Kevin Woods brother “hopes Mugabe rots in hell”

By Violet Gonda
3 July 2006

Mike Woods, the brother of released South African spy Kevin Woods has said his family were ecstatic and overjoyed to hear of his release after spending nearly two decades in a Zimbabwean prison. But he had no kind words for Robert Mugabe who finally granted his brother amnesty. In a telephone interview from Australia Mike said, “Mugabe, I hope he rots in hell. He and his whole government. I weep inside when I think of the suffering poor Zimbabweans are going through because of this demented senile dictator.”

Kevin Woods was jailed in 1988 along with Mike Smith and Phillip Conjwayo for a car bomb attack which killed the civilian driver and injured several members of the African National Congress (ANC), in Bulawayo. The three, who were convicted for murder and spying on behalf of the South African government during the apartheid era, were originally sentenced to death but had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment. All three were finally released last Saturday morning.

It is not clear why they were released as Mugabe has for years rejected international appeals to pardon the three, including appeals from former South African President Nelson Mandela. One reason given by the regime was that the three were Zimbabwean citizens at the time the offence was committed.

When asked about the crime that his brother and the others had committed in 1988, Mike Woods said, “You got to look at this in light of the Cold War and you got to look at it even in today’s current situation where we have acts of terrorism committed… and today it has been a total turnaround for the western world now looking at pre-emptive strikes, which is what my brother was doing. He was a spy for the South Africans… What he was sentenced for could quite easily happen to English intelligence or Australian or Americans. Politics is crazy, it’s just weird.”

It’s reported that while planning the attack in the late 80s, Kevin Woods had previously identified an ANC facility to a South African Special Forces Intelligence Agent Kit Bawden, and subsequently a South African Defence Force aircraft delivered explosives to a cattle ranch near Fort Rixon belonging to Kit's brother, Barry Bawden.

It’s further reported that Philip Conjwayo procured the vehicle and hired a civilian driver, a Zambian by the name of Obed Amon Mwanza for the purpose of delivering the explosives to the ANC facility. The driver was told he was participating in an illegal foreign currency deal and given instructions to sound the car's horn on arrival at the facility and then to abandon the vehicle.

Mike Smith and Kit Bawden fitted the explosives to the car. Mwanza drove the car to the target area and upon sounding the horn, Kit Bawden, who was accompanied by Smith, detonated the explosives, killing Mwanza instantly and injuring six ANC members.

Agents Woods, Smith and Conjwayo were sentenced to death for the car bomb attack in Bulawayo but in 1993 had their death sentence commuted to life imprisonment. Bawden's 40 years imprisonment was reduced to 25 years.

A request by Woods to seek medical treatment in South Africa in 2003 was turned down for security reasons. Phillip Conjwayo is now 73 while Woods and Smith are in their mid fifties.