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Special Report
Transcripts for Section 3 of Episode 39

TimeSummary
06:15We stay in KwaZulu-Natal for our next report and the names Andy Taylor and Hentie Botha come up again. In 1988 police said three terrorists had accidentally blown themselves up at the Phoenix Railway Station. No names were given. The police simply said they were terrorists. Tonight we can tell you who they were and what really happened.Full Transcript and References
06:41And in Durban at least two suspected terrorists were killed this morning when an explosive device blew up in their hands. Police said the blast had occurred next to a railway line near Phoenix station at about a quarter to three. The explosion ripped a deep hole in the ground but no damage was caused.Full Transcript
06:57Not two but three young men died here in the early hours of November 18 1988. Their identities have never been revealed outside of court documents. For the first time Special Report tells who they were and what really happened that night. The dead youth were all from KwaMashu township. Sibusiso Ndlovu, a standard ten correspondence student; Mazwi Vilakazi, a matric pupil; and Vusi Mtshali, a first year law student at the University of Durban-Westville. The first notification of the bomb blast came just before 3 am from … … a security guard who lived in Phoenix.Full Transcript
07:36I was woken by a loud explosion which shook the flat and cracked windowpanes. From the flat window I could see a cloud of grey-white smoke in the vicinity of the Phoenix Railway Lines. From the outside of the block of flats I pinpointed the area where the explosion must have occurred. Whilst doing this, I saw a vehicle flashing its headlights and then a second vehicle. These two vehicles were stationary in the road close to where the explosion occurred and facing a northerly direction. Shortly after flashing their lights, the vehicles drove away in the direction of Inanda Township.’ [At least two suspected terrorists died in Durban this morning when an explosive device exploded in their hands.] Full Transcript
08:15The blast happened in the first few hours of Friday morning. By that afternoon it was on the front page of the daily news. The crime reporter didn’t have the names of the dead but wrote that the three were believed to be responsible for a recent spate of blasts in the Durban area. The SABC said no damage was caused. The truth is that nothing was left of Vusi Mtshali except for one leg still wearing a size nine Adidas takkie. It was found 56 meters from the explosion. No head was ever found.Full Transcript
08:44They’re not sure as to the bodies. They show us the clothes and they asked me to choose which is which and then I show them Vusi’s clothes and Mazwi’s clothes and Sibusiso’s clothes. And then they said, alright we are not going to show you the bodies, because the bodies are like mincemeat so you can’t see who is this who is that.Full Transcript
09:22Mazwi Vilakazi lived with the Mtshali family. Mazwi’s remains were so intermingled with the tissues of the other two that they could not be separated. His head was never found. Sibusiso Ndlovu was better off. He had also disintegrated, but both his legs remained. One was 64 meters away from the explosion. Again, no head was found. Specialist pathologist professor Jan Botha said in his post-mortem reports that ‘the fact that the legs of the deceased were relatively spared suggests that they were standing at the side of the track with their legs below the level of the device when it exploded.’ If so, why did the bodies show injuries well below the belt, and why were the trio blown up in precisely the same way? Now we have an explanation from the man in the passenger seat of this car. His name is Col Andrew Russell Taylor of the Natal Security Police, charged with former Vlakplaas head Dirk Coetzee for the 1981 murder of Durban lawyer Griffiths Mxenge. Taylor is due to tell the ...moreFull Transcript and References
 
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