Eleven worshippers are killed in an attack on St James Church, Kenilworth
During a Sunday evening service, APLA gunmen attacked St James Church in Kenilworth, Cape Town, killing 11 people and wounding 58. The attackers later received amnesty from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
This moment describes violence or loss under apartheid. It is told through the people who lived it, from the sources linked below.
On the evening of Sunday 25 July 1993, members of the Azanian People's Liberation Army (APLA), the armed wing of the Pan Africanist Congress, entered St James Church in Kenilworth during a service attended by about 1,000 people. They fired automatic weapons and threw two grenades. Eleven people were killed and 58 wounded. Four of those who died were Russian seamen who had come to the service through the church's outreach to visiting sailors.
One attacker was arrested days later and sentenced to 23 years in prison; three others were arrested in 1996. In June 1998 the TRC Amnesty Committee granted amnesty to three of them, finding the attack politically motivated, despite opposition from some survivors and relatives. Some members of the congregation spoke publicly of forgiveness.
Why it matters
The attack on a congregation at worship came while negotiations for democracy were under way. Its amnesty hearing, where survivors both opposed amnesty and spoke of forgiveness, showed how hard the TRC's choices were for victims.
Where it happened
St James Church, 3rd Avenue, Kenilworth
The attack took place inside the church on 3rd Avenue in Kenilworth (Harfield Village), in the southern suburbs. The pin comes from the geotag of the 2020 photograph and the 3rd Avenue street line, so it is accurate to about 100 m. This is not the seaside suburb of St James on the False Bay coast, about 14 km to the south.
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Where it happened Approximate
St James Church, 3rd Avenue, Kenilworth
The attack took place inside the church on 3rd Avenue in Kenilworth (Harfield Village), in the southern suburbs. The pin comes from the geotag of the 2020 photograph and the 3rd Avenue street line, so it is accurate to about 100 m. This is not the seaside suburb of St James on the False Bay coast, about 14 km to the south.
