Apartheid bomb kills Zimbabwean and injures six ANC members

On 10 January 1988, Mr Obed Amon Mwanza, a Zimbabwean, was killed and six African National Congress (ANC) members were injured when the truck in which Mwanza was a driver detonated outside an ANC transit house in Bulawayo. This was a South African security operation undertaken by agents located in Zimbabwe. Philip Masiza Conjwayo, one of the agents was a former member of Zimbabwe’s Special Branch. Conjwayo confirmed to the ANC that he was handled by Captain Mary Baker of the South African security police.

ANC document claims that another South African agent, Mr Henry Thompson, paid Conjwayo Z$8000 for this operation, to get a vehicle and to find a driver. The driver was hired at the Bulawayo Employment Exchange and was paid Z$20.00 to drive the truck to the destination. Before he drove the truck, it was booby-trapped by Mr Kit Bawden and Mr Michael Smith. They then followed Mwanza as he drove the vehicle to a designated address. As Mwanza parked the truck, Bawden detonated it by remote control.