Event record
United Democratic Front member Pearl Tshabalala assassinated

United Democratic Front poster, 1980s, Source: Herskovits Library Archive
- Date
- 10 Feb 1988
- Updated
- 22 Oct 2025

United Democratic Front poster, 1980s, Source: Herskovits Library Archive
After receiving instructions from Jamile, Luthuli set up a group of four men composed of Caprivi trainees, amongst them Alex Sosha Khumalo and David Zweli Dlamini, to help him execute Jamile's order. Msizi Hlope was ordered by Jamile to guide the group, as they were not familiar with Clermont. Tshabalala was shot in front of her five-year-old child as she was leaving her business in Clermont.
The first botched attempt on Tshabalala's life was made in 1987 when several shots were fired at her moving vehicle outside her business premises in Clermont. She was the wife of Vuka Tshabalala who served in the same Clermont Advisory Board as Jamile.
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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. 249.
Last updated · 22 Oct 2025
South African History Online. (2011, March 16). United Democratic Front member Pearl Tshabalala assassinated . South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/nso/ref/E-0012728
South African History Online (2011) 'United Democratic Front member Pearl Tshabalala assassinated ', South African History Online, 16 March. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/nso/ref/E-0012728 (Accessed: 23 July 2026).
South African History Online, United Democratic Front member Pearl Tshabalala assassinated [website], https://sahistory.org.za/nso/ref/E-0012728, (accessed 23 July 2026).
"United Democratic Front member Pearl Tshabalala assassinated ." South African History Online, 16 Mar. 2011, https://sahistory.org.za/nso/ref/E-0012728. Accessed 23 July 2026.
South African History Online. "United Democratic Front member Pearl Tshabalala assassinated ." South African History Online. March 16, 2011. https://sahistory.org.za/nso/ref/E-0012728.
Further reading
Apartheid's Sporting Afterlife by Clark Easey
Matjiesfontein
Oudtshoorn, Western Cape
Sol Plaatje University
Namibia
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