One person killed by bomb meant for Chris Hani

Date: 2 Aug 1982
Updated: 30 Sep 2019

One person killed by bomb meant for Chris Hani

An unnamed person was killed in a car bomb explosion at the home of Chris Hani, then Umkhonto We Sizwe (MK) commander in Lesotho. Eben Frederick Coetzee, a department head of the SAP Security Branch in the Orange Free State, testified that he was given orders by senior members of the security branch to kill Hani in 1980, because of Hani's perceived growing influence in the African National Congress (ANC) - South African Communist Party (SACP) alliance. This led to several attempts on the life of Hani in Lesotho.

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How we know this

01Coleman, M. (ed)(1998). A Crime Against Humanity: analysing the repression of the apartheid state, Johannesburg: Human Rights Committee, p. 247.
02Wallis, F. (2000). Nuusdagboek: feite en fratse oor 1000 jaar, Kaapstad: Human & Rousseau.

Last updated · 30 Sep 2019

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2011, March 16). One person killed by bomb meant for Chris Hani. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012490

South African History Online (2011) 'One person killed by bomb meant for Chris Hani', South African History Online, 16 March. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012490 (Accessed: 21 July 2026).

South African History Online, One person killed by bomb meant for Chris Hani [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012490, (accessed 21 July 2026).

"One person killed by bomb meant for Chris Hani." South African History Online, 16 Mar. 2011, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012490. Accessed 21 July 2026.

South African History Online. "One person killed by bomb meant for Chris Hani." South African History Online. March 16, 2011. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012490.