Raid on Gaborone (Operation Plecksy) | |
---|---|
Location | Gaborone, Botswana |
Date | 14 June 1985 1:40 am (UTC+02:00) |
Target | South African dissidents in exile |
Deaths | 8 South African refugees, 2 Batswana, 1 Dutch national, and a six-year-old Mosotho boy |
Injured | 1 South African soldier wounded |
Motive | to intimidate anti-apartheid activists and sympathizers |
History of Botswana |
---|
![]() |
See also |
The Raid on Gaborone (referred to as "Operation Plecksy" by the then South African Defence Force) took place on 14 June 1985 when South African Defence Force troops, under the order of General Constand Viljoen, crossed into Botswana violating International Law and attacked South African émigrés living in exile in Gaborone. The raid, the fifth South African attack on a neighbouring country since 1981, killed 12 people including women and children; only five of the victims were actual members of the African National Congress (ANC), at the time the main opposition group against the National Party white supremacist minority regime.