Umkhonto we Sizwe

‘Report by Rene Schiebe’ // December 16th 1993. The 32nd anniversary of Umkhonto we Sizwe, a historic day as the army’s about to be disbanded and become part of the new National Defence Force in a democratic South Africa. For these men and women it’s a day of achievement and celebration, ...

... 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, ...

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 ...

... 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 ...

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 ...

... 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 ...

... 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. ...

... 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 ...

‘After the break: // Special forces and the murder of the Ribeiro couple // What does ‘eliminate’ mean? // Umkhonto we Sizwe.’

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 ...

The skull is his daughter’s, Phila Portia Ndwandwe, 24 when she died. An Umkhonto we Sizwe commander in Natal; mother of baby Thabang, born in Swaziland in 1987. In October 1988 Ndwandwe was abducted from Manzini to Pietermaritzburg. The people who sold her out were comrades. Her abductors: four ...

... massacre started a period of open state terror. The 90 day detention law was passed on May 1, 1963. A series of arrests began soon after. Head of Umkhonto we Sizwe in the Cape Peninsula Looksmart Khulile Ngudle was the second death in detention under this law. Police claimed that he had ...

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 ...

... he became part of an elite security branch, anti-terrorist unit in 1986 that the Benzien reputation took off. The anti-terrorist unit tracked down Umkhonto we Sizwe and APLA cadres and when they were captured the man they were handed to first was Jeffrey Benzien. It was his job to make them ...

... recorded 4621 killings. But we go to Durban first for yesterday’s funeral. A month ago nobody knew whether they were dead or alive, members of an Umkhonto we Sizwe cell, the Butterfly Unit: Phila Ndwandwe, Bheki Mkwanazi, Mbova Mzimela. And then five weeks ago the Truth Commission found the ...

... member of the Civic Association; he was a General Secretary of the Mamelodi Civic Association. Over and above that he was a senior member of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the Southern Transvaal Regional Command. Police would have taken interest in him at that level and that alone made him an obvious ...

off to a strange start in Pietersburg in the northern province this week. 14 Local policemen asked for amnesty for their roles in the killing of 6 Umkhonto we Sizwe insurgents in 1986. With the exception of one, a black ex-policeman, these men felt they had not committed any crime because they ...

... were no clues of what had happened to him on that hunting trip. And it was only four years later that a police informer told police that a group of Umkhonto we Sizwe soldiers from Botswana were responsible. // They told him that they had commandeered his vehicle and forced him to take it to the ...

from and asked penetrating questions to the former South African Police, the South African Defence Force, the Azanian People’s Liberation Army and Umkhonto we Sizwe. The Azanian People’s Liberation Army or APLA was the armed wing of the Pan Africanist Congress. APLA has been operating for ...

... in the bush during the war on our borders. But post traumatic stress disorder is also a condition suffered by many thousands of former soldiers of Umkhonto we Sizwe and APLA, present and former policemen and ordinary people who have suffered conflict and violence. In Hanover in the Karoo this ...