2003: Nigel Pierce remembers the Sizzlers massacre in Sea Point

CapeTalk Celebrating 20 years

2003: Nigel Pierce remembers the Sizzlers massacre in Sea Point

10 October 2017 10:06 AM

This October, CapeTalk is celebrating its 20th birthday by reliving some of the most impactful stories of the past twenty years, as told by some of our favourite personalities. Click here to view the rest of the stories.

On 20 January 2003, Breakfast Show host Nigel Pierce was on air when a call came in saying that there had been a murder at a massage parlour in Sea Point.

Nine men had been killed at Sizzlers in what Judge Nathan Erasmus described as the "worst massacre that Cape Town and the country have ever seen".

For the rest of the show, Pierce and his team focused on the developing story.

Part of the talk radio medium is to be honest, to be robust, to be candid.
— Nigel Pierce, former Breakfast Show host

It did not come without its risks - Pierce needed to backtrack after an on-air caller claimed that they knew of two famous men who frequented the massage parlour.

One of the hallmarks of the Sizzlers Massacre is that questions about the killings and the murderers' motives remain unanswered.

Both men carried balaclavas, they never took the stand, the one guy in prison a few years later, the manager at the bar in Sea Point made so many mobile phone calls from Sizzlers during the incident, and still - questions remain about the why.
— Nigel Pierce, former Breakfast Show host