Special Report Transcript Episode 39, Section 3, Time 09:22

Mazwi 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 Truth and Reconciliation Commission that the students possessed a limpet mine. The students were taken to Phoenix Railway Station and made to kneel. A policeman was stationed behind each one. Every policeman had a silenced firearm and when the signal was given Vusi Mtshali, Busi Ndlovu and Mazwi Vilakazi were shot through the back of the head. Each corpse was wired to an individual limpet mine with the timing mechanism. The three mines went off simultaneously. Taylor’s amnesty application is straight forward. Bombs were going off in Durban, MK members were around and there wasn’t enough evidence for convictions. Detention without trial was expensive. He was doing the public a favour and saving the taxpayer money by imposing his own version of a speedy death penalty. We’ll have to see if the Truth Commission agrees.

Notes: Inquest photographs