Bombings
Landmark events in MK's military activity inside South Africa consisted of actions designed to intimidate the ruling power. In 1983, the
Church Street bomb was detonated in Pretoria near the
South African Air Force Headquarters, resulting in 19 deaths and 217 injuries. During the next 10 years, a series of bombings occurred in South Africa, conducted mainly by the military wing of the African National Congress.
In the 1985
Amanzimtoti bomb on the Natal South Coast, five civilians were killed and 40 were injured when MK cadre
Andrew Sibusiso Zondo detonated an explosive in a rubbish bin at a shopping centre shortly before Christmas. In a submission to the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), the ANC stated that Zondo's act, though "understandable" as a response to a recent
South African Defence Force raid in Lesotho, was not in line with ANC policy. Zondo was subsequently executed.
[11]
In the
1986 Durban beach-front bombing, a bomb was detonated in a bar, killing three civilians and injuring 69.
Robert McBride received the death penalty for this bombing which became known as the "Magoo's Bar bombing". The subsequent Truth and Reconciliation Committee called the bombing a "gross violation of human rights".
[12] McBride received amnesty and became a senior police officer.
In 1987, an
explosion outside a Johannesburg court killed three people and injured 10; a court in Newcastle had been attacked in a similar way the previous year, injuring 24. In 1987, a bomb exploded at a military command centre in Johannesburg, killing one person and injuring 68 personnel.
The bombing campaign continued with attacks on a series of soft targets, including a bank in Roodepoort in 1988, in which four civilians were killed and 18 injured. Also in 1988, a bomb detonation outside a magistrate's court killed three. At the Ellis Park rugby stadium in Johannesburg, a car bomb killed two and injured 37 civilians. A multitude
[13] of bombs in
Wimpy Bar fast food outlets
[14] and supermarkets occurred during the late 1980s, killing and wounding many people. Wimpy were specifically targeted because of their perceived rigid enforcements of many Apartheid-era laws, including excluding people of colour from their restaurants. Several other bombings occurred, with smaller numbers of casualties.
Landmine campaign
From 1985 to 1987, there also was a campaign to place anti-tank mines in rural roads in what was then the Northern Transvaal. This tactic was abandoned due to the high rate of civilian casualties—especially amongst black labourers. The ANC estimated 30 landmine explosions resulting in 23 deaths, while the government submitted a figure of 57 explosions resulting in 25 deaths.
[15]
Torture and executions
The TRC found that the use of torture by MK was "routine" and was official policy – as were executions "without due process" at ANC detention camps, particularly in the period of 1979–1989.
[16]
