Raid on Gaborone

In the 1980s, relations between Botswana and South Africa were strained. Anti-apartheid groups like the African National Congress (ANC) used Botswana and other countries in Southern Africa as refuge. Despite Botswana's non-alignment policy,[lower-alpha 1] the South African Defence Force conducted several cross-border raids to stop the groups.

In 1981, the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) purchased Soviet weaponry.[2] The South African National Intelligence Service, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Defence, and the police all favored a raid.[3]

The following locations were identified as MK safe houses in Gaborone by the SADF as justification for the attack, though many in fact were civilian targets:[4]

• Plot C, Tlokweng: Safe house used for ANC training of the Transvaal and Western Cape squads
• Plot A, Tlokweng: Occupied by "George" who accommodated rebels.
• 7819 Broadhurst: Occupied by Duke Machobane, provided accommodation for Umkhonto we Sizwe
• 13212 Broadhurst: Occupied by Nkukwane Motsweni, alias Mkhulu, responsible for the transportation of rebels from Zambia to safe houses in Botswana
• 2914 Pudulugo Close: Occupied by Mike Hamlyn, a South African student not involved in armed activities.
• Cycle Mart Building: housing the offices of the intelligence gathering apparatus of the ANC in Botswana and who also distributed a propaganda pamphlet in "newsletter" form aimed against South Africa
• 15717 Broadhurst: Occupied by George Pwale.

At about 1:40 am on 14 June, approximately 50 South African soldiers entered Botswana near the Tlokweng border outpost, not far from Bophuthatswana.[5] Unconfirmed journalistic reports suggested that the party deployed from Zeerust.[6] According to Manuel Olifant, a policeman involved in the raid, the SADF readied around 50 tanks, helicopters, and fighter jets in Zeerust for use if Botswana retaliated, but they were not used. To lead the attack, the SADF employed former operatives of the Selous Scouts, a special regiment of the Rhodesian Security Forces.[7] The South Africans drove nine miles to their targets in Gaborone in 18 vans with falsified Botswanan government license plates. To prevent retaliation from the BDF, the raiding party cut telephone lines to the local barracks and spread metal tacks on roads to flatten tires of pursuing vehicles.[5]

The South Africans completely destroyed four residences and severely damaged another four and seized documents, arms, and a computer. They did not engage BDF forces; they convinced the Botswanan security personnel they encountered during the raid to refrain from intervening. Once they had completed their objectives, the South Africans linked up and returned to South Africa, avoiding BDF roadblocks and establishing their own block at the border.[5] South African officials claimed that a car with ANC guerillas followed their party and opened fire on them, leading them to destroy the vehicle.[8]

The raid was celebrated by the South African press.[13] General Constand Viljoen held a press conference in which he stated that the raid was intended to destroy "the nerve center of the African National Congress operations against South Africa from Botswana," which South African officials believed was going to launch a campaign of attacks in conjunction with an ANC strategy meeting in Lusaka, Zambia scheduled for later in the month. He stated that the final decision to conduct the raid was made after two members of Parliament were killed in a grenade attack earlier in the week. Viljoen further stated that the soldiers used megaphones to urge the residents of Gaborone to hide in their houses while the raid occurred and that they "obtained good cooperation" from Botswanan officials, who they asked not to interfere.[8] South African Foreign Minister and acting Minister of Defence Pik Botha issued a statement, saying "Although it is committed to resolve its differences with its neighbors by peaceful means, South Africa will not hesitate to take whatever action may be appropriate for the defense of its own people and for the elimination of terrorist elements intent on sowing death and destruction in our country and our region."[8]

The ANC claimed that only five of the people killed in the attack were actually connected to its organisation.[14] Within South Africa, the raid was criticized by Bisho Desmond Tutu, and the South African Council of Churches, and members of the Progressive Federal Party. The United States withdrew its ambassador form South Africa for consultations.[8] The representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations said that South Africa "in no way justified the violation of sovereignty and the killing or wounding of innocent people."[15]

Major General Mompati Merafhe, the head of the BDF, called a press conference shortly after the raid to address rumours that the Botswanan government was warned of the attack but took no action.[5] He rejected these allegations and stated that the BDF had responded to the raid by establishing roadblocks between Gabarone and the border in an attempt to cutoff the South Africans' escape. He also stated that the BDF did not engage the raiding party in the city for fear of collateral damage.[16] He also stated that the BDF did not have enough personnel to effective guard the large border with South Africa and that the army would review its strategies for dealing with raids.[3]

Despite its failure to stop the raid, the BDF was largely spared criticism for its actions by Botswanan officials, who instead focused their anger on South Africa.[3] On 17 June 1985, the United Nations representative of Botswana sent a letter to the President of the United Nations Security Council asking for help to deal with the raid. The representative from South Africa sent a letter on the same day stating that Botswana had been warned about harbouring groups like the ANC, citing that "a State had a right to take appropriate steps to protect its own security and territorial integrity against such attacks."[17] The Botswana Minister of Foreign Affairs said that the evidence of terrorist activities starting in Botswana was fabricated. South Africa responded that since Botswana did not sign the Nkomati Accord, a non-aggression pact with South Africa, the ANC was able to use Botswana as a base for its attacks.[18] The Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 568, condemning the raid and requesting that South Africa pay reparations to Botswana. The UN dispatched a team to Botswana to calculate the damages caused by the attack, but South Africa never offered any compensation. Relations between the two countries further deteriorated after South Africa launched another cross-border attack in May 1986.[3]

The Botswanan government later rebuilt one of the homes destroyed during the raid to serve as a memorial for those killed.[3] A memorial, Freedom Park, was built in Pretoria to honour those who died in the attack and others during the apartheid years.[19] A dozen members of South African security forces involved in the raid later appealed to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for amnesty.[9]

• United Nations Security Council Resolution 568
• History of Gaborone

• Allport, Richard. "gaberone". Rhodesia and South Africa: Military History. Archived from the original on 27 July 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
• "Botswana remembers the raid on Gaborone". Freedom Park. 5 June 2003. p. 2. Archived from the original on 27 July 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
• Carlin, John (2008). Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation (reprint ed.). Penguin. ISBN 9781594201745.
• Dale, Richard (1995). Botswana's Search for Autonomy in Southern Africa. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780313295713.
• "Dick Mtsweni and the Gaborone Raid". 28 May 2008. Archived from the original on 27 July 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
• Europa Publications (9 December 2003). Psychology Press (ed.). Africa South of the Sahara 2004. Europa Regional Surveys of the World 2004 Series (33 ed.). Psychology Press. p. 1360. ISBN 9781857431834.
• Joint Publications Research Service (22 August 1985). "Sub-Saharan Africa Report" (PDF). Arlington, Virginia, USA. p. 178. Archived from the original on 27 July 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
  • "Sub-Saharan Africa Report". Defense Technical Information Center (Catalog record).
• United Nations Department of Political Affairs (2000). Repertoire of the Practice of the Security Council: Supplement 1985-1988. United Nations Publications. ISBN 9789211370294.

• Video about the attacks as told by the widow whose husband, Dick Mtsweni, a 71 year old ANC member, was killed in the raid
• Full text of UN Security Council Resolution 568