5.3 Comment by General Johann van der Merwe (former commissioner of police): In the case of the Johannesburg bomb incident where 22 persons were seriously injured, including one baby daughter who sustained serious burn wounds, and an elderly lady killed, the following facts are not disputed: (a) The suitcase containing the explosives and timing device device had been left on the new Johannesburg Railway station by John Harris in a place where the explosion would have caused massive death, injuries and destruction. (b) The explosive device in the suitcase was timed to go off at 16h33. At approximately 16h18 a person phoned the Rand Daily Mail and the "Die Transvaler" and informed them about the suitcase containing the explosive device left at the new Johannesburg Railway Station and which was timed to explode at 16h33 (c) Harris was found guilty and sentenced to death. Subsequently deliberate and malicious lies were published to the effect that the Security Branch and General Hendrik van den Bergh were aware of the suitcase containing the explosive device and that they wilfully failed to take any steps to prevent ent the explosion in an effort to manipulate the incident for political ends. Apart from the fact that during the trial of John Harris no shred of evidence was submitted to substantiate these wild allegations, the stupidity of the allegations is clearly emphasized mphasized by the followings facts: (a) If the intention of John Harris was that this incident should serve merely as a symbolic act of protest against apartheid he would not have used real explosives. (b) If, further, the intention was that only the Railway y Stationed should be damaged, there were several other options which would have excluded the killing and maiming
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