Samurai Sword Murder: The Morné Harmse story

By Nicole Engelbrecht

When 18 year-old Morné Harmse walked into his high school in 2008, armed with a samurai sword, he had one mission – to commit a massacre. Inspired by the Columbine high school killings, his fantasy to make people "take notice" had been brewing for over a year. By the time his sword-slashing spree had ended, a pupil was dead and three others brutally injured. Now, 14 years later, Harmse is out on controversial parole. Samurai Sword Murder finally puts together the pieces of this brutal tragedy. 
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Melinda Ferguson Books
• Release date: Sep 26, 2022
• ISBN: 9781990973635

Nicole Engelbrecht

Nicole Engelbrecht is a Cape-Town based true crime writer. She hosts South Africa’s most popular true crime podcast, True Crime South Africa, as well as the official companion podcast to the Showmax doccie, Devilsdorp. She's ghostwritten  popular international true crime titles and has produced extensive content on the Krugersdorp Cult Murders.  

Book preview

Chapter 1

Prepping for a massacre

It’s 7am on Monday, 18 August 2008. Cars trundle up Schoeman Drive, briefly stopping as parents deliver their children to the gates of Nic Diederichs Technical High School. The exhaust pipes of idling vehicles spew visible plumes into the still-cool morning air. Krugersdorp is more than ready to bid farewell to winter, but the freeze will keep its icy grip on the area long after the events that are about to unfold.

Students call out to their friends as they near the entrance to the school. There’s the weekend to be dissected, the arrival of Monday to bemoan, and for the Grade 12 scholars, the buzz of impending freedom is almost palpable.

Just the Friday before, pupils had been allowed a civvies day, to wear casual clothing to school, a welcome break from the usual drab uniform of grey pants, white shirts and a blazer or school jersey. For those in their final year, the casual day had coincided with a culmination of discussions held over the preceding few days to discuss their plans after matric.

It was in one of those discussion groups, facilitated by teachers at the high school with their final-year students, that 18-year-old Morné Harmse had expressed some concerning doubts about his future. Principal Mac Redelinghuys would later describe Morné’s answers to educators’ questions in these sessions as silly and a cause for concern.¹ The boy’s responses seemed to indicate he had a limited view of his future, which, for most 18-year-olds, was not entirely unexpected. However, some sources would report that his remarks were far more defeatist in nature than those of his peers. During the preceding week, certain teachers had apparently counselled Morné on some of these comments in which he’d indicated that he did not believe his parents had much faith in him and it would be better if he were in jail. Worryingly, he’d also mentioned that he was not at all prepared for his upcoming preliminary matric examinations.

Such a despondent attitude to the future should have been cause for alarm, especially from a teenager who, in the last few months of his high-school career, was under significant pressure. His hopeless comments were possibly hinting at plans to self-harm or even at suicide. Had a therapist or psychologist been privy to his comments during those discussions, a very different level of risk may have been identified.

Later, when it was too late, Morné’s teachers would claim that they had decided to call him back in for a discussion that Monday morning to try to understand what was happening with the boy. They must have known that it would not be an easy conversation. Morné was quiet in class. He spoke only when directly addressed and, even then, his answers were often short and guarded. Outside the classroom setting, however, Morné – according to his peers – appeared far more communicative and even seemed quite happy to voice his views.

As Monday morning dawned in Krugersdorp and students gathered in groups around the school grounds, a few streets away, Morné Harmse was preparing to leave home. On this morning, he had decided to walk to school with his 15-year-old brother, Corné. This, in itself, was out of the ordinary. His mother, Liza, would later say that she would generally drop both her sons off at school in her car. On this day, Morné also left home earlier than he usually would. As he walked to school, slung casually over his shoulder was a large red tog bag.

It would later come to light that he’d left the house early to avoid having to answer any questions his mother might have. The contents of that bag were the culmination of close to a year’s worth of wild fantasies and careful planning. While Morné had elements of the plan in that bag, there were other boys who left their homes that morning with the rest of the missing pieces.

