The Western Cape’s Intrepid Ashley Kriel Unit
On 23 July 1989, twenty-three-year-old Coline Williams and twenty-year-old Robert Anthony Basil “Robbie” Waterwitch, of Umkhonto we Sizwe’s (MK’s) Ashley Kriel Unit, often referred to as the “Ashley Kriel Detachment”, were killed while planting a bomb inside a public toilet across the street from the Athlone Magistrate’s Court in Klipfontein Road. On the same day, at approximately 21:45, an explosion at a temporary satellite police station in Mitchell’s Plain caused minimal damage to the structure. Another bomb exploded at around 23:20 at the Somerset West Magistrate’s Court.
A man was who was trying to plant a mini limpet mine was spotted by a policeman at the Bellville Magistrate’s Court, who fled the scene before he was apprehended. Bomb disposal experts arrived later to defuse the device. Four limpet mine attacks in the Peninsula were planned for the evening of Sunday 23 July 1989 as part of an anti-election bombing campaign by MK. The magistrate courts that were targeted were earmarked to be used the following morning for the nomination of candidates for the 6 September 1989 general elections.
Following these blasts in the Western Cape, Colonel Nik Heynes of the apartheid SA Police informed the media that the police were investigating the possibility that the incidents were part of a campaign waged by the African National Congress (ANC) against the elections. South Africa’s White, Indian and s
