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The Conflict with Renamo
«September 1984»
Dossier MZ-0020
55. Offensive Against the MNR in Magude;
Hunter and the Hanekoms Sentenced
Above : Women in a Renamo camp posing for a photograph, with weapons. It isn't clear whether women participated in attacks, ambushes, or even combat on the side of the rebels, although the "Gorongosa Documents" (see October 1985) do mention a "destacamento feminino" of 50 women being sent for training.
The daily newspaper Notícias ran a series of feature articles about the war against the MNR in Magude, a town in Maputo province.
Abductions of foreign workers continued to occur with some frequency, and the kidnapping of Portuguese citizens reliably provoked indignant coverage in the Lisbon press. In September Joaquim Santos was killed in Nampula city, supposedly for being friendly with some Mozambican military men. The Frelimo Party Central Committee member Zacarias Tomás was killed in action against the rebels in Marromeu, Sofala.
In South Africa, Roland Hunter, Derek Hanekom and Patricia Hanekom were sentenced to serve prison sentences for security offences that were not specified in published reporting. In fact, Hunter had been an aide to Brigadier van Niekerk, the main liaison between the SADF and Renamo, and had passed information, with the help pf the Hanekoms, to the Mozambican government about South African support for the rebels, via the ANC. The original charges of high treason, if pursued, would have revealed in court that support for the MNR was ongoing.
Click on the yellow folder image below to download an unsorted zipped archive of documents and press clippings in PDF format concerning the conflict between the Mozambican government and the MNR/Renamo in September 1984.
