Recalling the Incredible Edendale Hospital MK Rescue Operation
On 5 May 1986, at approximately 16:20, Derrick McBride was involved in a meeting with Matthew Lecordier, Antonio du Preez, Greta Apelgren and Walter Khumalo at the Factorama Workshop, whereby Robert McBride was addressing the group and consistently pointing at a hand-drawn street map that was on a stuck piece of cardboard hanging on the wall, saying “This is the Edendale Hospital”.
Previously, on 2 May 1986, Robert McBride had visited a 22-year-old Antonio du Preez, a twenty-two-year-old political activist in the Wentworth area, in Durban, to seek help from him about a friend who had been shot and was in intensive care in hospital. Robert McBride’s father, Derrick McBride, had also witnessed that his son was concerned about the arrest of a person he knew by the name of “Steve Mkhize”, who according to the report was injured by the police in an incident related to the African National Congress (ANC).
The “Steve Mkhize” that Robert McBride was worried about was actually his friend and comrade, Gordon Webster. Earlier, on 19 July 1984, Gordon Webster had asked his friend, Robert McBride, about going into exile to join the ANC and asked if McBride was going to join him. McBride refused to go and he told him that he would try to keep in touch with him from abroad. Around October-November 1985, Robert McBride met his friend Gordon Webster again, who had returned from his training abroad and had re
