Untold Assassination Plot Revealed on the Eve of International Nelson Mandela Day

Photo: Mandela in Addis Ababa, 1962/ Source: www.newframe.com / (Photograph by API/ Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

Born on July 7, 1918, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Mvezo, South Africa, and died in December 2013 at the age of 95, having spent 27 years in prison for opposing apartheid rule. Sixty years after Nelson Mandela trained in guerilla warfare in Ethiopia, a former army officer in charge of his protection revealed that the South African anti-apartheid hero had been the target of an assassination attempt. 

According to Anadolu Agency, on the eve of International Nelson Mandela Day, Captain Guta Dinka, 89, one of the four paratroopers who served as Mandela’s bodyguard, told Anadolu Agency about the murder attempt and how he deterred it.

“A white man and an African man, who wanted me to strangle Mandela with a rope, were introduced to me by an old army comrade named Abraham. To take images of Mandela, they gave me a camera and £2,000 ($2,371) in cash. He promised that if I murdered him, they would give me a good life in England.” The soldier informed General Tadesse Birru, who was in charge of the camp, of the idea and gave him the money and camera. “The scheme was halted by Abraham’s arrest. The African and the white guy were immediately deported to Kenya,” he said. Dinka recalled his time working with Mandela and claimed that both the trainee’s identity and the training’s goal were kept hidden, and was even refereed to as  Emperor Haile Selassie’s high-profile guest.

Photo: Minasse Wondimu Hailu / Source: Anadolu Agency

According to his Ethiopian passport, the young South African began clandestine guerrilla warfare training at the Kolfe Police training complex in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, under the name David Motsamayi. Mandela was also trained seven days a week in the use of explosives, mines, and weapons, as well as leadership in guerrilla warfare. In January of this year, Mandela Museum was announced to be underway in this police collage. The main objective, as reported by New Business Ethiopia, is to pass on the history of Ethiopia’s contribution to the South Africans struggle against apartheid and against other injustices in addition to being a tourist destination in the capital.

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