of fostering reconciliation and national unity for the country. Recognising the need for racial harmony, the government chose the date for its significance to both Afrikaner and indigenous South African cultures. The celebration of the Day of Reconciliation can take the form of remembering past history, recognising veteran's contributions, marching, and other festivities.

uMkhonto we Sizwe Armed wing of the African National Congress

uMkhonto we Sizwe was the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress (ANC), and was founded by Nelson Mandela in the wake of the Sharpeville massacre. Its mission was to fight against the South African government.

The following lists events that happened during 1980 in South Africa.

The following lists events that happened during 1986 in South Africa.

The Azanian People's Liberation Army (APLA), formerly known as Poqo, was the military wing of the Pan Africanist Congress, an African nationalist movement in South Africa. In the Xhosa language, the word 'Poqo' means 'pure'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gugulethu</span> Suburb of Cape Town, in Western Cape, South Africa

Gugulethu is a township in the Western Cape, South Africa and is 15 km from Cape Town. Its name is a contraction of igugu lethu, which is Xhosa for our pride. The township was established along with Nyanga in the 1960s.

The Church Street bombing was a car bomb attack on 20 May 1983 in the South African capital Pretoria by uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress. The bombing killed 19 people, including the two perpetrators, and wounded 217. The Church Street Bombing was the most deadly attack by the ANC.

<i>Vrye Weekblad</i> Anti-apartheid Afrikaans national weekly newspaper

Vrye Weekblad is a progressive Afrikaans national weekly newspaper that was launched in November 1988 and forced to close in 28 May 1994, then relaunched as a online newspaper in 2019. The paper was noted for its anti-apartheid stance making it a notable outlier in the Afrikaans language media of the 1980s and early 1990s. The paper was initially driven into bankruptcy by the legal costs of defending its charge that South African Police General Lothar Neethling had supplied poison to security police to kill activists.

The South African Civil Cooperation Bureau (CCB), was a government-sponsored death squad, during the apartheid era. The CCB, operated under the authority of Defence Minister General Magnus Malan. The Truth and Reconciliation Committee pronounced the CCB guilty of numerous killings, and suspected more killings.

Dirk Coetzee was co-founder and commander of the covert South African Security Police unit based at Vlakplaas. He and his colleagues were involved in a number of extrajudicial killings including that of Griffiths Mxenge. Coetzee publicly revealed the existence of the Vlakplaas death squads in 1989, making himself a target of a failed assassination attempt.

Looksmart Khulile Ngudle [22 May 1922–5 September 1963 (aged 41)] was a South African politician. He was a Member of the African National Congress (ANC) and South African Communist Party (SACP), an Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Commander and South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) leader in the Western Cape. Ngudle's death is controversial, as he was the first person to die in detention during South Africa's Apartheid Era.

Dikgope Andrew "Magic Bones" Madi was an Umkhonto we Sizwe, or MK, combatant involved in the liberation struggle under apartheid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Zondo</span> Umkhonto WeSizwe Operative

Andrew Sibusiso Zondo was an Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) operative. He detonated a bomb at Sanlam Centre in Amanzimtoti on 23 December 1985, killing five people.

Tryphina Mboxela Jokweni was a female operative of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), an armed military wing of the African National Congress (ANC). The ANC is currently the governing party in South Africa. Mrs Tryphina Mboxela Jokweni was popularly known as Mboxela in the neighbourhood. She died of illness at her house at Umlazi Township in the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Province at the age of 77 in 2002. Mboxela was the mother of three children.

The Johannesburg Magistrate's Court Bombing took place on 20 May 1987 in Johannesburg, in the former Transvaal Province, now in Gauteng. The bombing is often referred to as a massacre in which 4 South African Police members died and a further 15 civilians were injured. It was perpetrated by the ANC's Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) para-military wing.

On 14 June 1986, the Magoo's Bar at the Parade Hotel on the beach-front area of Durban, Natal Province, South Africa was attacked with a car bomb, killing three civilians and injuring 69 others. Robert McBride, a leader in Umkhonto we Sizwe, was convicted of carrying out the attack and sentenced to death, but later reprieved and released.

Chris Hani, General-Secretary of the South African Communist Party (SACP), was assassinated by right-wing extremist Janusz Waluś on 10 April 1993. The assassination, later tied to members within the Conservative Party, occurred outside Hani's home in Dawn Park during a peak period of progressive anti-apartheid momentum in South Africa. After the assassination, racially fuelled riots drew international attention to the instability of the political division within South Africa, leading to an inclusive national democratic election in April 1994, won by the African National Congress (ANC). Waluś and his accomplice Clive Derby-Lewis were sentenced to death after their arrest in 1993; the sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment.

Phila Portia Ndwandwe, also known as Zandile or Zandi) was a fighter of the Natal cadre of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) formed by Muzi Ngwenya operating from Swaziland. MK was the armed wing of the African National Congress, created by Nelson Mandela in 1961. Zandi was a mother when she was abducted by Apartheid forces and tortured. She was executed.

Glory Lefoshie Sedibe, popularly known as Comrade September, was a member of the African National Congress (ANC) and a senior Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) operative who in August 1986 was abducted by an Apartheid death squad led by Eugene de Kock. After being severely tortured while detained in Piet Retief, Sedibe agreed to inform on his ANC comrades, becoming an askari or spy and murdered his own comrades in Vlakplaas with De Kock and others for the Apartheid state. He was a very prominent ANC activist in exile who went by the noms de guerre Comrade September, Lucky Seme and Wally Williams and was also nicknamed Dois M and Sebata.

Thembinkosi Samson Khoza was a South African politician who represented the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in the National Assembly from 1994 until his death in May 2000. He was a former leader of the IFP's Youth Brigade and served as the party's leader in Gauteng province. In the 1980s and 1990s, he was credited with expanding the IFP's political presence in the Transvaal.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "SABC. TRC Final Report – Volume 2, Chapter 3, Subsection 43". www.sabctrc.saha.org.za. Retrieved April 29, 2013.
  2. ↑ Wikipedia, 2013. Umkhonto we Sizwe. Available: Umkhonto we Sizwe [2013, April 29].
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "SABC TRC Final Report – Volume 3, Chapter 5, Subsection 34". www.sabctrc.saha.org.za. Retrieved April 29, 2013.
  4. ↑
    • Wikipedia. 2013. Vlakplaas. Available: Vlakplaas [2013, April 29].
  5. 1 2 "Truth and Reconciliation Commission - Polls - Day 2: 27 November 1996". www.justice.gov.za. Retrieved April 29, 2013.
  6. ↑ MacLean, I.S. 2006. Reconciliation: Nations and Churches in Latin America. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
  7. ↑ "Gugulethu Seven Memorial: About the Death of Seven Young Men". Cape Town Magazine. Retrieved April 29, 2013.
  8. ↑ Fikeni, Lwandile (3 March 2015). "Gugulethu Seven Memorial: Our heroes died here". Cape Town Partnership. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  9. ↑ Siljeur, Alison. "Guguletu Seven". lindywilsonproductions.co.za.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.