TRC Final Report

Volume 3

Chapter 3

Subsection 29

Resistance and revolutionary groupings

Sabotage and bombings

192 In April 1984, Mr Anamalai ‘Daya’ Rengasamy and Mr Leelavathi Rengasamy were killed and approximately twenty people were injured in a car bomb explosion on the Durban Esplanade. Less than a fortnight later, on 13 May 1984, there was an RPG-7 attack on the Mobil Oil Refinery, Durban. In an ensuing shoot-out at the refinery, four insurgents and three bystanders were killed. The Security Branch claimed that the four dead men could be linked to the fatal car bomb explosion on the Esplanade, as well as other attacks over the previous two years.

193 On 12 July 1984, five people were killed and twenty-seven injured in a car bomb explosion on Bluff Road, Durban. Mr Oliver Tambo asserted that the bomb had been intended for a military convoy and condemned the bombers for being “inexcusably careless” by causing civilian casualties.

Amanzimtoti Bombing

Five people were killed and over sixty injured in a bomb explosion on 23 December 1985 in a shopping centre at the upper South Coast seaside town of Amanzimtoti. The limpet mine had been placed in a refuse bin outside the Sanlam shopping centre. Most of the victims were holidaymakers doing last minute Christmas shopping.

Mr Sibusiso Andrew Zondo (19) was arrested in connection with the bombing in February 1986. Two other MK members thought also to have been involved in the bombing, Mr Phumezo Nxiweni (20) and Mr Sipho Stanley Bhila (31), were subsequently executed by the police (see above).

The state’s main accomplice witness in the case, a Mr Mofokeng, told the court that he provided the limpet mine and accompanied Zondo to the shopping centre. Mofokeng claimed that the explosion was in retaliation for the South African security forces’ raid on Maseru, Lesotho four days earlier, in which nine people were killed.

Zondo, who admitted his role in the bombing, was convicted and given five death sentences. He was executed on 9 September 1986.

Mr Cornelius Smit, whose son Johan died in the explosion, told the Commission that he saw his son as a martyr whose death had helped usher in the new South Africa [JB00193/02/PS]. Other victims of the explosion who made statements to the Commission included Mr Ian Shearer [KZN/NNN/522/DN] whose wife, Anna, had been killed and Ms Hluphekile Nkabinde [JB0020/03VT] who was taking her employer’s son, Willem van Wyk [JB00207/03VT], for a walk when the bomb exploded, killing the child and injuring her [KZN/NG/010/DN].

In her statement to the Commission, Zondo’s mother said that Zondo had told his parents when he was in matric that he would leave the country when he finished school, as he was ‘fed up with the system’. His parents never saw him again, but he contacted them briefly a week before his arrest. She said that people leaving his memorial service in KwaMashu were attacked and two children killed. Zondo’s brother was seriously assaulted and subsequently suffered from epilepsy, which finally led to his death (Durban hearing).

The Magoo’s Bar Bombing

On 14 June 1986, three people were killed and about sixty-nine injured in a car bomb explosion at Magoo’s Bar on the Durban beachfront. The operation was carried out by Mr Robert McBride, Ms Greta Apelgren and Mr Matthew le Cordier. McBride was convicted of the killings and sentenced to death three times for the bombing. His sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment and he was released in terms of the Record of Understanding in 1992. Apelgren was acquitted on all counts. Le Cordier gave evidence for the state and escaped prosecution. All three applied to the Commission for amnesty.

At his section 29 hearing, McBride revealed that he had been instructed by his MK commander in Botswana, Mr Aboobaker Ismael, to choose a military target for a car bomb attack. He said that he had conducted a reconnaissance exercise to ascertain that the bar was frequented by off-duty military personnel.

However, cross-examination revealed this exercise had been conducted in an extremely amateurish and naïve manner. His claim that the Magoo’s bar was targeted because it was believed to be a rendezvous for SADF members could not be substantiated. None of those killed or injured had any link to the military or the SAP.

Newcastle Magistrates’ Court Bomb

Twenty-four people were injured in two bomb explosions outside the Magistrates’ Court in Newcastle on 11 November 1986. SAP Sergeant Vusimuzi Kunene [KZN/KM/642/NC] lost both legs in the explosions.

In August 1987, MK combatants Thuso Tshika, Basil Sithole, Patrick Nkosi and Abraham Mathe faced charges of terrorism in connection with these explosions and others, including a grenade and small arms attack on 10 October 1986 at Osizweni KZP station, in which one KZP officer was injured.

The first three accused were convicted and sentenced to prison terms on Robben Island. Mathe was acquitted.