The Arrest and Trial of Robert McBride
On 19 July 1986, Matthew le Cordier, who accompanied Robert McBride and Greta Apelgren during the car bomb explosion at the “Magoo’s” and “Why Not” bars in Durban on 14 June 1986, was arrested at his home in Durban. The arrest followed two days after McBride and Apelgren were arrested in Alra Park section of Nigel, south-east of Johannesburg.
At 06:00, in the morning of 17 July 1987, Robert McBride and Greta Apelgren were sleeping in the sitting room of his brother Leslie’s house, in Nigel, when they were woken up by a knock on the door. When he opened the door, he was confronted by a policeman facing him, and he immediately shut it. While Apelgren was peering through the curtains, she realised that uniformed policemen were all over the yard, in the road and on the rooftops. The policemen began shouting, “Open up, police!” and as McBride opened the door, he found a police captain standing there with a rifle directly pointed at him. Both McBride and Greta Apelgren were arrested.
Robert McBride was detained in July 1986 and first appeared in court in November alongside his comrade Greta Apelgren, who was a social worker. The two faced 24 charges, including murder, attempted murder and ‘terrorism’. The most serious charges concerned two actions carried out in May and June 1986: firstly, the rescue from hospital of a wounded fellow combatant, and secondly, a bombing at Marine Parade, Durban, which killed three wo
