DISCO

... covers the amnesty hearings held in Pietermaritzburg (9 to 11 February). Three APLA soldiers applied for amnesty for the attack on the Crazy Beat Disco, Newcastle, two months before South Africa?s first democratic elections. The APLA men meet with the mother of the deceased after the hearing. ...

Valentine’s day in 1994. South Africa is run by a transitional executive council and preparations for the first ever democratic elections are well under way. But in the bustling coal mining town of New Castle however preparations of a different kind are being made.

When we arrived at the disco I went out and looked around in the disco. I went back to the car, I instructed Shiceka to get out. I also instructed Funani to give us a firing cover behind so that while we’re attacking the place he can … Dube was sitting in the car just to protect the driver.

Who decided on attacking the Crazy Beat disco? // The decision was taken by Tanda. The reason was because two targets were selected, a restaurant and the Crazy Beat disco. If we failed to attack one; we had the option to attack the other one. Either the restaurant or the Crazy Beat.

Gunmen attacked a discotheque at New Castle in Natal last night killing one person and wounding another. Two men wearing balaclavas and armed with automatic weapons turned up at the Crazy Beat Disco at about ten o’clock last night and opened fire through the security door. They killed 31 year old ...

We went to the disco at about eight o’clock that night and it was Valentine’s night, it was supposed to be a special night for couples or married people.

Gerhard Wolfaard was in the disco that night with his six month pregnant wife. // At about ten o’clock that night I heard a shot go off and I first thought it was a bomb cracker and then I heard another two shots and I realized, but look this is no game now, that’s no bomb crackers anymore, ...

Malevu gave them each a R4 rifle and a hand grenade. Early that evening Tanda and Shiceka set off. First they hijacked a car and then enlisted the help of three more men before setting off on their mission, the Crazy Beat Disco.

... day. But we start with Valentine’s day four years ago in Pietermaritzburg where one person died and two were injured in an attack on a disco in the coal mining town of New Castle. At the amnesty hearing in Pietermaritzburg this week the mother of the victim heard how the perpetrators ...

Perhaps the most vexing question was why the attack on the disco was carried out at a time when the end of white minority rule was imminent. // Looking at the situation now, can you think of how the attack on the discotheque in any way assisted the move to democracy in South Africa? // I don’t ...

Tanda and Shiceka then fired into the disco through the burglar bars of an open doorway. The attack lasted less than five seconds.