Shirley Gunn (born 9 May 1955) is a South African former anti-apartheid activist and

Umkhonto we Sizwe uMkhonto weSizwe (; abbreviated MK; ) was the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress (ANC), founded by Nelson Mandela in the wake of the Sharpeville massacre. Its mission was to fight against the South African government to brin ...

(MK) member who was falsely accused of the Khotso House bombings in 1998.Shirley Gunn
''South African History Online''. Accessed 16 May 2013.

Early life and political activism

Gunn was born the youngest of five children in the

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

suburb of Kenilworth. Her father was a doctor and her mother a nurse. She attended a convent school from age 5 to 18. In 1966 and 1967, Gunn accompanied her mother to various poor communities in Cape Town. From age 17, Gunn assisted her brother who was a doctor at a clinic in Hermanus. Disillusioned by apartheid, she left nursing in 1976 and enrolled at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

(UCT) for a degree in social work.D. Foster, M. Haupt, P. De Beer

'A Very Lonely Road' Accessed 16 May 2013 For her honours degree, Gunn was placed in

Hout Bay Hout Bay (, meaning "Wood Bay") is a seaside suburb of Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is situated in a valley on the Atlantic seaboard of the Cape Peninsula, twenty kilometres south of the Central business district of ...

to do community work. Here she joined the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...

(ANC) in 1980. She was recruited in the ANC's political underground activities where she helped develop militant strategies. Gunn was then assigned to co-ordinate the work of the Advice Offices in the

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

. While Gunn was still working with the Advice Offices, the first clothing workers’ union strike took place. Gunn mobilised the Advice Offices to support the strike, while simultaneously receiving military training.

Arrests

In 1984, Gunn was recruited into the MK by Leon Meyer. As a result of her anti-apartheid activity, she was arrested by the security police in 1985 and detained at

Pollsmoor Prison Pollsmoor Prison, officially known as Pollsmoor Maximum Security Prison, is located in the Cape Town suburb of Tokai in South Africa. Pollsmoor is a maximum security penal facility that continues to hold some of South Africa's most dangerous c ...

for more than three months. Gunn's release was secured when

Dullah Omar Abdullah Mohamed Omar OLS (26 May 1934 – 13 March 2004), better known as Dullah Omar, was a South African anti-Apartheid activist, lawyer, and a minister in the South African cabinet from 1994 until his death. Early life and education B ...

represented her in her trial, but she was placed under surveillance and was continuously harassed by security police. She was subsequently exiled to

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

. In 1988, Gunn returned to South Africa. She and her then-husband, Aneez Salie, assisted in the establishment of the

Ashley Kriel Ashley Kriel (17 October 1966 – 9 July 1987) was a South African anti-apartheid activist who was killed by police in Cape Town on 9 July 1987 for his role in the anti-apartheid movement. In 1999, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission gran ...

unit and carried out an unspecified number of sabotage attacks of symbolic institutions in the Western Cape. In August that same year, Khotso house, the headquarters of the

South African Council of Churches The South African Council of Churches (SACC) is an interdenominational forum in South Africa. It was a prominent anti-apartheid organisation during the years of apartheid in South Africa. Its leaders have included Desmond Tutu, Beyers Naudé ...

, was bombed and 21 people were injured. In a ploy to arrest her, a pregnant Gunn was accused of the bombings in a statement issued by then Minister of Law and Order

Adriaan Vlok Adriaan Johannes Vlok (11 December 1937 – 8 January 2023) was a South African politician. He was Minister of Law and Order in South Africa from 1986 to 1991 in the final years of the apartheid era. Facing increasingly intense opposition and ...

on 10 January 1989. After the birth of her son, Haroon Gunn-Salie, Gunn was arrested in June 1990 and detained with her son. Gunn was held in cells that had appalling conditions, resulting in her lodging a complaint with the police. As punishment for the complaint, the police in court took her son away. Recordings of her son's weeping were used during Gunn's interrogation as a means of forcing her to confess. She was later taken to the Caledon Women's Prison where she was detained for 68 days. In June 1990, Gunn and her 16-month-old son travelled with her mother and sister to a guest farm outside

Victoria West Victoria West is a town in the central Karoo region of South Africa's Northern Cape province. It is situated on the main N12 route, at an elevation of . It is the seat of the Ubuntu Local Municipality within the Pixley ka Seme District Municip ...

in the

Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe Khoemana (also known as !Orakobab or Korana) word is a semidesert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its extent is ...

. Here she was arrested by large numbers of security policemen. She and her son were driven to Cape Town where they were again detained. Gunn was tortured for 64 days. Two years later, when it was discovered that the security forces were responsible for the bombing, Gunn laid defamation charges in a civil case against Ministers Vlok, Rina Venter and

Kobie Coetsee Hendrik Jacobus Coetsee (19 April 1931 – 29 July 2000), known as Kobie Coetsee, was a South African lawyer, National Party politician and administrator as well as a negotiator during the country's transition to universal democracy. Biograp ...

. She won an out-of-court settlement of R70 000 for the trauma she and her son endured and for having been framed. Gunn later testified of her own experiences to the

Truth and Reconciliation Commission A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state ac ...

(TRC), while Vlok, former Police Commissioner Johan van der Merwe and 17 others were granted amnesty for the bombing.

Present day

Gunn continues to work in advancing human rights. She is currently the Executive Director of Human Rights Media Centre (HRMC) in Kenilworth, Cape Town and a board member on the Khulumani Support Group.Shirley Gunn
''Who's who in SA.'' Accessed 16 May 2013

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gunn, Shirley 1955 births Living people University of Cape Town alumni South African nurses South African activists South African women activists South African anti-apartheid activists Prisoners and detainees of South Africa