In the morning of 24 December 1985, the apartheid Security Branch reported that it had arrested top ranking African National Congress (ANC) and Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) operatives in Durban on 23 December 1985. The report followed an operation undertaken around 22:30 the previous night, whereby a large group of security and railway policemen surrounded house number 2, Narbada Road, Merewent, in Durban.
When knocking on the door, Sandy Afrika opened, and the apartheid policemen forcefully went in to search the house after they had introduced themselves. At the kitchen, they found Richard Naidoo, who was the driver during the attack on Amichand Rajbansi’s house, and “Kwazi Sithole” in the lounge.
Afterwards the policemen went to a bedroom upstairs, where Sandy’s husband, Vejay Ramlakan, was conversing with Sihle Mbongwa (aka “Sibusiso Ndlazi”), who introduced himself as “George Fakude”, and another woman, who was introduced as Phila Ndwandwe. All the occupants of the house were arrested.
The arrests followed a massive limpet mine blast in Amanzimtoti that morning by Andrew Sibusiso Zondo and Jacob Mofokeng, which resulted in five white people being killed, and approximately 47 people injured, most of them being white. The blast was part of a retaliatory attack by MK following the Lesotho Raid of 20 December 1985 by the Vlakplaas unit of six men, resulting in the death of nine people, including one Lesotho national.
The previous night, prior to the Aman
