OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday 8.30pm
THE July 1988 car bomb explosion at Ellis Park sports stadium, in which two people died and 35 were injured, was not intended to kill anybody, but to send a message to whites that they, too, were vulnerable, a former Umkhonto weSizwe cadre applying for amnesty told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Monday.
Harold Matshididi, employed at the police provincial protection services in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, and Aggie Shoke are applying for amnesty in connection with the Ellis Park bomb which detonated shortly after a Currie Cup rugby match between Transvaal and Free State on July 2.
Matshididi, who was the first to testify, said the MK cell he operated in only wanted to send a message to the whites in the country that the struggle could be applied to them and that they, too, could be killed.
According to Matshididi the bomb was assembled by the commander of a special MK unit, Lester Dumakude, who also drove it to Ellis Park in a stolen car shortly before it was to explode at 5pm. Dumakude approached Matshididi and Shoke a week before the bombing, telling them that they had to perform an assignment at Ellis Park.
Dumakude and another member of the cell, Itumeleng Dube, applied for amnesty only after they were implicated in the testimonies of Matshididi and Shoke.