TRC Final Report

Volume 6

Section 3

Chapter 2

Subsection 6

Overview of MK’s armed actions: 1960 to August 1990

40. On 8 April 1960, some three weeks after the Sharpeville massacre, the former South African government banned the ANC along with the PAC. This put an end to decades of largely peaceful protest by the ANC and, over the year that followed, the ANC adopted a strategy of armed resistance. MK was officially launched on 16 December 1961.

41. Between 1961 and 1963 there were some 190 actions, undertaken mainly by regional operatives in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. These were almost entirely aimed at installations.

42. The Commission received five applications from MK operatives for this very early period of sabotage. These were from Mr Ronnie Kasrils [AM5509/97; AC/2001/168], Ms Eleanor Kasrils [AM7725/97; AC/2000/067], Mr Ben Tu ro k [AM3723/96; AC/2001/013], Mr Muzivukile Curnick Ndlovu [AM5952/97] and Mr Billy Nair [AM5613/97; AC/2000/170], who applied for amnesty for over fifty acts of sabotage and related acts (such as theft of dynamite or escape fro m custody) in and around Durban and Johannesburg. All were granted amnesty.

43. Armed actions inside South Africa were, by and large, terminated with the arrest of key members of MK’s high command in Rivonia in July 1963, all of whom w e re subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment. Mr Nelson Mandela, arrested a year earlier, was also sentenced to life imprisonment at the Rivonia trial. One of the Rivonia trialists, Mr Ahmed Kathrada [AM6240/97; AC/1999/0199] applied for and was granted amnesty for the offences for which he was convicted. No significant armed actions were undertaken by MK inside South Africa between 1964 and 1975, although several infiltrations led to arrests and the imprisonment or killing of MK operatives.

44. The 1976 student-led uprising inside South Africa injected new life into the ANC. From 1976 to 1984, there was a steady incremental growth in armed attacks, and approximately 265 incidents were recorded. These included attacks on police stations and assassinations.¹²²

45. During this period the ANC’s Special Operations Unit launched several high-profile armed attacks on economic and energy installations, infrastructure and police stations, as well as an attack on the South African Air Force headquarters in Pretoria, in which nineteen people died. In terms of casualties, this was the largest attack in MK history. Other high-profile attacks included the 1980 SASOL attacks, the 1982 attack on the Voortrekkerhoogte SADF base, attacks on police stations and the 1982 sabotage attack on the Koeberg nuclear power station.

46. The Commission received amnesty applications in respect of seventy-nine incidents in this period. These were largely from the command personnel of Special Operations then based in Maputo, Mozambique, and the Transvaal military machinery based in Swaziland. In some cases, operatives also applied.

47. MK activity inside South Africa peaked between 1985 and 1988. The number of incidents increased from forty-four in 1984 to 136 in 1985 and 228 in 1986. Numbers continued to escalate, with 242 incidents in 1987, and peaked in 1988 with 300 incidents as a result of increased resistance to the municipal elections of October 1988. In 1989 the number of incidents dropped by nearly a third to 216. This period also saw a diversification of targets and an increase in attacks on public places where civilians were at high risk.

48. In February 1990 the ANC was unbanned, but the armed struggle was only suspended in August of that year. Armed actions continued, although they were fewer in number. According to police statistics, there were some eighty armed attacks between January and the end of May 1990. These resulted in three deaths (two police officers and one civilian) and eleven injuries (six police officers and five civilians). In general, the attacks were on the homes of perceived collaborators and police officers, police stations and fuel and electricity installations.

49. Police documentation obtained by the Commission suggests that the total number of incidents (including skirmishes, failed sabotage attempts and so on) for the period October 1976 to May 1990 totalled approximately 1555. ¹²³

50. The armed struggle was suspended by the ANC with the signing, on 6 August 1990, of the Pretoria Minute, the terms of which were spelt out in greater detail in the DF Malan Accord. MK was formally disbanded on 16 December 1993.