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eventREF E-0012632Revised

23 December 1985

Amanzimtoti blast kills five

Updated
9 Dec 2019
Zondo

Five civilians were killed and forty injured in a bomb explosion in the Sanlam shopping centre in Amanzimtoti, Natal South Coast. Umkhonto we Siswe (MK) cadre Andrew Sibusiso Zondo, who detonated the explosive in a rubbish bin, was executed by hanging in 1986. In a submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), the African National Congress (ANC) later stated that Zondo acted in anger at a South African Defence Force (SADF) raid in Lesotho. The bomb attack was part of Operation Butterfly, conducted by MK, mainly from Swaziland. The aim of the Operation was to integrate the ANC's political and military machinery. To achieve this, it planned to establish strong and viable underground structures of MK in the Durban area and to launch guerrilla activities against apartheid targets in Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal).

How we know this

  1. 01South African Press Association, (1996), NEVER OFFICIAL ANC POLICY TO TARGET CIVILIANS: MBEKI, from South African Press Association, 22 August [online], Available at www.justice.gov.za [Accessed: 27 November 2013]

Last updated · 9 Dec 2019

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2011, March 16). Amanzimtoti blast kills five. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012632

South African History Online (2011) 'Amanzimtoti blast kills five', South African History Online, 16 March. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012632 (Accessed: 17 October 2026).

South African History Online, Amanzimtoti blast kills five [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012632, (accessed 17 October 2026).

"Amanzimtoti blast kills five." South African History Online, 16 Mar. 2011, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012632. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.

South African History Online. "Amanzimtoti blast kills five." South African History Online. March 16, 2011. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012632.

Also on 23 December

  1. 1932SA experiences a monetary crisis due to the heavy drain of gold from the country during the Great Depression
  2. 1949At Botha, SA artist, is born.
  3. 1951Music teacher Dorothy Boxall dies
  4. 1960Zindzi Mandela is born
  5. 1961Moïse Kapenda Tshombe leads the Congelese Province of Katanga into secession
  6. 1962Kwame Nkrumah orders release of political prisoners
  7. 1980Four black newspapers are banned by the SA government
  8. 2002Tatamkhulu Afrika South African poet, writer and struggle activist dies

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