SOUTHERN AFRICA: ABDUCTIONS AND ATTACKS
Since attacks on three front-line states on 19 May 1986 by the South African Defence Force (SADF), all Southern African states have been in a state of alert in expectation of further acts of aggression by South Africa. Tanzanians were also called on to prepare themselves to face an invasion that could be launched by South Africa.
BOTSWANA: ATTACKS
After the SADF attack on 19 May 1986, Botswana citizens were warned to be prepared for further raids by South Africa. This was followed by a machine-gun attack on a house in Gabarone, the capital of Botswana, on 14 June 1986 in which a woman was killed and two injured. During the latter part of 1986 South African agents and members of the SADF violated Botswana's territory several times to carry out military operations. The Botswana government protested at the violations and placed its forces on the alert.
On 19 October Botswana Defence Force border patrols reported South African Air Force reconnaissance patrols probing 60 km into Botswana air space in the eastern region. On the same day SADF men were seen at Talana, in the Tuli Block, close to the South African border.
In the early morning of 20 October 1986 four South African helicopters landed troops in eastern Botswana near the village of Tsetsejwe about 20 km from the South African border. An undisclosed item of military equipment was found on the scene and a follow-up operation by the Botswana Defence Force confirmed the incident.
The South African government shortly afterwards made allegations about the existence of ANC bases and infiltration routes in Botswana. President Quett Masire accused South Africa of looking for excuses to attack its neighbours and warned that this would trigger a full-scale war. He said that the attacks on neighbouring states were intended to divert attention from the internal conflict in South Africa.
SWAZILAND: ABDUCTIONS
An ANC member was abducted from Mbabane, the capital of Swaziland, on 26 June 1986 and held in detention in South Africa for over four months. Sydney MSIBI was released on 7 November after his lawyer threatened court action.
The abduction was said to have taken place outside a school. Eye-witnesses saw Msibi being bundled into a car by a group of about ten men in plain clothes. Although the South African police denied press reports and an ANC statement about the abduction, Msibi's name was included in a list of emergency detainees tabled in parliament in August last year. The police then told Msibi's lawyer that he was being held under Section 29 of the Internal Security Act. The lawyer indicated that he would be taking the matter to court and Msibi was soon afterwards released inside South Africa.
On his release Msibi stated that he was handcuffed, placed in leg-irons and gagged before being forcibly taken across the border into South Africa.
On 12 December a South African raiding party made a strike into Swaziland and killed two people - a 13-year-old boy and a man - abducted at least five others and raided at least six houses.
Those known to have been abducted were Grace CELE, a Swazi citizen who works for a Canadian agency which gives scholarships to South African refugees, Shadrack Mszeni MAPHUMULO, a former political prisoner living in Swaziland since 1979 who died from gunshot wounds during the raid, Danger NYONI, father of the dead child, and Corinne BISCHOFF (25) and Daniel SCHNEIDER (29), Swiss nationals. Nyoni was released near the Oshoek border, 25 km from Mbabane, the following day.
The South Africans justified the attack by claiming it was a pre-emptive raid aimed at preventing an expected upsurge of armed activity in South Africa around 16 December, the 25th anniversary of the founding of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the ANC. After the raid the South African police admitted the detention of the Swiss couple and said that they were being held on the grounds that they were working with the ANC in providing intelligence and promoting violence.
Following strong protests by the Swazi and Swiss governments the couple were released on 14 December and arrived back in Swaziland the same day. They explained that the raiders had entered their house by blowing in their front door with explosives and by firing indiscriminately with automatic rifles. They had been dragged from their beds by three masked men who handcuffed and blindfolded them and then drove them across the border. Bischoff said she was certain she was shackled to a dead body during the drive.
Bischoff was kept in Middelburg while Schneider was taken to Pretoria. They were subjected to intense interrogation about their activities and associations in Swaziland with regard to their alleged connections with the ANC. They were also offered money to provide information about people shown to them in photographs.
The South African Minister of Foreign Affairs said that the two had been released because of South Africa's wish for good relations with Switzerland and Swaziland. He also admitted having foreknowledge of the raid and defended cross-border raids in the interests of South African 'security'.
A second armed operation took place on 15 December when raiders from South Africa abducted Ismael IBRAHIM, a member of the ANC, from his home outside Mbabane. A witness reported that two men knocked on the front door and when Ibrahim came to the door he was grabbed and forced inside at gunpoint. The house was searched, documents and tapes were removed, Ibrahim was bound hand and foot with wire and driven away.
MOZAMBIQUE: THREATS
Mozambique has also been under threat of direct South African attack. President Joaquim Chissano warned on Mozambican radio on 6 January that South Africa might launch attacks on Mozambique within the next two weeks. The SADF denied the allegations but repeated that it claimed the right to attack neighbouring states if they harboured 'terrorists' planning armed activity in South Africa.
The claims by President Chissano were made after South Africa had demanded the expulsion of six ANC members living in Mozambique. The six included Jacob ZUMA, the ANC chief representative in Mozambique, Indres NAIDOO, a former Robben Island political prisoner, and Sue RABKIN, who was imprisoned in 1976 for ANC underground activities in South Africa with her husband.
The South Africans demanded the expulsions on the grounds that the presence of the six was a threat to South African security. The South African Foreign Minister said that the South African government would 'take steps' if Mozambique did not respond to the demand. President Chissano and Oliver Tambo, the president of the ANC, are said to have agreed that the six should 'withdraw themselves' for their own safety.
