Matola Raid

The Matola Raid or Matola Massacre was an attack by apartheid-era South African state security forces and unlawful combatants against residences inhabited by African National Congress (ANC) members in Matola, Mozambique on 30 January 1981. The attack left thirteen South Africans, who had previously joined the structures of the ANC or its armed wing MK in exile, dead. Three of the attackers and one uninvolved bystander were also killed. Taking place during the height of apartheid, the operation aligned with the National Party government's destabilisation campaign against independent, majority-ruled neighbouring Southern African countries which harboured the ANC and other liberation organisations. Since the attackers crossed international borders and violated sovereign Mozambican territory, the event has been characterised as a violation of International Law and widely condemned for its atrocious nature by representatives of western countries, non-aligned nations and the Eastern Bloc alike.

Background

FRELIMO, the former liberation movement and now governing party of independent Mozambique had friendly relations with the South African ANC, which was engaged in its own socio-political and military campaign to bring an end to Apartheid in South Africa. The rightwing authoritarian white Afrikaner minority government of South Africa viewed the ANC as its most potent adversary and persecuted its members, supporters and sympathisers with the full might of its modern surveillance and security apparatus. Hence many anti-apartheid activists were forced into exile in neighbouring countries like Mozambique, to evade abduction at home and the very high probability of being tortured and murdered during detention by apartheid government security forces for having dissident political views. The attacking force crossed from South Africa into Mozambique disguised as a Mozambican Army column of military vehicles. This "pseudo" or false-flag modus operandi had been previously employed during the 1970s by the Rhodesian white minority regime's notorious death squad Selous Scouts, a notorious unit which conducted similar cross-border massacres in Zambia and Mozambique, attacking facilities, including refugee camps, of the Zimbabwean liberation movements. A number of former Rhodesian soldiers left to South Africa when Rhodesia became an independent and majority ruled country in 1980. Former Rhodesian SAS and Selous Scout soldiers formed the nucleus of two newly formed Reconnaissance Commandos of the SADF, which were the units responsible for the attack on the ANC houses in Matola. The attackers included a number of black, Portuguese speaking soldiers, who have been recruited from the ranks of RENAMO, a formerly Rhodesian and subsequently Apartheid South African funded regional proxy force.

At around midnight 29 January 1981, one group of attackers arrives at one of the ANC houses in Matola. Three of the ANC members inhabiting the house approach the gate, after having been alerted by the watchman of the presence of soldiers outside. There the ANC men are immediately ordered to kneel down by black, Portuguese speaking soldiers in Mozambican Army uniform. After complying, their weapons are confiscated and they are told that they must take off their shoes. Then the ANC members are told to approach the wall of the building, once they are close to the wall suddenly they are slashed around the side of their faces and ears with a sharp object, potentially razor blades or knives, causing the defenseless men to cry out loudly. One of the occupants of the house gets up from the cries and looks out of the window, only to see a scenery that looks like an execution of the three unarmed ANC men by a firing squad is about to happen. He gets his AK assault rifle and shoots at the attackers in the yard from the balcony of the building, the attackers fire at the three unarmed men in front of them and at the balcony. At the same time another group of the attackers, that stayed behind in the rear in the initial phase, storms the compound, firing at the building and tossing grenades. A genuine Mozambican Army unit located just 500 yards away, alarmed by the sound of gunfire and explosions, approaches from the rear of the compound, causing the attackers to retreat to their vehicles and flee the scene.

Two dead attackers were left behind. Robert Lewis Hutchinson, a British national and mercenary, who went to Rhodesia to become involved in the white minority regime's campaign to subjugate the African majority population and later joined the military in minority ruled South Africa. The other, Ian Suttil, was identified as a white Rhodesian, who also has been previously involved in paramilitary activities of the Rhodesian white minority government. Hutchinson's dead body was found with a helmet sporting the Nazi slogan "Sieg Heil" and a Nazi-type swastika symbol.

One Mozambican of white complexion, who according to some reports bore a resemblance to Joe Slovo, a high-profile ANC leader, was also murdered by the attackers.

Reaction

Both president of the ANC Oliver Tambo and president of Mozambique Samora Machel condemned the killings. The United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid condemned the attack as an act of "terrorism and aggression by the Apartheid Regime against a neighbouring state".

In the inaugural commemoration of the killings, President Machel declared this as a day of friendship between the ANC and the government of Mozambique which presidents Filipe Nyusi and Jacob Zuma continued to acknowledge during the unveiling of the monument in 2005.