My friends used to frequent this bar, (all my anti-Apartheid lefty friends from University of Natal), so it was slightly ironic that this bar was targeted  by Umkhonto we Sizwe as a legitimate target. In the story, five white males are partying, debating their own predicament: how to avoid their impending conscription into the South African defence forces. Then you could either go into exile, become a conscientious objector and fight a losing legal battle, simply disappear into Hillbrow and hope they’ll never find you, or feign some disability (even homosexuality was considered a disability that could let you off the hook). Or like many of my friends, you could simply give in, bite the bullet, go against your conscience and sign up.

The invisible character in the story is of course Robert McBride, the bomber himself, and the story also asks the question, what could ‘non-white’ young males do in that time?

Extract

There are not many options for young black men either in 1986. Either you go along   with the regime as a second class citizen who cannot vote, cannot control your destiny, cannot live, study or work where you want, or you can go into exile in some cold, sunless place. Or you can fight the regime–stand up against it, join the armed struggle, plant bombs, and hopefully avoid jail, torture, death.