Second Piet Retief Gruesome MK Natal Machinery Ambush
In the morning of 12 June 1988, apartheid Security Police Officer Flip Theron received a phone call from a woman who had assisted them four days previously to carry out a successful ambush against Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) guerrillas who were infiltrating the country from Swaziland. He told the woman that her information led to a successful operation. The woman then replied that there was another infiltration planned for that night.
Following this tip-off, members of the apartheid Security Branch offices of Middleburg, Witbank and Ermelo arrived in waves in Piet Retief during the course of the day. Eugene de Kock, Christo Deetlefs and Frederik Pienaar had a conversation wherein de Kock suggested that a second shooting incident in such a short space of time would make it clear to their enemy that there was a security breach, and the Commander on the side, whom they believed was Charles Ndaba of the MK Natal Machinery, would lose control of his network and not be allowed by his superiors to infiltrate people again. De Kock therefore suggested sending a second group into Swaziland so that after the “terrorists” had been sent across the border, the Commander and his companions could be killed as well.
Johan Tait, Marthinus Ras, Cornelius Botha and Paul van Dyk were sent to the Swazi side of the border and were positioned by the road leading to the place where the MK cadres were expected to cross into South Africa. In