To paint a complete picture of what occurred at Nic Diederichs Technical High School on Monday, 18 August 2008, it’s necessary for us to first go back in time. Not by too much, mind you, as the important information can be found in discussions the boys had with each other just a few days earlier. On Friday, 15 August 2008, the school’s civvies day probably meant that students would have been in a far more relaxed mood than when they wore their restrictive school uniforms. At break time, five boys* gathered in their usual meeting spot. The boys had been friends, on and off, for some time and regularly communicated by text message and saw one another on weekends. The boy leading the discussion was pint-sized Morné Harmse. While most of the other boys towered above him, Morné was visibly shorter at just under five feet tall.

The topic of conversation that emerged that day had come up before. Based on a number of accounts, it seemed to have started with Morné acknowledging that he and his friends were in their final year of school and wondering how they could make their mark and be remembered. Soon, though, his suggestions would include ones that entailed violence, ones that entailed killing fellow pupils.

As is the case with many incidents of school violence, the other boys involved insisted, after the fact, that they had not thought the conversation was serious. Although this was not the first time Morné had mentioned committing a violent act at his school, the group of boys later told investigating officer Lieutenant Colonel Chris Heyns they had always been sure he was only joking. They’d thought the suggestion of killing fellow pupils was no more than the bravado so often prevalent in teenage-boy pack behaviour. Surely it was all just talk?

Despite these claims, the other boys huddled around Morné that Friday and participated in preparations for the suggested attack. When we analyse how little they actually focused on successfully completing these tasks, though, it does seem that, at least for the others in the group, it was all just a crazy fantasy.

Morné, however, was dead serious about the plans. His initial question to the group that civvies-day Friday was centred on how they would indeed carry out a school attack. Some of the boys had seen news on television of similar attacks that had happened in America. The word massacre was used in this conversation. Sam* said he would use a gun. That would surely be the most efficient way to complete such a task. Morné asked who in the group had access to guns, and both Sam and Ben* said their parents had guns at home.

(* The names of the other boys involved in this conversation have been published in the media, but in this book pseudonyms will be used to protect their identity. Not only were the boys minors when the incident occurred, but they also were not convicted of anything related to this crime.)

One of the US school attacks the boys had heard about had included the use of explosive devices, and this was apparently next on the agenda. Who among them could build a bomb? David* suggested he could. Morné announced that he would use the samurai swords he had at home. His mother would later say that his fascination with Eastern practices had started at an early age. Morné had shown an interest in ninjas and samurais and, not seeing the harm in his son’s keen interest, his father, Machiel, had purchased what he said he believed were ornamental swords for the boy. With all their weapons decided upon, the boys’ discussion moved to other elements of the attack.

All the boys were fans of the heavy-metal band Slipknot. Morné’s level of obsession with the band would later be questioned.

The members of Slipknot wear various masks when they perform. These masks have become a key part of their on-stage personas. Serious Slipknot fans are deeply familiar with what the masks look like and the names given to each of them. It would later be revealed that Morné had been making masks similar to those worn by the heavy-metal band in the week before the attack on his school.

By the time the bell rang to indicate the end of break time that Friday, the plan was formalised, at least in the mind of the shortest boy.

It would be that same school bell that, when it sounded on Monday morning, would signal to Morné Harmse that his life-changing act should begin. The group of boys had been communicating via text message throughout the weekend. Many of the messages sent on Mxit – the most popular instant messaging platform at the time – would later be retrieved and analysed by detectives from the South African Police Service (SAPS). The exchanges would reveal, in chilling detail, how Morné had planned the attack on his school way before that weekend.

Chapter 2

Do you want to see something cool?

When Morné arrives at Nic Diederichs Technical High School on the morning of 18 August 2008 carrying a bag containing the items he fastidiously packed that morning, his younger brother, Corné, walks beside him. They soon part ways, the younger boy heading off to his classroom while Morné spots his group of friends in the distance and makes his way toward them.

