Matola R
a catalyst for
The Matola Raid Monument and
Interpretive Centre commemorates the
raid into Mozambique on 31 January 1981
by the then South African Government’s
forces, who attacked three
strategically targeted houses
used by Umkhonto weSizwe,
resulting in 19 casualties.
Designed by Impendulo Design
Architects and constructed by
SS Construções, the project
was initiated between the
Mozambique Ministry of
Culture and the South African
Department of Arts and
Culture in a Memorandum
of Understanding for the
development of a Monument
and Interpretive Centre.
O
n the night of 30 January 1981, a group of South African Defence Force
(SADF) special forces troops infiltrated Mozambique and launched
simultaneous raids on three ANC safe houses in Matola, a suburb of
Maputo.
In what was the SADF’s first-ever cross-border raid into a neighbouring
state, codenamed Operation Beanbag, the soldiers killed 15 South Africans
and a Portuguese civilian for the loss of three of their own. Several of the
dead South Africans were senior members of uMkhonto weSizwe, the
military wing of the ANC.
26 africandesignmagazine.com