November 17, 1989: The murder of Anton Fransch

Remembering the life and sacrifice of a young martyr.

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the Assassination of 20 year old Anton Fransch known underground as comrade Mohamed Slamdien.

The siege of Athlone began after Anton negotiated with the apartheid regime security forces to safely escort the family he was living by out of the house. From 12 AM till past 7 AM a guerrilla battled against the guns of the apartheid government after his whereabouts was made known to them by Yazir Henry.

He was killed by a grenade, thrown into a window of the room he was in, after a 8 hour shoot-out with special branch police and SADF forces at a safe house Church Street, Crawford, Athlone where he lived as David Govender a UCT student.

He joined revolutionary movements and be came active in the liberation struggle in his early teens. Anton left for Angola in 1986 after seeing himself pronounced a terrorist fugitive on an apartheid TV programme Police file, he returned in 1989 known to be a brave MK guerrilla.