40 years since the Lowveld Massacre shook Mbombela
Several people were killed and many injured in a series of mass shootings in KaBokweni, near Nelspruit.
2026 marks 40 years since the Lowveld Massacre took place.
On March 11, 1986, security forces opened fire on thousands of young pupils who had gathered outside the now KaBokweni Magistrate’s Court to protest during the trial of their fellow students.
Prior to March 11, the massacre started with the killing of a student, Mandla Lekhuleni, during a protest. At his funeral, the army and the police shot at the mourners and arrested 26 students without provocation.
At the trial of the 26 students on March 11, further shootings took place.
According to various news reports, four people were killed and some disappeared, never to be found, while an unknown number sustained injuries.
It sent shock waves throughout the country, joining the list of massacres that shaped history, such as 1976 Soweto Uprising and the Sharpville Massacre.
ALSO READ: Mpumalanga estimates R3.5b flood damage recovery cost
It left scars on family members and the rest of the community, and until now, questions as to why they were killed remain unanswered.
Over the years, the provincial government has hosted commemorations of the incident, visiting the burial site in KaBokweni.
The late Jackson Mthembu, a Mpumalanga MEC and ANC executive member, often spoke about the intensity of the massacre. In his memorial lecture on the 26th Anniversary of the Lowveld Massacre in 2012, he said the actions of the youngsters in 1986 were a depiction of the resilience of the people of the Lowveld under extreme provocation by the oppressor regime.
ALSO READ: Flooding leaves villagers stranded in Bushbuckridge
“The duty falls on all of us as the generation with political rights and the political power to change the wrongs of the past, in the words of Madiba [Nelson Mandela], is to reverse the extraordinary human disaster that befell our country over three and a half centuries. We have a programme to address these disasters and we have a cadreship that will borrow from the founding fathers of the ANC; step on their broad shoulders and continue the struggle to make South Africa a better place for all who live in it, black and white,” Mthembu had said.
