Plot 9935 at Jinja in Gaborone is relatively unknown to many residents of Gaborone yet it holds an important space in the history of South African liberation struggle. It may not be like the Kgaboesele house in Lobatse but it contributed immensely in the African National Congress’ (ANC) underground network. The plot is easier to locate especially from the direction of the main mall. You simply start from Maruapula shopping complex and drive via past Transport Testing Centre as if you are en route to Tsholofelo. After crossing the Segoditshane River, you drive a short while until you arrive at corner Kgabala and Limpopo Roads. This is where the plot seats. It is directly opposite Notwane Primary School.
This was the scene of the February 13, 1985 powerful bomb blast which reduced a house rented by Nat Serache, a BBC ‘s Focus on Africa Programme journalist and a veteran of the ANC. Many have forgotten about that plot while many others may have never heard of such a terrible thing which awakened every resident of the area and left them in a state of shock. From the direction of BBS Mall, it may be a slight problem to reach the area because the road meanders twice or thrice with a couple of traffic lights. Fortunately Nat Serache and the people he was staying with were not home at the time of the blast. Lady Luck had tipped them to stay away that night. Rex Manyuna, an employee of the Department of Printing was in the vicinity. His house is a stone throw away from the scene of blast.
In fact you can count four houses on the opposite site of where the blast occurred. Thirty-seven years later, he still can vividly remember the events of that evening or night. It was shortly after midnight when he heard a frightening and very powerful blast. He was just a lay man knowing nothing about bombs but he could tell that the explosion was a bomb as his house even developed some cracks. He rushed to Broadhurst Police Station to report but he was told on arrival that somebody had already telephoned the police station. Why then had they not left for the scene immediately they received the report is unclear but the delay was questionable. I was one of the first journalists to arrive at the scene that morning for a scoop.
I was there for the Botswana Daily News. The building had been reduced to rubbles. Not only the wall. The foundation was not there as well. The people would have been torn into mince meat if they had been there. Fingers immediately pointed at the apartheid regime in South Africa and rightly so. They were notorious for acts of sabotage inside Botswana right from the days of the assassination of Okgopotse Tiro at Kgale. Nat Serache was repatriated to Zambia afterwards for his own safety.
The Bomb attack on his house preceded the car bomb explosion which killed Rodgers Nkadimeng near the gates of Northside Primary School in Gaborone. He was a senior South African Congress of Trade Union (SACTU) official also known as David. He was killed on May 14, three months after the attempt on Serache’s life. From there, military attacks on Botswana became a daily bread. The house has since been rebuilt and sold to a tenant by the owners, Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC). Current tenants have heard stories about that bomb blast which exploded before they came in. However, they are not willing to discuss the matter but they have hinted that the South African High Commission seems interested in buying the plot perhaps to keep it as one of those places of interest to themselves. This is not a bad idea. They should be encouraged to do so because it is part of their struggle history.
Nat Serache was a seasoned journalist. But he was reserved when it came to discussing South African politics with locals. I was close to him but we would discuss matters concerning the ANC in passing. It was at a reception hosted by the Chinese Embassy that Mxlosi Mgxashe of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) challenged Serache into discussing their organizations’ differences. He quietly declined the challenge but told me afterwards that, such challenges should come at an appropriate platform and time. He said he would not allow himself to be engaged at an inappropriate platform.
Following the normalization of the political situation in South Africa in 1994, Nat Serache resurfaced in Gaborone around 2000 as a diplomat. He was first secretary in his country’s embassy. He was then a free man who could walk along the City’s streets unafraid. This was around the time when a colleague at BOPA, the late Edison Ramonkga was working on a story concerning the private visit to Botswana by some ANC top officials. He contacted Nat Serache at the High Commission.
The man claimed ignorant of the visit. When Ramokga insisted that such an expected visit was real, the man told him, “maar werklik mo nthong tsa batho o nyaka eng. Wa mpona ga ke itse sepe maar ga ke tshwenye ope wena o mathile o wa botsa, tlogela batho ba etse ntho tsa bona. E tswa mo tsona”. Ramonkga was overwhelmed with joy upon hearing the type of language spoken to him. He said it could be understood well by people of Mochudi. What the speaker meant was for Ramonkga to stop probing people’s affairs. Ramonkga reported the encounter with Nat Serache to me saying “Kgabo, batho ba lona ba re ke tswe mo nthong tsa batho”. It was on Friday and advised him to leave the thing to me. The following morning I was at Pilane in Mochudi where it had been said that some top ANC officials would be attending a funeral there. Indeed there was a funeral of a top ANC veteran who had served as South Africa’s ambassador in Russia. He was married to a Mochudi woman and built a home at Pilane. He had chosen to be buried in Mochudi. Unity Dow, still a High Court Judge, was directing funeral proceedings.
In attendance were South Africa’s First Lady, Zanele Mbeki, Nkosasana Dlamini- Zuma, Mmantho Tshabala-Msimang and other high ranking officials. There we were having a story the High Commission earlier refused to disclose. The following Tuesday, the Daily News carried a story whose introduction was something like “High ranking ANC officials, arrived in Mochudi on Saturday, turned Pilane ward into a high security area and paid tribute to one of their top diplomats who chose to be buried in Botswana”. Those who attempted to assassinate Nat Serache in the interest of the apartheid regime, were later granted amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa. Brigadier Schoon had spilled the beans. He was heavily grilled when his application for amnesty was heard by the committee.
His testimony reads like a Play in Shakespear’s book “Man for all seasons”. It begins with Brigadier Schoon telling the commission of a joint meeting of their country’s military intelligence and Security Branch at a farm between Zeerust and Mafikeng discussing the modalities of the attack on Nat Serache’s life. Advocate Vissar begins by putting it to Brigadier Willem Schoon, “you are here to testify in an amnesty application concerning an attack on Mr. Nat Serache’s house in 1985” to which the reply was framed in this manner, “yes as far as my knowledge goes, Mr. Chairman that is correct’.
He added, “discussions to destroy the house took place on a farm between Zeerust and Mafikeng attended by generals from different forces”. From the police side, he was the most senior. To follow up his version of events clearly, Google is available for help. He testified that they had received information indicating that a certain Mr. Nat Serache who was in Botswana and that he managed a safe house for MK members in Botswana. As far as he could recall the information showed that at that particular time, there were people prepared or were preparing to infiltrate South Africa from that house rented to Nat Serache. That made Nat Serache the primary target but he could not recall if his wife was the target as well.
The security apparatus considered Nat Serache a very important MK man” leading four men who were just about to enter South Africa. In the interest of South African Government at the time, he said, it was important for Nat Serache to be eliminated. The purpose of that farm meeting was to authorize “Special Forces” to carry out the attack. It was argued on his behalf by lawyers that because he took no part in the practical execution of the operation and he could therefore not tell the commission what exactly happened there but what was clear was that a house was destroyed or damaged “and we know from the investigating unit’s report that two people were injured. The lawyers submitted that the applicant had complied with the provision of the law and should therefore be granted amnesty for any act, omission or offence committed by him and others. Regarding part in the bombing of a house at Jinja, he could not tell the commission.
