The storming of the Kempton Park World Trade Centre took place in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
on 25 June 1993 when approximately three thousand members of the
Afrikaner Volksfront
The Afrikaner Volksfront (AVF; ) was a separatist umbrella organisation uniting a number of right-wing Afrikaner organisations in South Africa in the early 1990s.
History
The AVF was formed by General Constand Viljoen and three other gene ...
(AVF),
Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging
The Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (), meaning "Afrikaner Resistance Movement", commonly known by its abbreviation AWB, is an Afrikaner nationalist paramilitary organisation in South Africa. Since its founding in 1973 by Eugène Terre'Blanche and ...
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...
. At the time of the attack the World Trade Centre was the venue for multi-party negotiations to end the
apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
system through the country's first multi-racial elections. These negotiations were strongly opposed by right-wing white groups in South Africa. The invasion came after other clashes between police and right-wingers, such as the
Battle of Ventersdorp
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...
, and much belligerent rhetoric from right-wing leaders such as
Rand
The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is finan ...
.
The protesters also held a prayer meeting in the main negotiating chamber. Before leaving, negotiations with the police were held in which it was agreed that no members would be arrested that day. The departure was peaceful compared to the entrance.
General
Constand Viljoen
General Constand Laubscher Viljoen, (28 October 1933 – 3 April 2020) was a South African military commander and politician. He co-founded the Afrikaner Volksfront (Afrikaner People's Front) and later founded the Freedom Front (now F ...
, a conservative Afrikaner leader who was participating in the negotiations, later denied that the invasion was planned by the Afrikaner Volksfront as part of their protest, and criticised the AWB members who had "got out of hand".
Goldstone Commission
The
Goldstone Commission
The Goldstone Commission, formally known as the Commission of Inquiry Regarding the Prevention of Public Violence and Intimidation, was appointed on 24 October 1991 to investigate political violence and intimidation in South Africa. Over its three- ...
, headed by Justice
Richard Goldstone
Richard Joseph Goldstone (born 26 October 1938) is a South African former judge. After working for 17 years as a commercial lawyer, he was appointed by the South African government to serve on the Transvaal Supreme Court from 1980 to 1989 and ...
, was tasked with investigating the protest. The commission found that the
South African Police
The South African Police (SAP) was the national police force and law enforcement agency in South Africa from 1913 to 1994; it was the ''de facto'' police force in the territory of South West Africa (Namibia) from 1939 to 1981. After South Af ...
protecting the negotiations had been completely ineffective, that the protesters had broken the law and breached agreed conditions for their protest, and welcomed the arrest and charging of 60 persons. It found that the AWB members had acted as hooligans, and recommended that assurances from the AWB regarding the conduct of its members should not be relied on in future. It also made recommendations to further restrict public carrying of weapons, paramilitary uniforms and face covering during demonstrations.