Marion Sparg — a white MK soldier on blasting apartheid’s foundations

Marion Sparg with a copy of her autobiography. (Photo: Supplied)

24 Sep 2024

The journalist and activist planted bombs for the ANC’s armed wing at the infamous John Vorster Square police headquarters and the Hillbrow station.

Marion Sparg was one of the few white women to join uMkhonto weSizwe, the armed wing of the ANC. While she was working as a journalist at the Sunday Times, 32 ANC members and 19 civilians were killed by the South African Defence Force in an attack on Maseru, Lesotho. This spurred her to join the ANC.

Between 1981 and 1986 she went into exile and received training in guerrilla warfare and worked in ANC communication and on the Voice of Women journal. She later joined Special Operations, infiltrating the country secretly. In 1986, she was given a 25-year prison sentence for high treason, of which she served five years. She was freed in 1991.

Sparg worked as coordinator of Cyril Ramaphosa’s office at ANC headquarters from 1991 to 1994 and after 1994 served in various capacities in the new government.

In this extract from her autobiography, Guilty and Proud, she recounts how she planted limpet mines at police stations.

Setting the bombs

As no one had searched my handbag when I’d done my recce a few days before, I was rather taken aback when the young black policeman said he needed to. I was relieved that the white policeman stepped in, acutely aware of what would have happened if he hadn’t.

To this day I am struck by the irony that being a white woman is what made it possible for me to enter the police station and place the bombs. I am also still amazed at how lax the security was. It was clear the security police had never imagined such an attack on their headquarters was possible.

Once inside, I headed up the stairs to the toilets on the first floor. It was a fairly big room with a number of stalls at the far side, with windows facing the street. No one was in the room. I entered one of the stalls and closed the door. These toilets had no cisterns. Where to place the limpet?

Luckily the windows were up high and there was a narrow ledge that would hold them. I armed two limpets, put them in a plastic bag, carefully placed them on the ledge and left the toilet.

It was only upon leaving that I realised I had entered the men’s toilet. I was careful to use thin fabric gloves all the time, but did not expect much to be left of the limpets after the explosion.

Sparg MK John Vorster John Vorster Square Police Station, now called Johannesburg Central Police Station. (Photo: Supplied)

I left the way I had entered, past the same guardhouse. Thankfully, the police station was fairly busy and no one took any notice of me. I felt calm, knowing I had set the limpet mines accurately, and made a point of walking calmly too.

From John Vorster Square I made my way to the Hillbrow police station by bus. Here I walked straight into the charge office, went up to the counter and asked where the public toilets were. A policeman pointed to his left without even looking up from what he was doing. Once again, the toilets did not have cisterns but there was a ledge. This ledge was not as high as those in John Vorster Square and there was a window facing a courtyard in the police station.

I armed the limpet, placed it in a plastic bag and put it on the ledge. The charge office was busy and, once again, no one appeared to take any notice of me as I left. When I was satisfied that I was not being followed, I returned to my flat in Hillbrow.

This all sounds very matter of fact as I write it now. I’m not sure it was at the time. But I do remember feeling calm.

I was back in my flat in Hillbrow when the news came over the radio of the blast at John Vorster Square. I was pleased – not elated, but satisfied that I had succeeded in my mission. The news said there had been some 142 injuries but no deaths.

I later learned that two police officers and two civilians had received slight injuries. This was also good. I had not deliberately set out to kill, but was obviously aware that it was a possibility.

Brendan Boyle, writing for United Press International, commented that while MK had attacked many police stations, “no target as major as John Vorster Square ever has been attacked from the inside”.

Sparg MK Marion Sparg with a copy of her autobiography. (Photo: Supplied)

His report continued: “Reporters were kept away from the blue steel-and-glass building and photographers were warned it is illegal to publish a picture of a police station. Police patrolled the rubble-strewn area with dogs.

“One police spokesman said two officers were slightly injured in the explosion, which shattered windows on four floors. Another said one of the officers was seriously hurt. Two civilians at the police station to report a car accident were injured and taken to a hospital, police said.

Read more: A woman soldier’s beautiful book reclaims the MK mantle

“The explosion blew a 15-foot hole in a wall, scattering glass and rubble over a wide area. The heavily fortified building, surrounded by high walls and tall steel fencing, is seen by blacks as a major symbol of apartheid and oppression.”

The purpose of many of MK’s actions was symbolic in nature. While actions such as the Sasol bombing certainly caused economic damage, these and others such as the attack on the SADF base at Voortrekkerhoogte and the Koeberg nuclear station were part of a bigger effort known as armed propaganda in support of the ANC’s political struggle.

Although the exodus of young people into exile and the ranks of MK following the 1976 uprising had breathed new life into MK, armed action was still intended to stimulate and support political mobilisation and organisation and not vice versa. It was because of the supremacy of politics that MK taught a disciplined and restrained use of violence.

As my flat was only a few blocks away from Hillbrow police station, I had expected to hear the blast, but had not. I did not pay too much attention to this at the time. DM

Guilty and Proud is published by Tafelberg, an imprint of NB Publishers.

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

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Setting the bombs