Friday, May 17, 2013

The Church Street attack on May 20, 1983 killed 19 and injured more than 200 people when a car with 40kg of explosives was detonated ...

No Fear No Favour No Terrorism...............




SONNY COX    SOUTH AFRICA       16 MAY 2013   14:06









THESE DOCUMENTED PHOTOGRAPHS WERE TAKEN OF THE SCENE IN THE PRETORIA CBD ON 20 MAY 1983 - SAPA     R.I.P.  SALUTE




Background Information: Church Street Bomb – 20th of May 1983

The Police investigation of the bomb explosion in Church Street West, PRETORIA, on the 20thof May 1983 at 16:28, brought the following facts to light: 
  • The bodywork of the vehicle in which the bomb had exploded, had totally disintegrated.  The engine number had been scoured off.  By means of the chassis number found amongst the rubble, the vehicle could be identified as a cream-coloured 1982 model Colt Galant.  It had been stolen on the 19th of June 1982 from the premises of Mr V.A. Sabattier at number 5, Sixth Avenue, Edenvale.  Amongst the rubble a piece of the vehicle’s number plate was also discovered.  The registration number started with “SD”.

·      As a result of the explosion, 19 people died – 17 men (8 black, 9 white) and 2 women. 
  • Considerable damage occurred to buildings and vehicles in Church Street West between Bosman and Schubart Streets.  The damage amounted to approximately R4 000 000 in the terms of 1983.

  • Evidence was obtained that a cream-coloured Colt Galant with a “SD” registration number had been brought to the home of Bakayi Ezekiel Maseko at Block J 2824, Mamelodi on 20 May 1983 at about 11:00 by a certain Freddi Butana Shongwe of Block B388, Mamelodi.  Shongwe asked a certain Jerry Shabangu whether the origin of a vehicle could still be ascertained after the engine number had been removed.  He showed the cream-coloured Colt Galant to Shabangu where it had been hidden behind Maseko’s home.  Shongwe mentioned to Shabangu that the vehicle would be used for a “great undertaking”, without saying what this “undertaking” would entail.  Maseko’s wife, Anna, saw Maseko and Shongwe removing the engine number with an electrical sander.

  • At about 15:50, Shongwe hurriedly left in the Colt Galant, with Maseko following him with the latter’s Kombi.  They were in such a rush that they left the electrical sander outside the home where they had been working with it.

  • From the 20th of May 1983, Shongwe and Maseko did not return home, and their families started looking for them.

  • On the 28th of May 1983, Maseko’s Kombi was found behind the Poyntons Building in Schubart Street, Pretoria.  The vehicle was not locked.  Inside the vehicle, a jacket of Shongwe which he had been wearing on the 20th of May 1983 was found, as well as a paper bag, containing a portable radio.  After the vehicle and its contents had been removed, the families started suspecting that Maseko and Shongwe might have been amongst the victims of the explosion. Maseko’s body was subsequently identified at the Government Morgue.  His body had been found on the northern side of Church Street, right opposite the place where the bomb had exploded.

  • After the explosion on the 20th of May 1983, several body parts were found scattered all over the scene of the explosion.  On the 13th of June 1983 the feet of this person was identified by his mother as being those of Freddie Shongwe.  Shongwe’s wife also identified a piece of trousers and a belt found at the scene, as items belonging to Shongwe.  From the dispersal and parts found on the wreckage, it could be deduced that Shongwe had been inside the vehicle at the time of the explosion.

  • According to evidence given by a witness who had been sitting in her car in front of the Nedpark Building in Church Street West, Pretoria, on the 20th of May 1983, a cream-coloured Colt Galant had parked in front of her.  Immediately after the vehicle had come to a standstill, the explosion followed.

  • On the 7th of July 1983, Anna Maseko handed the electrical sander, as well as the portable radio, to the investigators.  Upon examination it was found that the portable radio discovered in Maseko’s Kombi, had been fitted with a remote control.  Experts found this remote control to be fully functional.  It was also able to detonate explosives from a distance.  According to the experts, the frequency at which the remote control had been set, is extremely sensitive and could have been activated by other factors coming within the range of the control unit.

  • In Maseko’s clothes in his home, cash to the value of R3 000 was found.  Anna Maseko could not find any explanation for the origin of this money.  She had used some of the money for funeral costs.

