Operation Beanbag | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of Internal resistance to apartheid | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
South Africa | ANC (Umkhonto we Sizwe) Mozambique | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Unknown | Unknown Unknown | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
SADF | Unknown | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
20 | Unknown | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
2 killed 1 MIA (presumed dead) | 30 killed 11 killed | ||||||
1 civilian killed (Mozambique) |
Operation Beanbag, also known as the Matola Raid, was a military operation conducted by the South African Defence Force (SADF) against suspected safe houses of uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC), in Matola, Mozambique.
SADF intelligence identified a network of ANC safe houses in Matola as MK's planning headquarters for guerrilla operations in Transvaal Province, South Africa. [1] : 178 The South African team was made up of members from 1 and 6 Reconnaissance Regiments, the latter being made up of old Rhodesian SAS personnel. The operation was carried out on 30 January 1981, specifically targeting three houses in the Maputo suburb of Matola. [2]
The Mozambican government claims that the twenty SADF special forces members were driven from the border in vehicles that resembled Mozambican army vehicles. [1] : 178 One part of the team maintained a roadblock on the main road between Maputo and Matola, [1] : 178 while a second team attacked the three ANC buildings. A firefight broke out between the SADF and the ANC inhabitants. The reconnaissance team took two prisoners during the attack. [1] : 178 The reconnaissance teams rejoined and returned to the border with South Africa and were said to have been withdrawn by helicopter. [1] : 178
The SADF lost three personnel, one of whom could not be found during the withdrawal at the end of the operation and he was left behind. [1] : 178 6 Reconnaissance Regiment was disbanded later during the year and the remaining members integrated into the remaining special forces regiments. [3] The SADF claimed to have killed 30 MK militants. [1] : 178 The Mozambican government estimated a death toll of 11, including a civilian killed in the crossfire. [1] : 178 In its review of Operation Beanbag, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that the raid resulted in the deaths of 16 MK members, including 4 senior militant commanders, some of whom were killed during the attack and others who died of their injuries later. [4] The TRC also noted that a civilian was killed, possibly by accident, at the SADF roadblock. [4] The dead civilian was a Portuguese citizen who bore a close resemblance to prominent ANC official Joe Slovo, leading the party's supporters to speculate his death was the result of mistaken identity. [5]
ANC president Oliver Tambo subsequently issued a statement implying that Operation Beanbag had targeted unarmed civilian refugees rather than legitimate military targets. [6] He denied that the ANC and MK had any guerrilla camps in Mozambique. [6]
The raid was condemned by the United Nations as a violation of Mozambique's territorial integrity. [7]
The Mozambique Defence Armed Forces or FADM are the national armed forces of Mozambique. They include the General Staff of the Armed Forces and three branches of service: Army, Air Force and Navy.
uMkhonto weSizwe was the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress (ANC), founded by Nelson Mandela in the wake of the Sharpeville massacre. Its mission was to fight against the South African government to bring an end to its racist policies.
Samora Moisés Machel was a Mozambican politician and revolutionary. A socialist in the tradition of Marxism–Leninism, he served as the first President of Mozambique from the country's independence in 1975 until his death in a plane crash in 1986.
Oliver Reginald Kaizana Tambo was a South African anti-apartheid politician and activist who served as President of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1967 to 1991.
The South African Special Forces Brigade, colloquially known as the Recces, is South Africa's principal Tier 1 special operations forces, specialising in various types of operations, including counter-insurgency, long-range-reconnaissance, unconventional-warfare, and hostage rescue. The brigade operates with two active-duty groups, with 4 Special Forces Regiment focusing on maritime operations, and 5 Special Forces Regiment focusing on land and airborne operations. Only about 8% of recruits who undergo South African special forces training pass the course.
The South African Defence Force (SADF) comprised the armed forces of South Africa from 1957 until 1994. Shortly before the state reconstituted itself as a republic in 1961, the former Union Defence Force was officially succeeded by the SADF, which was established by the Defence Act of 1957. The SADF, in turn, was superseded by the South African National Defence Force in 1994.
The South West Africa Territorial Force (SWATF) was an auxiliary arm of the South African Defence Force (SADF) and comprised the armed forces of South West Africa from 1977 to 1989. It emerged as a product of South Africa's political control of the territory which was granted to the former as a League of Nations mandate following World War I.
Johannes "Joe" Modise was a South African political figure. He helped to found uMkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the African National Congress, and was its longest serving Commander in Chief, deputised at different points in time by Joe Slovo and Chris Hani. Modise headed MK for a 25-year period, from 1965 to 1990. He served as South Africa's first black Minister of Defence from 1994 to 1999 and led the formation of the post-independence defence force.
The Church Street bombing was a terrorist 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.
7 Medical Battalion Group is the specialist Airborne Medical Unit of the South African Military Health Service. The Battalion's main task is to render medical support to the South African Airborne and Special Forces. The unit falls under the command of the Mobile Military Health Formation.
The 44 Pathfinder Platoon is part of the 44 Parachute Regiment. The pathfinder is a trained and specialized paratrooper, who performs covertly behind enemy lines, either in small groups or in collaboration with other reconnaissance units.
The Raid on Gaborone took place on 14 June 1985 when South African Defence Force troops, under the order of General Constand Viljoen, crossed into Botswana violating International Law and attacked South African émigrés living in exile in Gaborone. The raid, the fifth South African attack on a neighbouring country since 1981, killed 12 people including women and children; only five of the victims were actual members of the African National Congress (ANC), at the time the main opposition group against the National Party white supremacist minority regime.
Operation Firewood was a secretive military operation in 1987 by the South African Defence Force (SADF) during the South African Border War.
Operation Skerwe was a military operation conducted by the South African Air Force (SAAF) against African National Congress (ANC) facilities based in the Matola suburb of Maputo city.
2 Reconnaissance Regiment was the Active Citizen Force unit of the South African Special Forces. Its part-time service personnel formed part of the reserve component of the South African Defence Force.
Brigadier-General Renier (Cojack) Coetzee was a General Officer in the South African Army from the recces.
913 Battalion was part of 91 South West African Brigade.
Operation Lark was two special forces naval operations in 1978 conducted by members of the South African Navy (SADF), 4 Reconnaissance Regiment and Rhodesian SAS during the South African Border War. Its objective was the assassination of Robert Mugabe at his residence in Maputo, Mozambique.
The Southern African Development Community Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) is an active regional peacekeeping mission operated by the Southern African Development Community in Northern Mozambique's Cabo Delgado Province.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires |journal=
(help)