The Saint James Church massacre was a

massacre A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians Glossary of French words and expressions in English#En masse, en masse by an armed ...

perpetrated on St James Church of England in South Africa in

Kenilworth, Cape Town Kenilworth is a suburb in Cape Town, South Africa situated in the Southern Suburbs region of the city. Etymology The earliest recorded reference to the Kenilworth area was as "''Weltevreden''" (Dutch for "well-satisfied") in the 1700s. The ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, on 25 July 1993 by four members of the

Azanian People's Liberation Army The Azanian People's Liberation Army (APLA), formerly known as Poqo, was the military wing of the Pan Africanist Congress, an African nationalist movement in South Africa. In the Xhosa language, the word 'Poqo' means 'pure'. After attacks ...

(APLA). Eleven members of the congregation were killed and 58 wounded. In 1998 the attackers were granted amnesty for their acts by the

Truth and Reconciliation Commission A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state ac ...

Massacre

The attack occurred during the Sunday evening service. Sichumiso Nonxuba, Bassie Mkhumbuzi, Gcinikhaya Makoma and Tobela Mlambisa approached the church, a congregation of the

Church of England in South Africa The Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa (REACH-SA), known until 2013 as the Church of England in South Africa (CESA), is a Christian denomination in South Africa. It was constituted in 1938 as a federation of churches. It appo ...

, in a vehicle stolen by Mlambisa and Makoma beforehand. Nonxuba, who commanded the unit, and Makoma entered the church armed with M26 hand grenades and R4 assault rifles. They threw the grenades and then opened fire on the congregation, killing 11 and wounding 58.
Department of Justice and Constitutional Development website
doj.gov.za; accessed 3 December 2017. One member of the congregation, Charl van Wyk, who wrote a book about the event (''Shooting Back: the right and duty of self defense''), returned fire with a .38 special revolver, wounding one of the attackers. At this point they fled the church. Mkhumbuzi had been ordered to throw four petrol bombs into the church following the shooting, but abandoned this intention as all four fled in the vehicle. Members of the congregation killed were Guy Cooper Javens, Richard Oliver O'Kill, Gerhard Dennis Harker, Wesley Alfonso Harker, Denise Gordon, Mirtle Joan Smith, Marita Ackermann, Andrey Katyl, Oleg Karamjin, Valentin Varaksa and Pavel Valuet. The last four on this list were Russian seamen attending the service as part of a church outreach programme. Another Russian seaman, Dmitri Makogon, lost both legs and an arm in the attack. The attack was seen as particularly shocking as relatively few terrorist attacks happened in the suburbs and the

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

area was regarded as relatively peaceful. Furthermore, the Church of England in South Africa had always been mixed-race and opposed to Apartheid. The attack was seen as harming prospects for future constitutional negotiation.

Arrest and trial

Makoma was arrested ten days later and convicted for 11 murders. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison. Nonxuba, Mlambisa and Mkhumbuzi were subsequently arrested and charged in 1996. Mkhumbuzi had in the meantime joined the

South African National Defence Force The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) comprises the armed forces of South Africa. The Chief of the SANDF is appointed by the President of South Africa from one of the armed services. They are in turn accountable to the Minister of ...

. In 1997, while on trial, Nonxuba, Mlambisa and Mkhumbuzi appealed to the

for amnesty, together with Makoma. They were granted bail pending their appearance before the TRC. Nonxuba died in a car accident while on bail in November 1996.

Amnesty

Makoma, Mkhumbuzi and Mlambisa were all granted

amnesty Amnesty () is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power officially forgiving certain classes of people who are subject to trial but have not yet be ...

for the St James Church attack by the

(TRC). As a result, Makoma was freed after serving 5½ years of his sentence, and the trial of Mkhumbuzi and Mlambisa was never completed. In this and other APLA amnesty hearings, APLA operatives claimed that they were following their orders and that churches were complicit in taking land from the blacks and oppressing them during

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

. In statements made to the representatives of St James Church, they added they were unaware the selected target was a church until they arrived in Kenilworth. Dawie Ackerman, husband of one of the victims, noted that perhaps 35–40% of the congregation were people of colour, with the counsel for the APLA saying they had assumed all congregants would be white as the church was in a white area. Letlapa Mphahlele, national director of operations for APLA, took responsibility for ordering the attacks as part of his application for amnesty. He claimed that he had authorised attacks on white civilians following the killing of five school children by the Transkei Defence Force in

Umtata Mthatha ( , ), alternatively rendered Umtata, is the main city of the King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality in Eastern Cape province of South Africa and the capital of OR Tambo District Municipality. The city has an airport, previously known ...

. Amnesty in such cases was typically granted in terms of the TRC's mandate because the crimes were considered politically motivated, with the perpetrators following the orders of the APLA commanders, and full disclosure was made to the TRC. Although amnesty was granted to the individual perpetrators, the TRC found the act itself, and other APLA/PAC attacks specifically targeting civilians, were "a gross violation of human rights" and a "violation of internal ichumanitarian law".

Later developments

Several of the church members who were injured or who lost family members in the attacks, as well as Charl van Wyk, who had returned fire on the attackers, later met and publicly reconciled with the APLA attackers. On 27 August 2002, Gcinikhaya Makoma was arrested along with six others following a cash-in-transit heist of a

Standard Bank Standard Bank (officially Standard Bank Group Limited) is the largest bank in Africa, as well as the continent's biggest lender by assets. The company's corporate headquarters, Standard Bank Centre, is located in Johannesburg, Gauteng. The ...

cash van in

Constantia, Cape Town Constantia is an affluent residential suburb in the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa, situated about 20 kilometres south of the Cape Town CBD. It is considered to be one of the most prestigious suburbs in South Africa, with large, ex ...

, in which R1.8 million was stolen. He and the others were later acquitted, with the magistrate finding that the prosecution case had been badly put together and that documents had been falsified by an investigating officer. Makoma was eventually convicted on 16 February 2012 of murder and robbery and sentenced to life and 46 years in prison for his role in a December 2007 cash van heist in Parow, Cape Town. In October 2004, Charl Van Wyk became a founding member of Gun Owners of South Africa (GOSA), an online civilian

gun rights The right to keep and bear arms (often referred to as the right to bear arms) is a legal right for people to possess weapons (arms) for the preservation of life, liberty, and property. The purpose of gun rights is for self-defense, as well as ...

ownership group, which is involved in public demonstrations against the Firearms Control Act.

References

External links