Limpet Mine Damages Substation in Durban

On 9 January 1986, a limpet mine exploded and damaged a substation in Jacobs, Durban. Later a second limpet exploded and killed a policeman and injured others and two electrical workers who arrived at the scene of the first explosion.

On that day, 9 January 1986, Gordon Webster arrived with a colleague, Nazeem Cassiem, at a workshop called Factorama in Durban’s industrial district of Wentworth, which belonged to Robert McBride’s father, Derrick McBride. Webster requested Robert McBride to drive them to Rossdown Road, Wentworth, the home of Webster’s brother, where he left them with Cassiem.

Robert McBride had met Gordon Webster in November 1985, as Webster came back from training abroad. Webster gave McBride information about the African National Congress (ANC) and started recruiting him into the Movement, thus bringing him into his Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Special Operations Unit.

On the evening of 9 January 1986, at around 21:15, while apartheid Police Sergeant Vincent Zimmerman was parking his car in Durban’s Yellowwood Park suburb, he heard a huge explosion. He then decided to drive towards the direction of the blast. Ten minutes later as he arrived at the Jacobs substation, on the corner of Chamberlain Road, in Wentworth, he found the place being cordoned off and a fire engine on standby.

Sergeant Zimmerman then decided to enter the station through the front gate, followed by Mervyn Dunn of the Durban electricity department and Detective Constable Roelof van der Merwe. At the first transformer, Zimmerman shined a torch that illuminated a large jagged hole in the scorched metal.

According to Zimmerman, the large hole was caused by a limpet mine, as he informed Colonel Robert Welman, who had joined them. When Colonel Welman moved to the second transformer, Sergeant Zimmerman went to the third, saying that it looked clean, as he shone his light on the grey metal. He then gave the torch to Colonel Welman as he left for the front gate. At the gate, Zimmerman passed Sergeant Dudley Booyens, who had a patrol dog on a leash.

Suddenly there was a huge blast from the substation and its force threw him and Booyens to the ground. As Sergeant Booyens staggered to his feet, he saw three figures emerging, running and screaming. Colonel Welman staggered past Booyens, his clothes blazing. Booyens lunged at him and threw him to the ground, rolling him on the grass to extinguish the flames.

Meanwhile, Mervyn Dudley, from the electrical department, raced through the fire and made his way to the grass verge where he threw himself to the ground rolling round repeatedly. Simultaneously, Detective Constable van der Merwe was also running towards Sergeant Zimmerman, but he started running round in circles, inadvertently fanning the flames. Zimmerman yelled at him, before grabbing him and throwing him to the ground, and then scraping some sand, heaping it on the residual flames on Van der Merwe’s clothes.

Colonel Welman later perished from his injuries while Detective Constable van der Merwe was severely burned, resulting in extensive injuries, and his life was changed forever. Eighty percent of his body was severely burnt. Van der Merwe’s colleagues, Mervyn Dunn, Dudley Booysens and Vincent Zimmerman also suffered burns.

Robert McBride, who took responsibility for the bombing, was quoted in reports as saying: “The first bomb blast was intended to cause economic damage and (act) as a propaganda campaign. The purpose of the second was to intentionally injure or kill security policemen who would converge on the scene to investigate the first blast”.

Furthermore, McBride said the bombings were intended to mark the ANC’s 74th birthday and was in response to the orders issued in the January 8 Statement on the Year of Umkhonto we Sizwe – the People’s Army. These orders were clear:

“Let this Year of the People’s Army see us engulf the apartheid system in the fires and the thunder of a people’s war! Let the Year of MK see us mount a military offensive that will push the enemy into a strategic retreat! Let us use the opportunities that this Year gives us to replace each combatant who fell last year with a hundred more, and, building on our achievements, to create a formidable fighting force of the people, superior to the enemy forces because of the justice of our cause, the discipline of our combatants and the bravery and boldness of our warriors.”

The final orders were that “during the Year of Umkhonto we Sizwe – the People’s Army: Let us mount a determined mass political and military offensive! Let us retain the strategic initiative! Let us, in struggle, shift the balance of power further in favour of the revolution! Let us turn every corner of the country into a battlefield! Let us weaken the enemy and prepare to seize power! Every patriot a combatant; every combatant a patriot!”

Castro Khwela
Good day fellow Compatriots!