One of South Africa’s deadliest terror attacks took place in Church Street, Pretoria, in 1983, when Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the armed wing of the African National Congress, detonated a large mortar bomb outside the Nedbank Square in Church Street, a building which hosted the South African Air Force’s headquarters. [i] The bombing resulted in the death of 19 people as well as over one hundred injuries. [ii] The bombing took the lives of 17 men and 2 women, of which 9 were White and 7 were Black. [iii] The bomb proved successful in its objective to cause the most harm as its detonation time was 16h30 in the afternoon, [iv] a peak rush-hour for the area. MK forces participated in a range of various systematic bombings [v] across South Africa during the years following the 1938 Church Street bombing. The African National Congress claimed responsibility for the bombing under the leadership of Oliver Tambo. [vi]
Endnotes
[i] Cameron-Dow, J. 2007. A Newspaper History of South Africa. Wynberg: Don Nelson Publishers, p. 131. ↵
[ii] Cameron-Dow, J. 2007. A Newspaper History of South Africa. Wynberg: Don Nelson Publishers, p. 131. ↵
[iii] Nelson Mandela – The Record Bombing. 2016. [Online]. Available:
https://www.censorbugbear.org/black-racism/terrorism/nelson-mandela-the-bombing-record ↵
[iv] 1983: Car bomb in South Africa kills 16. 2016. [Online]. Available: http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/20/newsid_4326000/4326975.stm ↵
[v] Church Street bombing, Pretoria. 2016. [Online]. Available: http://sabctrc.saha.org.za/glossary/church_street_bombing_pretoria.htm ↵
[vi] 1983: Car bomb in South Africa kills 16. 2016. [Online]. Available: http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/20/newsid_4326000/4326975.stm ↵