A brutal system leads to brutal behaviour; not an excuse, but an acknowledgement that 1980s South Africa was in many ways in a state of near collapse - something which people would do well to remember when bemoaning the very many issues the country is facing today.
On the face of it, this is a pretty outrageous claim. Even if you inflate the number of police informants killed by MK, include killings by the Inkatha Freedom Party (which is suspect because the Apartheid government helped fund their operations in order to undercut the ANC), and conclude that hundreds were killed by MK land mines, the death toll would be several hundred people more than the official (read: government) death toll for the Sharpeville massacre, the Soweto uprising, and the Bisho massacre.
This figure would exclude other demonstrators killed by SAP, people killed in the counter insurgency in Namibia and neighboring countries, people executed by the South African government, people who died in custody from their injuries, and of course, the nebulous issue of the IFP.
Criticize MK’s actions all you like, but please do so in an intellectually honest way.
