TheChurch Street bombing was a terroristcar bomb attack on 20 May 1983 in the South African capitalPretoria byuMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), theparamilitary wing of theAfrican National Congress. The bombing killed 19 people, including the two perpetrators, and wounded 217.[1][2]
The attack consisted of a car bomb set off outside the Nedbank Square Building, which was rented by theSouth African Air Force, on Church Street West, Pretoria, at 4:30 pm on 20 May 1983.[3][4] The target was supposedly South African Air Force (SAAF) headquarters, but as the bomb was set to go off at the height of rush hour, those killed and wounded included civilians. The bomb exploded ten minutes earlier than planned, killing two of the perpetrators, Freddie Shangwe and Ezekial Maseko, along with 17 other people. At least 20 ambulances took the dead and wounded to hospitals.[1][4]
In submissions to theTruth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in 1997 and 1998, the ANC revealed that the attack was orchestrated by a special operations unit of the ANC'sUmkhonto we Sizwe (MK), commanded by Aboobaker Ismail. At the time of the attack, they reported toJoe Slovo as chief of staff, and the Church Street attack was authorised byOliver Tambo.[5][6]
The ANC's submission said the bombing was in response to a South African cross-border raid intoLesotho in December 1982, which killed 42 ANC supporters and the assassination ofRuth First, an ANC activist and the wife of Joe Slovo, inMaputo,Mozambique. It claimed that 11 of the casualties were SAAF personnel and hence a military target. The legal representative of some of the victims argued that as administrative staff including telephonists and typists they could not accept that they were a legitimate military target.[5]
Ten MK operatives, including Aboobaker Ismail, applied for amnesty for this and other bombings. The applications were opposed on various grounds, including that it was a terrorist attack disproportionate to the political motive. The TRC found that the number of civilians versus military personnel killed was unclear. Police statistics indicated that seven members of theSAAF were killed. The commission found that at least 84 of the injured were SAAF members or employees. Amnesty was granted by the TRC in 2000.[6]
Nelson Mandela, who was serving time in prison at the time of the terror attack, wrote about its violent nature in his autobiography: “It was precisely because we knew that such incidents would occur that our decision to take up arms had been so grave and reluctant.”[7]
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