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Content
A listing of transcripts of the dialogue and narrative of this section.
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Structure
The list provides the transcript, info about the text, and links to references contained in the text.
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Special Report
Transcripts for Section 4 of Episode 45
| Time | Summary | | | 14:31 | Sometimes an amnesty application before the Truth Commission yields more information than the actions of the applicant. This is the story of how police confessions have lifted a cloud of suspicion from a member of Umkhonto we Sizwe who was blamed by his community and his colleagues for the deaths of three of his comrades. | Full Transcript | | 14:51 | In 1988 Durban policemen led by Col Andy Taylor blew up three members of the Umkhonto we Sizwe unit known as ‘The Swimmers’ here at Phoenix Railway Station. The dead were all KwaMashu student activists. Their names were Vusi Mtshali, Sibusiso Ndlovu and Mazwi Vilakazi. But the MK unit had another member. This is a story of Naye Ngema, the one who got away. // Definitely I was going to be one of those people, definitely. Because it means that they were knowing everything about us, I think so. That’s why I said that the only thing maybe which makes me to survive is only that the unit just say I must go outside. | Full Transcript and References | | 15:36 | Student protests against apartheid and against the KwaZulu homeland dominated the Durban township of KwaMashu in the 1980s. Police were hunting for what they called ‘agitators,’ but quiet even studious young men who went to church did not fit the general perception of blood thirsty terrorists. ‘The Swimmers’ looked so respectable and law abiding that soldiers would wave them through roadblocks. | Full Transcript | | 16:03 | I remember when I was coming from here, from home to the University of Durban-Westville and that day I remember I was carrying a pistol and one… Immediately when I jump from the car I saw the soldiers were searching a lot of people there and I bought a newspaper, I remember. And then I was carrying this newspaper with my bag here, then when moving towards them I just read the newspaper and I passed them, they never called me and searched me. | Full Transcript | | 16:41 | Last night’s explosion at Glen Ashley in Durban… // // The Swimmers were also proud of their skill at detonating bombs without loss of human life. In 1987 and 1988 the unit frequently crossed over into Swaziland for extra military training. | Full Transcript | | 16:56 | We changed our appearance for instance, we’ll look like old men, carrying sticks. So we know that that time the SADF was patrolling around those posts so just then for 20 minutes on this other part, then we’ll cross, especially during the time of late afternoon. | Full Transcript | | 17:21 | There was a system. If a bomb went off in Durban it was a signal to the next unit in another city to strike. After each explosion The Swimmers phoned to their Swaziland headquarters with a coded message about a successful soccer game. // Yes, we’re having the match. Yes we’re playing the ball around that place. | Full Transcript | | 17:42 | Then disaster struck. Police and infiltrators crossed into Swaziland and abducted the unit’s commander, MK Zandi, also known as Phila Ndwandwe was murdered when she refused to become an informer. Her MK replacement asked the unit to send a representative to a debate on whether it was time for them to pull out of the country. Naye Ngema went. Ironically his unit was insisting on remaining in Durban. It was the last time they ever saw each other alive. | Full Transcript | | 18:12 | And in Durban at least two suspected terrorists were killed this morning when an explosive device blew up in their hands. // I was listening to the radio at six o’clock then we hear about this thing, that there was a bomb blast at Phoenix. I told to my comrades that they were giving me the instruction to come back to the country that Phoenix was not our part. We were not asked to concentrate on the part of Phoenix. Then immediately I phoned, I came back to the country, luckily I came back and go to our, which is called, ‘dirty letters box,’ which is where we were putting our ammunition. When I went there, there was nothing there and it was very surprising because I do not get even a note, you understand. | Full Transcript | | 19:05 | Naye Ngema had seen enough. He left within hours and did not return to South Africa until after the African National Congress was unbanned. But while the security police missed him, KwaMashu residents had seen him in the neighbourhood and they drew the wrong conclusions. // Some of them were sure that I sell out those comrades. // Naye Ngema says only five people in all of Africa knew who The Swimmers were. How did Security Branch Col Andy Taylor find out? Taylor has admitted to kidnapping their commander, Phila Ndwandwe as well as participating in the murders of this KwaMashu MK unit. The last of The Swimmers wants to know if Taylor tortured Phila for information, but he’s grateful that at least some details are now out in the open. For the first time since he returned to South Africa in 1990 Naye Ngema is no longer the man who betrayed his comrades; he’s the one who got away. | Full Transcript |
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