Salisbury Woolworths bombing

Salisbury Woolworths bombing
Part of the Rhodesian Bush War
Location
Coordinates17°50′9.3″S 31°2′26.8″E / 17.835917°S 31.040778°E / -17.835917; 31.040778
Date6 August 1977
Shortly before 12:00 (Central Africa Time)
Attack type
Bombing
Deaths11
Injured76
PerpetratorsZimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA)[1][2][3]
DefendersBritish South Africa Police (BSAP)

On 6 August 1977, during the Rhodesian Bush War, a Woolworths store in Salisbury, Rhodesia (today Harare, Zimbabwe) was bombed by nationalist forces.[1][2][3] Eleven civilians were killed and 76 were injured. Of those killed, eight were black Rhodesians, including two pregnant women and a young boy, and three were whites, members of a single family, Gillian and Donald Mayor and their mother. Mr Mayor and another daughter, Wendy, were seated in a car outside when the bomb went off.[4]

The bomb, comprising about 75 pounds (34 kg) of high explosives, was planted in an area where customers checked packages in before shopping on the upper floor of the two-storey building. It detonated shortly before the crowded store was to close at noon that Saturday.[5] The perpetrators, two teachers, afterwards escaped to Mozambique.[6]

Ian Smith, the Rhodesian Prime Minister, expressed horror at the bombing. "Those who have perpetrated this barbarous outrage can hardly be described as human," he said.[5] Rhodesian black nationalist leaders Bishop Abel Muzorewa and the Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole also condemned the attack.[4]

  1. ^ a b Abbott & Botham 1986, p. 12.
  2. ^ a b Chung 2006, p. 238.
  3. ^ a b Cilliers 1984, p. 43.
  4. ^ a b The Bryan Times newspaper report on the attack, 8 August 1977 accessed 7 September 2014
  5. ^ a b Lakeland Ledger newspaper report on the attack, 7 August 1977 accessed 7 September 2014
  6. ^ Moorcraft & McLaughlin 2008, p. 81.