The Goch Street shoot-out 1977
Goch Street, the site where the John Orr’s warehouse was located. Source: South African National Archives
Mahlangu’s MK unit left Angola in mid-1977 on a mission to join student protests commemorating the June 16 Uprising and the police massacre that followed. They travelled through Mozambique to Namatswa on the Swaziland border, where Collin Ramusi met them. Ramusi drove them to a safe house in Mbabane, where they were briefed by General Siphiwe Nyanda and given suitcases filled with false bottoms containing pamphlets, guns and grenades. The packages in which cadres received their sabotage material were known as ‘Dead letter Boxes’ (DLBs). It was common for each unit to be split into cells of three cadres when travelling into South Africa. Mahlangu was assigned to a cell with Lucky and Motloung.
On 11 June 1977 their cell crossed the border into the South African town of Piet Retief. They moved around, staying at the homes of various family members and contacts. At each stop they hid parts of their DLBs, certain items were left for the use of other cadres who would pass through the area later, and others were to be used by local communities for the June 16 protests.
On 13 June 1977 the trio made their way to the Diagonal Street taxi rank in Johannesburg where they planned to catch a taxi to Soweto. As the first anniversary of the Soweto uprising was just three days away, police presence was strong and evident. A Black policeman on patrol noticed the trio entering a taxi with large bags and approached them. The policeman said ‘laat ek sien wat het julle daar!’ (Let me see what you have there). The policeman grabbed a bag and a hand grenade and AK-47 rifle fell out, with the policeman running for cover. The trio panicked and fled from the taxi, disappearing into the crowd. Lucky ran in the direction of Park station and managed to elude capture.
Mahlangu and Motloung ran towards Fordsburg along Jeppe Street, not realising that they were running towards John Vorster Square, the most notorious police station in the country. On the way Motloung got into a tug-of-war with an off-duty policeman. He managed to get away, but the policeman shot at the running pair, hitting Mahlangu in the ankle. The pair kept running, turning left into Goch Street. Running slightly ahead of Motloung, Mahlangu ran into John Orr’s warehouse, where he took cover. Desperately seeking Mahlangu, a panicked Motloung entered the warehouse and fired shots, killing two John Orr’s employees.
Within minutes police surrounded the entire area. Mahlangu and Motloung were beaten by onlookers and the police, and arrested and detained at the nearby John Vorster Square Prison. The media quickly caught wind of the shooting, printing headlines such as ‘Terrorists in the country’.
