Quick Facts
Biography
The Strijdom Square Massacre was a shooting spree carried out on Strijdom Square in Pretoria, South Africa, near Johannesburg, on 15 November 1988. Barend Strydom, later convicted and sentenced for the shooting spree, shot and killed eight people and injured 16 others. The incident was one of many carried out during South Africa's apartheid struggle. The square itself has since been renamed Lilian Ngoyi Square.
The attack
The Delmas Treason Trial was ongoing in Strijdom Square when Strydom, age 23, opened fire on 15 November 1988, killing eight and injuring 16.
Perpetrator
Barend Hendrik Strydom (born 15 July 1965) was born in Wenen, Natal, South Africa. He joined the South African Police, but was dismissed after photographing himself with a decapitated motorist at the scene of an automobile accident.
A week prior, on 8 November 1988, he had killed a woman and injured another person. After the attack, Strydom claimed he was the leader of the White Wolves (Afrikaans: Wit Wolwe), but this was later dismissed as a fictitious organization invented by Strydom. He also said that he had meditated and prayed a number of days before the attack and said that God had not given him any sign to not to carry out the attack. He was sentenced to death; However, in 1990, the government declared a moratorium on capital punishment. In 1992, he was released from prison by President F. W. de Klerk as one of 150 political prisoners.
Memorial
On the 30th anniversary of the attack, on 15 November 2018, the names of the victims was read aloud in a ceremony. A commemorative plaque was dedicated in the square, created by Bradley Steyn, who had witnessed the massacre as a teenager. The ceremony was attended by Carl Niehaus, a spokesperson from the Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association, and two family members of the victims.
