OWN CORRESPONDENT and REUTERS, Cape Town | Saturday
CAPE Town’s faceless bombers have struck for the eighth time this year, blowing up a car outside the popular Obz Cafe in the suburb of Observatory, a popular student hangout. No injuries were reported and damage was minimal.
The bomb exploded barely 12 hours after anti-terrorist magistrate Piet Theron, 50, was shot several times in the head and chest in his driveway by a man and woman driving a stolen white Volkswagen Golf. He died on the spot.
It was the 19th bomb blast in two years in South Africa’s top tourist destination.
Police are investigating whether there is any link between the attack and the slaying of Theron. The bomb outside the Obz Cafe was placed in a white Citi Golf, an identical vehicle to that used in the hit on Theron.
“There was a really loud crack. I saw the roof of a car fly past the restaurant,” one bystander said. “It sounded like a really loud firecracker.”
At least three people have been killed and more than 100 injured in the ongoing series of blasts, for which no one has claimed responsibility and no one has been convicted.
Police blame militant Muslim vigilante group People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) for the attacks which have included a synagogue, police stations, gay bars and restaurants.
Pagad has repeatedly denied the accusations, although more than 90 of its members are awaiting trial on an array of firearms and explosives charges.
Meanwhile, the National Intelligence Agency has claimed it tipped off a member of the elite Scorpions investigating unit in the Western Cape that Pagad would assassinate a judicial official this week.
However, National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka, who has overall responsibility for the Scorpions, denied the Scorpions had received any such information.