JOHANNESBURG BOMB BLAST WOUNDS 10

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201320003-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 13, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: May 29, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201320003-4
ART11 E AP"EAR
no PC'
NEW YORK TIMES
29 May 1985
Johannesburg Bomb Blast Wounds
By ALAN COWELL
Special to The New York Times
JOHANNESBURG, May 28 - A
bomb exploded in the offices of a South
African Army medical unit here today,
wounding at least 10 people.
There was no immediate word on
who planted the bomb, which went off I'
in a high-rise building in central Johan- 1
nesburg. In the past, the main rebel Or-;
ganization, the African National Con-
gress, based in Zambia, has taken re-
sponsibility for such explosions.
Some reports, quoted by the South
African Press Association, put the
number wounded at 16, but it was not
clear how many of those were in seri-
ous condition.
The attack was the first against a
military installation to have been re-
ported since a car bomb killed 19 peo-
ple in Pretoria two years ago.
Attack on Mining Companies
Ambush in Angola
South Africa now says that Angola
has become the guerrillas' main host
country. Two South African soldiers
were killed and a third was captured in
northern Angola last week during what
the authorities oori iieesheere aescnDea as a cov-
ert intelligence-gathering mission di-
- the Angolans say the outh Africans
were planning to sabotage United
States oil installations in the northern
enclave of Cabinda.
In Cape Town today, the Minister of
Defense, Magnus Malan, defended the
operation and renewed South Africa's
assertion that the commandos, said to
belong to an elite and secretive recon-
naissance unit, were on an espionage
mission and not involved in "an attack
operation." They were lightly armed,
the minister said, and had been sur-
prised when leaving a temporary base.
The minister said it would be a diffi-
cult and lengthy process to have the
bodies and the captive, identified here
as Wynand du Toit, repatriated be-
cause Angola planned to seek maxi-
propaganda advantages by show-
in off the wounded captive.
South African newspaper editorials,
The African National Congress is the
most prominent of exiled and outlawed
ups waging urban warfare against
gre
the white minority authorities and'
their policies of racial compartmental-
ization, known as apartheid. On April.
the congress said its operatives
30
,
were "probably" responsible for two
explosions at the offices here of major
gold-mining corporations that had just
dismissed over 17,000 black workers.
Witnesses said the explosion rocked
the building at 3 P.M. The police im-
mediately cordoned off the area and
kept reporters and photographers
away.
The blast came one day after a 21-
year-old black South African, Jabu
Ngobese, was jailed for 15 years on
treason charges after admitting he was
a member of the African National Con-
gress. He had been charged with bring-
ing arms and explosives into South Af-
rica and hiding them in caches near Jo-
~hannesburg.
The Congress's operations have been
severely hampered by South Africa's
nonaggression treaties with Mozam-
bique and Swaziland, which
traditional
sealed the guerrillas' transit corridors into this country.
10
rs*r,ilarly those in the Al rikaans
press, have registered dismay at the in-
cident t_ avegenera y souk r to
su rt the official line that South Af-
rica has no tion but to see mte i-.
gg e a ~ut toes bas in goa in or
der to protect its borders.
e e o e game," the
Afrikaans Sunday newspaper Rapport
said two days ago of the incident, in
northern Angola, "is that you must not
be caught."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201320003-4