Robert McBride’s long-awaited testimony on the Magoo’s bar bombing started this week. Paul Kirk reports
This week Robert McBride kicked off his amnesty application with an almost poetic explanation of why he decided to embark on the armed struggle – and then listed more than 10 bombing incidents which apartheid- era security police never even suspected him of being behind.
McBride estimates that the incidents caused more than R50-million in damage.
“I was born on July 6 1963 as a second- class South African citizen in a ghetto created by apartheid. The state classified me as a coloured, a term I have always resented as it implies I am lessened by my black South African blood.
“When I joined Umkhonto weSizwe to participate in the freedom struggle I decided to give myself over completely to the African National Congress and to participate in the armed struggle 24 hours a day. I was told I would not be given medals or money and I would have to participate in operations where people would be killed.
“I am truly sorry that in my quest for freedom for South Africans I caused the deaths of other South Africans.”
McBride then went on to list the acts for which he is seeking amnesty, starting with the 1985 arson attack on his alma mater – Fairvale Secondary School – which he participated in before joining Umkhonto weSizwe (MK)and which was intended to highlight the dilapidated and underfunded state of the school.
McBride then described the first operation he took part in as a fully- fledged member of MK – the 1985 bombing of the Chamberlain Road sub-station. In this operation – the first time McBride was to cause the loss of life – Colonel Robert Moelman of the Durban internal security branch was killed when a limpet mine with a delayed fuse, intended as a booby trap, detonated and killed him.
The most dramatic evidence of the week came when McBride described his part in what came to be known as the Edendale hospital saga.
When McBride first joined MK, Gordon Webster was his commander and close friend. During 1986, Webster was shot and arrested by police and placed, under heavy police guard, in Edendale hospital.
When McBride heard of this he decided to mount an operation to rescue Webster, “not because he was my friend, but because he was a soldier and it is the practice of war that soldiers must try to escape and that their comrades must help them to do so”.
McBride and a small team entered the hospital in disguise after visiting hours.
As they entered the floor where Webster was kept, the party was spotted and a policeman attempted to arrest McBride, who opened fire with an AK-MS rifle and killed a civilian bystander.
After storming into the intensive care unit where Webster was kept, McBride placed Webster on a laundry trolley and wheeled him to a waiting getaway car.
But it was the last incident that McBride mentioned in his testimony that has always remained with him.
Ironically, the car bomb that McBride planted was, according to his testimony this week, never meant to target Magoo’s bar.
He said the original target for the bomb was supposed to be the Natal Command military headquarters, but this was rejected as it would have been impossible to place a car bomb in its vicinity. The barracks at CR Swart Square police headquarters were then considered, but were also rejected as it would not have been feasible to leave a car bomb there.
McBride explained that, after some reconnaissance, he decided to bomb the Why Not bar, a drinking spot his unit believed to be “infested” with security force personnel. Magoo’s and Why Not were next to each other.
“I am sorry that civilians were killed. To use a modern phrase, they were acceptable collateral damage.”
McBride’s amnesty hearing continues this week.