| 1986
| The attempted incorporation of Moutse into KwaNdebele leads to widespread resistance and violence accompanying the emergence of a pro-incorporation vigilante grouping, Mbokodo.
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Reverend Mzwandile Maqina establishes AmaAfrika in Uitenhage following his expulsion from AZAPO in January. Violent conflicts with the UDF follow. Residents clash with police in Alexandra in the ‘Six Day War’ in February. At least seventeen people are killed.
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| In the ‘Gugulethu Seven’ killing, seven MK operatives are shot dead by security forces in an apparent ambush on 3 March. A similar method involving entrapment and/or ambush is used in the killings of the ‘Nietverdient Ten’ in June and the ‘KwaNdebele Nine’ in July. |
| In the Winterveld killings, police open fire on a thousand-strong crowd on 26 March, killing eleven people and wounding 200 others. Between April and October, paramilitary (Caprivi) training of 200 Inkatha supporters by SADF Special Forces takes place on the Caprivi Strip, South West Africa/Namibia. |
| South African Air Force raids on Harare, Lusaka and Gaberone on 19 May result in the termination of the Commonwealth Secretariat peace mission, the Eminent Persons’ Group. |
| Over 1.5 million people participate in the largest May Day stay away yet seen. |
| The United Workers Union of South Africa (UWUSA) is launched by Inkatha in May, backed by substantial covert state funding. Vigilante witdoeke attack and destroy the UDF-aligned satellite camps around Crossroads, Cape Town in May. A similar attack takes place at KTC in June. Over sixty people are killed, including ITN camera operator, George De’Ath. Tens of thousands are left homeless. |
| The nationwide state of emergency is re-imposed on 12 June, accompanied by mass detentions. (By the end of this state of emergency on 11 June 1987, over 25 000 people will have been detained at various times. The emergency is re-imposed annually until 1990). |
| In what becomes known as the Magoo’s Bar bombing, three people die and sixty- nine are injured when a car bomb explodes at Durban’s Parade Hotel on 14 June. Robert McBride is sentenced to death for the bombing; his sentence is later commuted to life imprisonment. |
| Four members of the Chesterville Youth Organisation are killed in a Vlakplaas operation in June. |
| KwaNdebele Minister, Piet Ntuli, is killed by a security force car bomb in July. In White City, at least twenty-four people are killed in August following police action against a crowd demonstrating against municipal rent raids in Soweto. |
| MK operatives entering the country are ambushed in Amsterdam, Transvaal. Three die. (This method becomes more extensively used). Mozambican president, Samora Machel, and thirty-four others die in an aeroplane crash at Mbuzini on South African soil in October. |
| Drs Fabian and Florence Ribeiro are killed by security forces in Mamelodi in December. Special Forces operatives are deployed in support of key Security Branch divisions. Chief Jonathan is toppled in a Lesotho coup. The ANC leaves Lesotho. The Eastern Transvaal Target Work Group is established by joint security forces. |
| TREWITS (Teenrewolusionêre Inligtingstaakspan), a counter-revolutionary intelligence task group, is formed to collect operationally directed intelligence. The US passes the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act which imposes fiscal and other sanctions on South Africa. |
| Charles Sebe, jailed in 1984 for plotting a coup against his brother, Ciskei President Lennox Sebe, is broken out of jail in 1986 with the assistance of South African security forces during Operation Katzen. |
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The UDF campaign, ‘Forward to People’s Power’, is launched involving the establishment of street committees and people’s courts. |
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Special state of emergency media regulations in December impose a news black out, prohibiting the reporting of unrest incidents or actions of the security forces. Legislation – the pass laws, the Mixed Marriages Act and the Prohibition of Political Interference Act – is repealed.
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