David* has a wooden box in his school bag. Inside that box is a cobbled-together assortment of springs, batteries, pieces of plastic piping and wire, all encased in yellow insulation tape. This is the bomb he has spent the weekend building – his contribution to the plan. Hours later, though, David will tell police that, in his mind, it was all an elaborate joke. He had never intended to build a device that would actually explode. In any case, he will say, he’d had no idea how to make a bomb, even if he’d wanted to.

When Morné approaches the group, greeting his friends, he asks David about the device. The boy pulls the box from his bag, glances around and lifts the lid so that his friend can see the contents. Morné smiles and nods. From his perspective, the device is real and deadly.

It is in this moment that we come to understand the deep importance of personal perspective in this case. As the five boys gather on the grounds of their school, four of them are convinced they are involved in nothing more than a final-year prank. The fifth – Morné Harmse – has a very different point of view. For him, it is a culmination of at least a year of fastidious planning.

From Morné’s perspective, it is all very real.

He looks at the four other boys and motions them to follow him into the cloakroom. It’s time to get ready. As they enter the bathroom, Morné walks up to the mirror mounted on the wall over the basin. He reaches into his bag and pulls out a tub of black paint. His friends stand behind him, watching, a sense of unease beginning to build in the pit of their stomachs.

As Morné starts to smear the paint onto his face, he notices his friends staring at him and makes eye contact in the mirror. Perhaps a little annoyed that they have not yet begun their preparations and are instead just standing there, wasting precious time, he tells them, Today is the day. He looks at each boy in turn. Today, I will begin with the massacre and bloodbath. Today is the day you can get back at everyone who did something bad to you.

The boys glance nervously at one another, unsure whether they should respond. There is something new in their friend’s eyes – a look they haven’t seen before. Even his voice sounds slightly different – more mature, somehow, and more assured. The tension in the room only rises when Morné asks whether Sam and Ben have brought their parents’ firearms to school as promised. He sees the blank looks on their faces and shakes his head. His disappointment in his friends is mounting.

Never mind, he offers, gesturing to the red bag on the floor – the contents of which now spill out onto the ground. There are spare weapons in his bag. He, at least, has come prepared.

He dabs at the black make-up and applies the final touches to his face. Inside the bag are four sword-like weapons and one small knife. Each of the swords has an intricate handle. Most are bound in leather and vary in colour from red to black and combinations thereof. While the swords will be grouped together and referred to generally as samurai swords in media reports, a more accurate description would be swords of Japanese origin.

The samurai were Japanese warriors, and their most well-known sword is the katana. There were two katanas in the collection Morné brought to school that day. The third sword was a chokuto, which is shorter than the katana and only sharpened on one side of the blade. The fourth sword resembled a modern version of a tsurugi, which is also a straight blade like the chokuto. The knife in Morné’s bag was a throwing knife. The weapon is predominantly intended to be used to disable attackers from a distance, but an unsuspecting victim can also easily be attacked up close, and this knife can do significant damage.

The boys don’t move when Morné indicates that they should select a weapon, but he doesn’t notice at first. He’s still suiting up. He pulls black elbow and knee guards from his bag and straps them to his skinny arms and legs. With each crackle of Velcro he becomes more emboldened.

There are three masks inside the bag too, and these will add the final touch. The one Morné selects is a replica of one worn by Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison. It’s colloquially referred to as the maggot mask on account of the worm-like protrusions extending from the top. Morné’s homemade mask is crude, seemingly made of papier-mâché, painted in two-tone brown and ochre, and dotted with thick brown pipe cleaners or shoelaces. Holes are cut out for Morné’s eyes and mouth. Morné will later say that, as he placed the mask over his face, the world went completely quiet. The silence behind the mask stills his mind. He is now singularly focused.

When the bell goes, I will do it, he mutters from behind the mask.

At first, his friends think they’ve misheard him, but Morné is now gathering items from his bag. He pulls the wooden box out of David’s hands and opens it. The boy warns him not to pull the red wire, but Morné does exactly that and tosses the device into the corner of the bathroom. One of the other boys opens the bathroom door and kicks the device out into the corridor beyond. Seconds tick by and there is no explosion. David’s bomb is a dud.

Again, a contrast of perspectives presents itself.