The ANC’s MK Special Ops Unit Material Yunus Carrim Collection 06 November 2025

The ANC’s MK Special Ops Unit Material

Yunus Carrim Collection 

06 November 2025

What is this about? 

The material in this collection was used put together a book, Attacking the heart of Apartheid: The ANC’s MK Special Operations Unit, published in July 2025 by Penguin Random House.

There were 103 interviews done with 48 cadres running into just over 162 hours of recordings.

The collection includes:

1. The interviews.
2. Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) documents relevant to MK Special Operations Unit. 
3. Other documents related to the Special Operations Unit.
4. Press clippings.
5. Photographs.

Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the ANC’s military arm, was established in December 1961. It had many different units within geographically demarcated “machineries”. MK’s Special Operations Unit (Special Ops, as it became known) was formed in 1979 under the direct command of Oliver Tambo, ANC President, and Joe Slovo, senior ANC and SACP leader, with a special mandate from the ANC’s National Executive Committee.

It was set up to carry out high-impact, high-visibility attacks against strategic economic and military targets. The aim was to undermine the economy, shake the morale of those supporting apartheid, inspire the masses, and bolster mass struggles. While operating within MK’s framework, it had its own command structure led by Slovo and answerable directly to Tambo. The aim was for it to be mobile, bypass the usual MK bureaucratic processes and act faster. Also, to operate anywhere in the country and not be bound by geographical areas as the normal MK machineries were.

The Special Operations Unit (originally called the Solomon Mahlangu Unit) was an integral part of MK. And it has to be understood in the context of MK as a whole and the role of the armed struggle in the overall ANC-led national liberation struggle.

Apart from Special Ops, there were also other successful MK units, including the Transvaal Urban Machinery’s G5 and other units, and other units elsewhere in the country. Special Ops was advantaged by the greater resources and attention it got from the ANC leadership, but its success was also due to several other reasons. 

The ANC’s armed struggle, it must be stressed, was one of four interdependent “pillars” of struggle that also included the crucial mass, underground and international aspects. These four “pillars” constituted the ANC’s strategy for national liberation. And Special Ops’ role as part of MK has to be understood in this context.

Among the operations Special Ops carried out, were:

1. The coordinated 1980 Sasol operation.
2. The 1981 simultaneous attacks on power stations in the Eastern Transvaal. 
3. The 1981 attack on Voortrekkerhoogte, the South African Defence Force’s main military base.
4. The 1982 Koeberg operation.
5. The 1983 attack on the South African Air Force headquarters.
6. The 1986 rescue of the arrested Gordon Webster from Pietermaritzburg’s Edendale Hospital.
7. The 1986 Durban Magoo’s bar operation.
8. The 1987 Krugersdorp magistrates’ court operation.
9. The 1987 attack at the Wits Command.
10. The 1988 Ellis Park operation.
11. The 1988 attack on the Witbank security police offices.

A fuller list of its operations is in Table 1. 

Organisation of Material 

The Special Ops material is organised as follows:

1. List of operations    (Table 1)
2. List of operatives     (Table 2)
3. List of interviews     (Table 3)
4. Abbreviations          (Table 4)
5. Glossary of Names   (Table 5)
6. Interviews
7. Documents related to the context, aims, role, strategy, strengths, weaknesses and overall significance of Special Ops 
8. Operations
   1. TRC and other documents
   2. Press clippings
   3. Photos
9. Other relevant issues

Interviews

Clearly, Africans were the main victims of apartheid and played the main role in its overthrow. But people of all races took part in the armed struggle, including activists from other countries (internationalists). 

Non-Africans were able to move within the country and outside without arousing suspicions in the way Africans would. Special Ops made very effective use of this. White women, whom the security forces least expected to be active in the armed struggle, were often drawn in. The relative ease of movement applied even more to internationalists, with their foreign passports. 

Sadly, most of the key African operatives died in the struggle or since 1994. Some could not be traced. Many were only known by their MK names. Nobody, including those who worked with them, could provide their real names. 

The majority of the members of Special Ops were Africans. But because so many of them have died and some were not traceable, they could not be interviewed. So, the interviews are disproportionately with non-Africans. This obviously was not the intention. It does mean though that the interviews as a whole may be offer a somewhat skewed account of Special Ops. But this is partly offset by the roles of the operatives who died that are covered by the other interviewees and in the documents and press clippings in this collection.

The interviews carried out were recorded, edited and sent to the interviewees to correct in a back-and-forth process until they approved of them. This process was immensely time-consuming. But it has helped to ensure greater accuracy of their views and feelings. Some of the interviewees said they were fine with their interviews and didn’t see the need to change them. 

While there was a core of common questions asked, the interviews were free-flowing and wide-ranging and have been retained in the conversational style in which they took place, with a minimum of editing. Only where a sentence was not clear, was it edited with the approval of the interviewee. In any case, English is not the main language of many of the interviewees.

Where there were different accounts in the interviews of the same event, and they could not be fact-checked, they were dropped or the differences mentioned.

In cases where there was more than one interview done with an interviewee, they were clustered together and presented as a single interview, unless this was too long, in which case they appear as two or more interviews.

Some of the interviews were not transcribed and do not appear in this collection.

The names of provinces and places generally used in the interviews are referred to as they were before 1994. For example, “Eastern Transvaal” instead of Mpumalanga. 

Documents

The TRC documents, especially the amnesty hearings of the Special Ops operatives, cover several of the operations they took part in. So, some of these documents appear under “Special Ops in general”. Others appear under more than one specific operation. 

Press Clippings

At times, there is more than one press clipping with the same heading. While there is an overlap of information in these cases, there is more information on some of them than others. This is because newspapers in those days came out with several editions at different times of the day – and they would, for example, be called “First edition”, “Second edition”, “Final”, “Late Final”, “Africa edition” and so on. All these editions were used in putting together the book. 

The material will be uploaded in tranches

The Special Ops material as a whole will be uploaded in tranches over the next few months. 

Already included are:

1. List of operations    (Table 1)
2. List of operatives     (Table 2)
3. List of interviews     (Table 3)
4. Abbreviations          (Table 4)
5. Glossary of Names   (Table 5)

As well as Section 8: 

Operations

1. TRC and other documents
   1. Press clippings
   2. Photos

The remaining material will be uploaded in the next few months.

As new relevant material is traced, this will also be uploaded. 

General 

It is hoped that the material in this collection, as well as other material already on the South African History Online (SAHO) website, will stir an interest in Special Ops and MK generally and encourage people to write articles, papers, dissertations and books on this. Attacking the Heart of Apartheid: The ANC’s MK Special Operations Unit is merely an initial foray into Special Ops. There’s certainly a lot more that can be said about it and MK as whole from many different angles. Hopefully, this will be done in future.

Appreciation is extended to the SAHO for carrying this material.