  • Shongwe and Maseko had previous convictions for “housebreaking and safe robberies”.

  • On several occasions, Shongwe and Maseko accompanied each other to Swaziland.  Shongwe sometimes visited Swaziland as often as twice per month.  Evidence was found that Shongwe had been seen at the homes of well-known members of the African National Congress (ANC) in Swaziland.  Shongwe is a cousin of a trained ANC member, Johannes Mnisi.  According to information received, Shongwe and Maseko had had contact with Mnisi in Swaziland.  It was also established that Shongwe had last visited Swaziland from 16 to 17 May 1983.

During the activities of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), amnesty for the Church Street Bomb was granted to Aboobaker Ismail, former head of Umkhonto we Sizwe’s unit for special operations, and Johannes Mnisi.  In spite of the fact that the ANC in the past had already acknowledged that the actions of its military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), “at all times had been subject to the political leadership of the ANC”, no member of the ANC’s NEC of that time ever applied for amnesty for the Church Street Bomb.

AFRIFORUM

COMMENTS BY SONNY

As the ANC MK heroes commemorate Sharpeville, The June 16 Soweto Riots, MARIKANA and their ancestors, let US the minority groups in South Africa, pause for 2 minutes, bow our heads to our FALLEN HERO'S, who  did not die in vain.
They were the true HEROES of that tragic day on 20 May 1983.
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM - R.I.P. SALUTE
Most of these victims were innocent people catching buses from work on their way home to their families.
LET THE WORLD BE AWARE OF TERRORISM WHERE EVER IT MAY TAKE PLACE AND BY WHOM!
The Boston Marathon was the latest example of senseless INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM!
GOD BLESS SOUTH AFRICA - GOD BLESS AMERICA - GOD BLESS PLANET EARTH!


7 comments:

  1. And the SEAGULL's name was Nelson....He will Rot in HELL !

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  2. What about the many more people who, by losing limbs or being blinded and so were maimed for life? Families who lost loved ones who were breadwinners? What about those who suffered from post traumatic stress and could not live a normal life after that? Who "counted the cost" of all this?

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  3. The number of dead rose to 17 and 197 people were injured in the explosion.
    Four days later the South African Air Force bombed ANC bases in Maputo, Mozambique, in retaliation for the Pretoria car bomb.

    At least six people, including two children, were killed.

    Following the Maputo attack the ANC formally admitted carrying out the Pretoria bombing.

    On 2 February 1990 the South African government lifted restrictions on the ANC allowing legal opposition to apartheid for the first time in 40 years.

    The ANC party's leader, Nelson Mandela, was freed on 11 February 1990 after 27 years in detention.

    In May 1994 Mandela became South Africa's first black president when the ANC swept into power.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Update April 16 2013:
    Nobel Peace Laureate Nelson Mandela’s bombs: for the record:

    SA exile Henri le Riche writes: “Other than the ANC siding with the communists during the Cold War, why did UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher and US president Ronald Reagan call the ANC a terrorist organisation?
    — I will let the current US president, Barrack Obama, answer that question. After the April 16 2013 bombing at the Boston Marathon he said: “Any Time Bombs Are Used to Target CIVILIANS It Is an Act of Terror”.

    The ANC had an easy choice: Fight soldiers, or take the easy cowardly option terrorists worldwide take,and that is target civilians..

    THE ANC’S VICTIMS WERE MOSTLY CIVILIANS:
    1981 – 2 car bombs at Durban showrooms
    1983 – Church Street Bomb (killed 19, wounded 217)
    1984 – Durban car bomb (killed 5, wounded 27)
    1985-1987 – At least 150 landmines on farm roads (killed 125)
    1985 – Amanzimtoti shopping centre bomb (killed 5 people, including 3 children)
    1986 – Magoo’s Bar bomb (killed 3, wounded 69)
    1986 – Newcastle Court bomb (wounded 24)
    1987 – Johannesburg Court bomb (killed 3, wounded 10)
    1987 – Wits command centre car bomb (killed 1, wounded 68)
    1988 – Johannesburg video arcade (killed 1 unborn baby, wounded 10)
    1988 – Roodepoort bank bomb (killed 4, wounded 18)
    1988 – Pretoria Police housing unit, 2 bombs (wounded 3)
    1988 – Magistrate’s Court bomb (killed 3)
    1988 – Benoni Wimpy Bar bomb (killed 1, wounded 56)
    1988 – Witbank shopping centre bomb (killed 2, wounded 42)
    1988 – Ellis Park Rugby Stadium car bomb (killed 2, wounded 37)
    Late 1980s – numerous Wimpy Restaurant bombs (killed many, wounded many)
    http://cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-any-time-bombs-are-used-target-civilians-it-act-terror


