Just pop down
to the hardware
Stuart Hess
The world was shocked by the Oklahoma bombing in the United States in 1995, and the FBI was severely rattled by an explosion at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. In both instances, pipe bombs were the weapons of choice.
More than 80 pipe bombs have exploded in the Western Cape in the past 10 months, killing 11 people, but there seems to be very little the South African police can do to curb the escalating use of these weapons.
“There’s no control over the availability of the information and ingredients required to make a pipe bomb,” says Jakkie Potgieter, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies.
Pipe bombs are easy to manufacture and require little technical expertise. The products used to make them can be obtained at hardware stores or garden nurseries.
Information on how to construct them is freely available on the Internet and in military magazines found on the shelves of news agencies. One Internet site offers a step-by-step guide and proclaims: “The lack of metal means these could be snuck on to a plane if they are kept on the person and you walk through a metal detector.”
Police have made little headway in curbing the use of pipe bombs on the Cape Flats. Only four people have been arrested.
A very large device was used in the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people. One person was killed and more than 100 injured when a pipe bomb exploded in Atlanta during the 1996 Olympic Games.
The Oklahoma bombing – described as the deadliest terrorist attack ever on US soil – caused extensive damage to the federal building, causing one side of the massive structure to collapse.
Potgieter says pipe bombs are popular because the materials are so easily available. “You are not going to draw much attention if you go to the hardware store to buy a pipe.”
The only problem potential bombers may have is obtaining a detonator, but Potgieter says this can be overcome if they have contacts in mining works or at local councils, which use detonators in the rebuilding of roads.
Peter Gastrow, Cape Town director of the Institute for Security Studies, believes security risks have played an important role in the rise of pipe bombings in the Western Cape.
“If an organisation needed ammunition like grenades, it would increase the security risk as it would need supplies from an outside source, and it risks these suppliers being caught. To absolutely minimise security risk, it is better to rely on an in-house supply.”
Gastrow believes groups who are using pipe bombs are sophisticated and are aware of minimising security risks. “Unless members of these cells or groups are arrested, it is inevitable that others, including their rivals, will start to believe these devices can be used with impunity.”
In the latest incidents, a pipe bomb was thrown at a house in Mitchells Plain, injuring two children; and on Monday, a similar device caused damage estimated at R80 000 after it exploded under a car in Grassy Park.
Two members of the vigilante group People against Gangsterism and Drugs were killed last week when a pipe bomb exploded in their car. Two of their colleagues have been arrested in connection with the incident.
The bakkie in which the two died was severely damaged. Police say while the bodies of the victims were still recognisable, their arms and faces were badly disfigured. A third man currently in hospital had shrapnel removed from his head and was also badly burnt.