In the first four months of 1988 members of the African National Congress (ANC) and other South African exiles were the targets of a number of military raids, assassinations and attempted assassinations carried out by the South African Defence Force (SADF) or unidentified agents, in incidents in neighbouring Southern African states and further afield.
In the past, such incidents have occurred mainly in the Frontline States, but with the assassination of the ANC's representative in France, Dulcie SEPTEMBER, in March, and earlier unsuccessful attempts on the ANC representative for Belgium and the Netherlands, attacks on opponents of apartheid living outside the country, were extended to Europe.
Threats of such actions were contained in a speech by the Minister of Defence, Magnus Malan, in February when he said: 'Wherever the ANC is, we will eliminate it'. He also said that those doing the eliminating would not necessarily be 'formally acknowledged security forces'.
SWAZILAND
In mid-January Sipho Eric NGEMA, a South African refugee living in Swaziland was gunned down in a restaurant by two unidentified men, bringing to at least 17, the number of people murdered or abducted from the country by suspected agents of the South African government since 1985. The gunmen escaped in a car later found abandoned.
BOTSWANA
A similar assassination, again by unidentified gunmen, took place in Botswana at about the same time. The body of Jacob MOLOKWANE (19), a member of the ANC, was found near his car on the road north of Francistown. He had been shot several times.
In late March a unit of the SADF crossed the border and attacked a house in Thiring, a suburb of Gaborone. Three Botswana nationals, all women, and a South African refugee, identified by the Botswana authorities as Charles MOKOENA, were shot dead. Their bodies were set alight after the raid.
The South African government admitted responsibility for the raid. They claimed it was the result of a 'hot pursuit operation', following-up intelligence gathered when the SADF killed three alleged ANC guerrillas in South Africa, close to the Botswana border three days earlier. They also claimed that the man killed at the Thiring house was not Mokoena, but Solomon MOLEFI, allegedly a regional commander of the ANC's armed wing and also known according to the police by several other names including Solly NALEDI. These claims were disputed by the Botswana government. Molefi's relatives in South Africa denied that the man in the police photograph said to be of the victim, was their son and brother. Residents of Thiring denied also that the man in the photograph was the person who had lived in the house. The family was quoted as saying they thought it possible that Molefi had died, but that he was killed in different circumstances and his body buried elsewhere.
In response to the controversy, the Minister of Defence announced that the names of people killed in cross-border raids would no longer be disclosed.
The raid into Botswana occurred as relations between South Africa and Botswana deteriorated: South Africa alleged that guerrillas were using the country as a 'transit route' from Zambia and Zimbabwe.
ZAMBIA
In January the ANC office in Lusaka, Zambia, was the target of a bomb attack. A bomb placed close to the gate of the building exploded injuring four Zambian nationals. Members of the ANC's national executive committee who were in the building at the time were unhurt.
ZIMBABWE
Another major bomb attack took place in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, in mid-January. The target was a house accommodating several ANC refugees. The house had been placed under police protection since the December 1986 trial of a Zimbabwean national accused of spying for South Africa and who, according to evidence led, had sketches of the house in his possession. On the day of the attack two cars drove into the grounds of the house. One containing explosives was parked alongside the building. Two people left the car and escaped in the second vehicle. Two other occupants of the car containing the bomb were, however, killed when it exploded prematurely. Three residents of the house were injured.
Six Zimbabwean nationals were later arrested in connection with the bombing and other similar attacks, and subsequently charged with murder. The Zimbabwean Foreign Minister claimed that their trial would expose a South African-run sabotage network which was responsible for several bombings and assassinations over the previous seven years.
MOZAMBIQUE
In early April a prominent member of the ANC was the target of an attempted assassination in Mozambique. Albie SACHS (53), who lives in Mozambique working for the Ministry of Justice and as a lecturer in Law at Maputo University, was seriously injured in a car bomb explosion. His car, parked outside his flat in central Maputo was rigged with an explosive device, primed to explode when he unlocked the door. He lost his right arm and suffered other severe injuries. A passing motorist and a child, both Mozambican nationals, were also injured in the explosion.
EUROPE
Dulcie September (53) was the first ANC official to be assassinated in Europe. She was the organisation's representative to France and Switzerland and was shot dead at point-blank range while unlocking the door to her office. An unidentified assailant apparently lay in wait for her.
This was not the first attack on ANC offices in Europe. In 1982 the organisation's London office was bombed, as was its Stockholm office in both 1984 and 1986. In 1987 four men were charged in the British courts with conspiracy to kidnap 14 members of the ANC in London, but charges were dropped following an intervention by the Director for Public Prosecutions who had consulted with British intelligence (MI5).
In early 1987 an attempt was made on the life of the ANC representative to Belgium and the Netherlands, Godfrey MOTSEPE. Shots were fired at him through the window of his office. A second attack in March on the Brussels office also failed. Police defused a 17 kilogram bomb placed outside it.
Prior to her death, September had received death threats and had been followed, according to her colleagues.
In late March the ANC office in London was warned by British Special Branch officers that 'right-wing organisations' were intending to attack the organisation and its officials.
