Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

686 • UMKHONTO WE SIZWEJune 1986 bombing of Wimpy Burgers in Johannesburg, injuring17 customers; and the bombing of the Holiday Inn–owned PresidentHotel, also on 24 June, in which two people were injured. From 1985until 1987 the MK mined several roads in Northern Transvaal to attacksecurity forces, resulting in at least 30 explosions and 23 deaths.The MK desisted from this campaign due to the high rate of civiliancasualties, most of whom were generally black workers.Since 1983 the program of the MK had been to terrorize whitefarmers, to sabotage the industrial base of South Africa, to terrorizeblack policemen and politicians as collaborators of the apartheidregime, and to conduct terrorism in the white-inhabited urban areas.As is often the case with mass-based movements, a number of terroristincidents against whites and black collaborators also occurredfor which no group claimed credit. In the late 1980s, black “footballclubs” were formed, which were, in fact, youth gangs that wouldterrorize or kill blacks who did not support the ANC. A particularlygrisly form of murder called necklacing was perpetrated againstblacks suspected of being police informants in which an automobiletire filled with gasoline-soaked rags would be placed around thevictim’s neck and set afire.With the legalization of the African National Congress and NelsonMandela’s release from prison in February 1990, the Umkhonto weSizwe suspended its actions on 1 August 1990. Mandela and otherANC leaders had threatened in mid-1992 to resume its insurgencyif what they claimed were South African police–inspired killings ofblack nationalists continued. However, with the transition of powerfrom the apartheid regime to a democratically elected government inApril 1994, there was no further need for guerrilla warfare.Beginning in 1996 the transitional government mandated an independentTruth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate allegationsof terrorist actions by any and all participants in the civilconflict that led up to the end of apartheid. The 17-member commission,which was headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate ArchbishopDesmond Tutu, issued a report on 30 October 1999. Among otherthings, this report documented the torture and execution of ANCpolitical dissidents by the MK in its camps in Mozambique andelsewhere and also its frequent failure to distinguish between militaryand civilian targets. See also SOUTH AFRICAN STATE ANDANTISTATE TERRORISM.