Apartheid's Achilles Heel: Apartheid's Achilles Heel., #1

By James Murphy

In 2011, it was uncovered that the African National Congress (ANC) dispatched two operatives to Ireland in the late 1970s to acquire fresh bomb-making and reconnaissance techniques at an Irish Republican Army (IRA) training camp. 

 

Later in 1980, the ANC requested the help of two IRA volunteers in the bombing of the Sasol oil refinery near Johannesburg, dealing a significant blow to the South African apartheid regime. 

 

This book, "Apartheid's Achilles Heel: The IRA-ANC Bombing of the Power Station", delves into the intricate details of this operation and how it was potentially executed.

 

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: James Murphy
• Release date: Apr 22, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223868248

Book preview

APARTHEID’S ACHILLES HEEL

The IRA-ANC Bombing of the Power Station

James Murphy

Prologue:

Apartheid, a system of institutionalised racial segregation and discrimination, was introduced in South Africa in 1948 by the National Party, which had come to power in the general election of that year.

The policy of apartheid was rooted in the ideology of white supremacy and aimed to maintain and strengthen the dominance of the white minority in South Africa.

The apartheid system established racial categories and enforced strict social and economic segregation, separating the black and Indian populations from the white population.

They tried to justify this policy as a means of preventing racial conflict and maintaining law and order, but it was widely condemned as a gross violation of human rights and an instrument of oppression.

The ANC which had been founded in 1912 began opposing apartheid in the 1940s, shortly after the National Party came to power and began implementing its policies of racial segregation and discrimination.

The ANC's opposition to apartheid intensified in the 1950s and 1960s, as the government's policies became more repressive and the ANC's leaders were arrested and imprisoned.

The ANC adopted a policy of non-violent resistance to apartheid in the early years, but this gradually gave way to armed struggle in the 1960s and 1970s, as the government cracked down on peaceful protests and political activity.

This led to the military wing of the ANC being formed called Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) on December 16, 1961, who immediately began military operations against the apartheid regime.

The ANC and MK were banned in South Africa in 1963.

Most of the leadership and MK operatives lived in exile in African countries that were sympathetic to the ANC but this caused logistical problems in launching attacks in South Africa against the apartheid regime.

In Ireland, the IRA was fighting against the British occupation of six of Ireland’s counties in the northeast part of the country.

The treaty of 1921 had cemented the partitioning of the country into two states, a 26-county Free State and a 6-county Northern state still ruled by Britain.

In the following decades' small numbers of Irish Republicans had resisted British rule in the six counties by using armed struggle but by the mid-1960s this had nearly completely fizzled out.

Around the same time, a civil rights movement based on the civil rights movement in America had started in the six counties.

This civil rights movement was asking for one man one vote, equal rights to job opportunities and housing etc for the Catholic/Nationalist minority etc.

The six-county state was manufactured in such a way so there would be a Protestant/ Unionist majority who installed an