    Background to Nelson Mandela’s bombs:
    For the testimony submitted to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission by the terrorists themselves about the war they waged against the peoples of South Africa, view the TRC website – but also note that Nelson Mandela has never personally had to testify about his role in approving of these atrocities. Historians now say that Tutu’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission was only set up to ‘protect the terrorists’: only 23 percent of the applications for amnesty came from security forces. (table below)
    Read more at http://www.censorbugbear.org/africa/south-africa/nobel-peace-laureate-nelson-mandelas-bombs-for-the-record#sKeVu6Hx3azPS6Gy.99

    ReplyDelete
  5. 21,000 victims of these atrocities testified, 849 people received amnesty, 5,392 people were refused amnesty:
    The TRC took the testimony of approximately 21,000 victims; and 2,000 of them appeared at public hearings. The commission received 7,112 amnesty applications. Amnesty was granted in 849 cases and refused in 5,392 cases, while other applications were withdrawn. http://www.doj.gov.za/trc/amntrans/index.htm
    In his book,” Long Walk to Freedom”, Mandela writes that as a leading member of the ANC’s executive committee, (and as has since then become known but kept secret during the ‘transition period’, he was also a leading executive of the SA Communist Party) he had “personally signed off” in approving these acts of terrorism – the results of which can be seen below. So look at these scenes on the pictures and videos below to view exactly what Mandela had “signed off” for while he was in prison – after he was convicted for other acts of terrorism after the Rivonia trial.
    The late SA president P.W. Botha told Mandela in 1985 that he could be a free man as long as he did just one thing: ‘publicly renounce violence’. Mandela refused. That is why Mandela remained in prison until the appeaser Pres F.W. de Klerk freed him unconditionally. The bottom line is that Nelson Mandela never publicly renounced violence.
    When Mandela was arrested on his Rivonia farm hideout near Johannesburg, the following munitions and bomb-making equipment were confiscated with him and his courageous comrades.
    (Read his ‘Rivonia trial’ transcripts for all the details, starting with his heroic opening statement: “I am prepared to die…’ :http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/rivonia.html – clearly he didn’t care whether all those innocent civilians whose tortured and mutilated bodies can be seen below, died either)
    210,000 hand grenades
    48,000 anti-personnel mines
    1,500 time devices
    144 tons of ammonium nitrate
    21,6 tons of aluminium powder
    1 ton of black powder

    Read more at http://www.censorbugbear.org/africa/south-africa/nobel-peace-laureate-nelson-mandelas-bombs-for-the-record#Ikj2LXVVPX62LT3L.99

    ReplyDelete
  6. The late SA president P.W. Botha told Mandela in 1985 that he could be a free man as long as he did just one thing: ‘publicly renounce violence’. Mandela refused. That is why Mandela remained in prison until the appeaser Pres F.W. de Klerk freed him unconditionally. The bottom line is that Nelson Mandela never publicly renounced violence.
    When Mandela was arrested on his Rivonia farm hideout near Johannesburg, the following munitions and bomb-making equipment were confiscated with him and his courageous comrades.

    ReplyDelete
  7. President Obama Tells Boston to Keep Running After Marathon Bombings

    By Michael SchererApril 18



    BRIAN SNYDER / REUTERS
    U.S. President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle attend an interfaith memorial service for the victims of the bombing at the Boston Marathon in Boston on April 18, 2013

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    Barack Obama did not come to Boston Thursday to remember, to mourn or to commemorate. He came to rally the city in an upbeat and uplifting speech about the inability of the marathon bombings to disrupt or destroy the spirit of the country.

    “That’s why a bomb can’t beat us. That’s why we don’t hunker down. That’s why we don’t cower in fear,” he said at the peak of his speech, during an interfaith service at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. “We carry on. We race. We strive. We build, and we work, and we love.”

    ReplyDelete