WASHINGTON – Twenty-four years ago, black nationalist terrorists from the Azanian People's Liberation Army, or APLA, attacked the congregation at St. James Church in Cape Town, South Africa, killing 11 members of the congregation and wounding another 58.
And now the man who fought them off believes they'll strike again soon.
On Sunday, July 25, 1993, a congregation of 1,400 listened to a hymn of worship. APLA terrorists burst into the church and started firing their automatic weapons and hurling grenades.
The attack was a deliberate targeting of white South Africans, whom the APLA deemed universally responsible for the apartheid system. The rallying cry of the APLA was "One Settler, One Bullet," with "Settler" referring to the white South Africans.
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"I saw this man kick open the door next to the stage, and holding his rifle from the hip, he opened up on us, spraying bullets across a wide arc into the packed congregation. But before he even opened fire, two other black men who seemed to be wearing some olive green uniforms lobbed two hand grenades into the center of the church," an eyewitness reported.
One member of the congregation, a missionary named Charl Van Wyk, returned fire with a .38 special revolver, injuring one of the terrorists.
Van Wyk then pursued the terrorists into the parking lot and fired at their getaway car as they fled away as fast as they could. After police later recovered the car, stains of blood on the seats indicated that at least one of the gunmen was severely wounded.
Van Wyk, who is credited with chasing off the attackers before more people were killed, is the author of "Shooting Back: The Right and Duty of Self Defense," a book that makes the Christian case for self-defense.
The attack was planned and executed so that the effect would be one of complete demoralization: The APLA chose to target a church filled with women and children to make the assault as fear-inducing as possible, and the grenades used were covered with nails to increase the shrapnel from the explosions.
"We must note that it is the aim of terrorists to instill fear in the hearts of their target community. To paralyze people into inactivity and non-resistance. To induce people to flee the country, or at least to be too afraid to fight back," said Dr. Peter Hammond, a South African missionary and eyewitness to the aftermath of the attack.
After the bloody massacre, the APLA terrorists were granted amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a post-apartheid, court-like organization designed to provide "restorative justice" to victims of both anti-apartheid and pro-apartheid violence.
The terrorists that perpetrated the attack met with the congregation of St James Church, and both sides publicly reconciled, including Van Wyk.
Now, in an exclusive interview with WND, Van Wyk reveals that the very same terrorists that executed the St. James Massacre attack are now plotting a new revolution in South Africa – again against the white minority.
"Since the attack, I've befriended some of [the terrorists], and they've been explaining to me that they're preparing for a second revolution in South Africa," Van Wyk said.
WND previously reported on the "genocidal" levels of violence that white South Africans, as well as the possibility of accepting white South Africans as refugees to the United States.
"Our country is falling to pieces, our police force is falling to pieces, and our medical systems are going down the drain," Van Wyk continued, noting that the medical situation has declined to the point where children are reportedly being bitten by rats while in hospital care throughout the country.
Violent crime has skyrocketed as well, leading white South Africans to increasingly prepare themselves for the possibility of attack.
"Our living conditions in South Africa are just unbelievable. If you live in middle-class South Africa, virtually everybody has some kind of an alarm system, burglar bars, security gates, and big dogs to protect the property," Van Wyk reported.
"Over 51 percent of the population has spent money on trying to secure their homes in some way, to such an extent that the private security industry in South Africa is now double-the-size of the defense force and the police."
Van Wyk explained that even with levels of protection that most security-minded American would find substantial, crime is still rampant within these communities.
"We had a neighbor a hundred yards [up] the road from us who was murdered, just while opening their door to let their dogs out in the morning," he said. "Right next door to us, we had a neighbor stabbed inside his own home; the police caught the attacker in our backyard. One elderly lady was walking her dogs and saw men breaking into her home, and when they saw that she noticed them, they tried to run her over with their vehicle."
Van Wyk highlights that he lives in a "very nice suburb," but that "the fact is that we all live constantly under threat, and if you don't show that you are astute and ready for action as you're walking around, you can become a statistic very quickly."
South Africa's murder rate has risen nearly 20 percent in four years, according to the Telegraph. In total, there were 18,673 homicides in 2016, up from 17,805 in 2015.
This is an increase of 4.9 percent, and that means more than 50 people are killed in South Africa daily.
Similarly, carjackings increased by 14.3 percent since from 2015 to 2016, and house robberies increased by 2.7 percent.