MAGOO’s: Survivor stories
Yesterday marked the 31st anniversary of the devastating Magoo’s Bar Bombings which claimed the lives of three young women and left scores of other people injured. While some survivors and relatives of the deceased have moved on with life, some still find
(nee Gerrard)
IN HER lounge Dowdeswell keeps a framed drawing of her sister Marchelle Gerrard, one of the three women killed in the bombing. The painting was given to her family after the incident. “The artist just came knocking on our door and asked to do this drawing. We thought it was a good gesture,” she said.
The drawing serves as a reminder of the connection she shared with her sister, who was two years older than her. “We were always together. Although she was older, I was the one who was always protecting her because you know how artists are shy.”
She said that from a young age her sister and her were very close, and did everything together.
Dowdeswell said on the night of the bombing, there was a family gathering, which Marchelle, who was 28 years old at the time, did not attend. “She was never one of those people who loved family gatherings, and so she never pitched and we looked for her.”
Later a call came from the hospital and her parents rushed there. Upon arriving they searched for her among the injured without any luck. After they described to one doctor what she looked like, they were called aside and ushered to identify the body. “My parents were never the same,” she says of her late mother and father.
At the time of her death Marchelle was preparing to leave the country, after getting a job offer to work in one of the film studios in America. She had been due to leave the country within a week from June 14: “She had sold everything (in preparation for relocation)”.
Of the death of her sister, she says: “You can never completely move on from something like that. However, it is one of those things you learn to accept.”
Angelique Pattenden and Julie van der Linde were also killed by the blast, while 73 people were injured.
Andy Strydom
AFTER watching a Natal rugby match, Strydom had gone to the bar with his friend, Loius Olivier.
As they got to the bar he had ordered drinks. “I turned around to give my friend his beer and it was at that moment that the bomb went off,” he recalled. So powerful was the force of the 60kg bomb, planted by MK Operative Robert McBride, that it blew Strydom over the bar. He recalls that two of the women who died had been sitting behind him when the bomb went off.
“I must have been out for a little while and when I got up it was pitch black.”
He said for a brief moment he was disoriented and confused. His friend, Olivier, was outside, calling out for him. Walking out he saw the devastation.
“There was a big hole and there was a car on fire. And once you see a car alight it doesn’t take too long to figure out what happened.”
He recalls how what was his new turquoise shirt was covered in blood. He and Olivier ran towards the side street where their car was parked.
He was put into the back seat of another car, driven by a nurse on her way to work, and was one of the first survivors of the bomb blast to arrive at Addington Hospital.
“Then we started seeing people coming into the hospital.”
Suffering from head wounds, Strydom spent the night in the hospital and was discharged the next afternoon.
He disputes the version put out at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that there were lots of army and police personnel at the bar. “It was a soft target,” he says. At the time of the blast Strydom was 28 years old.
He is, however, not angry, saying he has let go. “South Africa is a beautiful country with enormous potential. I’m not certain that we are making the progress we should be making because we are so angry with one another,” he said.
Strydom said that while he did not agree with the attack, it opened his eyes to the political situation in the country at the time. His friend, Olivier, still lives with a large piece of shrapnel lodged in one of his arms. It could not be removed because that was going to affect his mobile function, he said.
Jonathan ‘Jof”’Jeffers
JEFFERS still suffers from the terrible experience that night, he says.
After the bomb blast he needed 148 stitches, including in the face, to close his wounds.
“My chin was cut in half and I had an operation on my hand,” he said, from London where he lives.
Apart from the physical scars, he said the emotional impact was severe. To this day, he says, he suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. “Whenever I went out I used to look under the tables. It is not over, I still suffer. When I am at my place or at a friend’s place and a light bulb goes off I jump. Whenever there is a loud noise, I jump,” he says.
On June 14, 1986, Jeffers, aged 33, had walked into the bar with a friend looking to have fun. Magoo’s seemed the perfect spot, he said.
“It was a new place – it was where everyone went,” he said. When he walked in, the car carrying the bomb was already outside, but he never suspected anything might go wrong: “I walked past it”.
Just as he was enjoying his first beer the bomb went off.
He was knocked unconscious from the blast but does not know for how long.
When he woke up there was nobody in the building. “I did not know straight away what had happened. It is only when I walked outside that I realised a bomb had gone off.” Some people helped take him to hospital.
Jeffers testified at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and, like Strydom, disputes the version that Magoo’s was targeted because many policemen and army personnel frequented the bar.
Keith Hulse
HULSE has lived in the US for more than 20 years, but says that every year when June 14 comes around, he takes time to realise how fortunate he was to survive the bombing.
“As a survivor who was one of the many hospitalised, along with my good friend John McKenna and my guardian angel – Alan Mountford – never a year goes by without reflection of how lucky we were that night. Our thoughts will always go out to honour the memories of the three girls who died that night – and of course all their remaining relatives and friends who have to still deal with the aftermath of that heinous crime.”
Pamela Campbell
PAMELLA Campbell remembers the incident like it was yesterday: “I remember it so clearly. You never forget something like that.”
She and a friend were just having fun on the night going from one club to another. One of the stops was Magoo’s. “It was so busy that night, so much so that we were sitting in the foyer. They had brought out chairs to accommodate everyone”.
The pair had just gone to the toilet, as they were preparing to leave and meet a friend at the Elangeni Hotel, when the bomb went off.
“Everyone in the restaurant was lying flat on the floor.” Then they ran outside and that is when they started seeing all the injured people.
“There were people who were hurt and covered in blood. Some had bits of skin hanging from their necks,” she recalled. Campbell and her friend ran to find the nearest callbox. “My sister and her boyfriend came and picked us up”
Mike Ethell
MIKE Ethell was probably one of the people closest to the bomb when it went off. After dropping off a friend he had decided to take a nap in a friend’s car. “I put the seat back and fell asleep”. The car he was in was parked in front of the car carrying the bomb. He was to have a rude awakening when the bomb went off.
When he woke up, all he saw were the flames, he says. He was lucky to escape with only superficial facial cuts.
McBride was one of seven people who applied for amnesty in 2000. It was granted and his sentence and conviction was expunged. The TRC heard that the bar was targeted because of a belief that it was frequented by members of the security forces.