The Abduction of Sheila Nyanda from Swaziland
On 24 May 1987, two days after the ambush and murder of the Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Transvaal Urban Machinery Chief of Operations, Theophilus “Viva” Dlodlo, the wife of the Commander of the same MK Machinery, Siphiwe Nyanda (aka “Gebhuza”), Sheila Priscilla Nyanda, was abducted from Swaziland.
The same apartheid Security Police officers who were involved in the murder of Theophilus Dlodlo were involved, and these were Colonel Johan Botha and Warrant Officer Lappies Labuschagne, belonging to the Security Branch of Middleburg. The two police officers moved to a flat next to Sheila Nyanda, and were pretending to be South African university students on a break in Swaziland.
Lappies Labuschagne, who called himself “Andre”, befriended Sheila and so she was not surprised when “Andre” knocked on her door at 19:30 on 24 May. When she opened the door, “Andre” was at the door armed with a submachine gun fitted with a silencer. He told her not to make any noise and behind him was another white man, Colonel Johan Botha. “Andre” pushed her back into the house and said, “We know you are Sheila Priscilla, Gebhuza’s wife”. He then asked who was in the house, and Sheila responded that there was no one. After the two men had searched the house, they blindfolded Sheila and took her outside into a white BMW 3 series, which was parked in a carport.
Sheila Nyanda was then taken to South Africa, to Piet Retief, wh
