2002 Soweto bombings

The 2002 Soweto Bombings were a string of terrorist attacks that occurred in Soweto in South Africa's Gauteng province, in late 2002. Nine blasts took place on 30 October 2002, leaving one woman dead and her husband severely injured. One of the blasts severely damaged a mosque, and there were other explosions on railways and petrol stations in the area. A tenth bomb later detonated outside the Nan Hua Buddhist Temple in Bronkhorstspruit, east of Pretoria. At the time, it was not known whether this bomb was related to the attacks (the police later stated that it was). A white supremacist group called the Warriors of the Boer Nation claimed responsibility for the explosions, sending a message to an Afrikaans newspaper.

A subsequent explosion on 28 November 2002 damaged a bridge in the area, and another damaged a police helicopter in a small airport.

Background

Since the overthrow of apartheid in 1994, many white South Africans, and Afrikaners in particular, felt alienated by black rule and the ANC's government, and feared that the racist violence in Zimbabwe would spill into the country. In particular, many people had concerns about the rising wave of crime across the country.

In the month leading up to the bombings, sixteen members of the Boeremag, a militant far-right organisation, had been put on trial for plotting to overthrow the government. This organisation, and others like it, had been formed in response to the ANC rebellion in the early 1990s and the resulting violence in South Africa as a result. South Africa has had a history of such events, as the AWB were responsible for several assassinations and attacks during the late 1980s and early 1990s, before its leader, Eugene Terre'Blanche, was imprisoned. In addition, the ANC had often carried out attacks on South African military and government targets, which many people described as terrorism.

Six years previously, in 1996, bombs had exploded in a Western Cape shopping centre, killing four Coloured shoppers and injuring sixty others

The bombs

Two of the explosions targeted the railway lines at Lenasia, which connects Soweto to Johannesburg, causing chaos with public transport networks. Another bomb ripped apart the walls of a mosque, and a third explosion killed a woman in a residential area, Claudia Mokone, severely injuring her husband. A petrol station was also targeted in one of the attacks. Two other people were injured in other attacks. A device placed in the basement of the Nan Hua Buddhist temple was prevented from causing fatalities when it was kicked out of the way by someone at the scene before detonating, although it injured two people.

Police prevented a blast at another petrol station in the area, when they received a tip-off about two white men who were said to be acting suspiciously and "rolling something". Had the bomb gone off, it could have caused major fatalities. .

The terrorist attacks caused horror and grief in the community, where no such explosions had occurred throughout its history. Fears were heightened when a power failure struck Soweto, although this was not thought to be related to terrorism. Many conspiracy theories arose after the attacks, with some residents suggesting that the bombers may have been right-wingers hired by Thabo Mbeki, however, these allegations have not been substantiated.

Almost a month later, on 28 November 2002, another bomb exploded on a bridge near Port Edward in Kwazulu Natal, although nobody was hurt. Police could only confirm one explosion, but many residents said that they heard two. A more powerful bomb had exploded the previous weekend at an airport used by police helicopters and damaging one, although police could not confirm that this explosion was linked to the attack on the bridge, or any of the others. Nobody was hurt.

Investigation and trial

Thomas Vorster, a top military intelligence officer under the apartheid regime, was arrested for his alleged involvement into the attacks shortly after they occurred. [1] Twenty white men in the Boeremag organisation, including Vorster, were subsequently charged with treason for their part in the bombings, the murder of Claudia Makone, attempted murder for a plot to kill Nelson Mandela with a car bomb, as well as conspiracy with an alleged plot to overthrow the government. According to The Namibian, 26 pipe bombs were found in a rural area of Cape Province by police searching for the terrorists responsible for the attacks.

There was a heavy police presence in the area where the trial of the men took place, to prevent further attacks and escape attempts. . However, there was speculation that that several officers in the South African police and military had links to the attacks. . The trial was expected to last more than two years, and is still ongoing at the time of writing (2005).

The trial was adjourned several times due to legal arguments. It soon became politicised as Paul Kruger, their defence lawyer, argued that the South African government was illegitimate and unconstitutional, and that the first multi-racial elections in the country had not been valid, as white voters were never consulted . The defence planned to call the former President of South Africa, FW De Klerk as a witness to prove their case, however the court later ruled that he could not be forced to stand .

In an extraordinary move, the alleged terrorists claimed that they had been subject to torture in the jail in which they were being held. They had, in fact, been forced at times to listen to loud rap music and kwaito in the Pretoria prison in which they were being held , but it is debatable whether this constituted torture. Nonetheless, the judge presiding over the case, Eberhardt Bertelsmann, forbade the prison authorities from broadcasting Metro FM, the offending radio station. However, the prisoners had to buy portable radios and batteries for inmates who wanted to continue listening to the music.

Motivation

The terrorists were said to be motivated by a sense of alienation and frustration with their situation in South Africa, as well as religious beliefs similar to Christian Identity, which asserted their God-given right to rule the nation. They subsequently issued further threats, asserting that there would be further "surprises" in store. One of the group's aims was to assassinate Nelson Mandela and possibly restore apartheid to South Africa, (although some have suggested that their aim was to start a race war and "kick the blacks out of the country", while others have asserted that they aimed to set up an independent Afrikaner nation).

A letter to the police sent by the terrorists suggested a religious motive to the attacks, accusing those who opposed them of being the enemies of the "God of Blood River," describing themselves as "Soldiers of God" and suggesting that the bombings were "the beginning of the end" of the ANC. The letter declared:

We also declare that it is the end of suppression of the Boer nation, and for that we honour only God. For this reason the ANC must also know that it is not only dealing with the Boer nation, but with the revenge… of the God of the Boer nation. Here in the Southland we will establish a nation for our God that will honour only Him.

In what South African intelligence services interpreted as referring to the attacks on the mosque and the Buddhist temple, the letter went on to say that no "heathen temples or places of prayer would be permitted in the Southland". It also vowed to avenge farm murders and rapes carried out by South African criminals.

Aftermath

The attacks, although relatively minor, provoked debate in the South African media, as well as the government, about the position of whites in South Africa, especially Afrikaners, who had largely dominated politics before the end of apartheid. However, many Afrikaners felt stigmatised, and that they were unfairly viewed as racist and linked to terrorist groups, even though the majority rejected such acts.

However, in their book Volk, Faith and Fatherland, researchers Martin Schonteiff and Henri Boschoff argued that "Given the real high levels of violent crime, rising white unemployment and the campaign against white farmers in Zimbabwe, such arguments [i.e., the ones used by the terrorists] may be capable of eliciting widespread sympathy among conservatively-minded Afrikaners" .

All of the mainstream political parties usually associated with whites, the Democratic Alliance, the New National Party and the Freedom Front, condemned the bombings, and the Defence Minister, Mosiuoa Lekota pointed out that most white South Africans were loyal citizens.