TRC Final Report

Volume 3

Chapter 3

Subsection 60

Children

402 Many children were victims of gross human rights violations in Natal and KwaZulu. While some of these children were caught in crossfire, or were victims of large-scale indiscriminate attacks on party strongholds, some of them were deliberately targeted.

The Killing of Frances Khanyisile Mabaso’s Children

Ms Frances Khanyisile Mabaso [KZN/MR/225/EM], from the Matshana tribal authority, North of Empangeni, told the Commission of an attack on her home in March 1992 while she and her young children were sleeping.

Mabaso woke up in the middle of the night to find people pouring petrol on her house and setting it alight. While she was waking her children, telling them to flee the house, she was shot twice, in the arm and in the back. She fell to the floor and could not move. She could hear her children’s screams and the attackers outside saying that they were going to kill the whole family because they were ANC. Her children came back for her and dragged her outside. They watched their house burn to ashes.

It was then that Mabaso discovered that her four-year-old daughter was bleeding profusely from her head where she been hacked with a panga, and that her sixteen-year-old son Njabulo had been shot in the eyes. Mabaso told the Commission that she was not aware of any police investigation into the matter.

403 The Commission was also told of the pain that parents endured when they were required to go to the mortuaries and identify the bodies of their children. Mr Lawrence Fanizani Dladla [KZN/FS/124/PM] of Mpumalanga told the Pietermaritzburg hearing that his four UDF-supporting sons were killed in succession. The first was Molo (18) who was killed in November 1988. Dladla went to the mortuary to identify his son:

I went there with them because I wanted to see my son’s body, and my heart was torn apart when I saw bodies, corpses, being packed on top of each other … There was no space where you can put your feet because there were corpses all over the place.

And I looked around and my heart was torn apart, and I saw my son. I looked at him. I saw one big hole on his chest and I said to myself, “Oh my God, my son is lying there forever”.

404 Five months later, in April 1989, a second son was killed. Again, Mr Dladla was required to identify the body:

[When] I saw my son, my son had been cut like a goat, and that hurt me very much. I even felt that it was better if they shot him rather than cutting him.

405 In September 1989 and April 1991, two other sons were killed. To his knowledge, there was not one prosecution in respect of any of his sons’ killings.

406 IFP supporter Ms Nomusa Shandu [KZN/LPM/100/EM] told the Commission at the Empangeni hearing how her seven children and grandchildren were killed just metres away from where she was hiding. The incident occurred in Umgababa on 20 July 1990. She believes that the attackers were ANC supporters. The Shandus had recently moved to Umgababa from KwaMakhutha. She had been led to believe that Umgababa was free of political tensions. Only once they had moved did she discover that they were living in an ANC stronghold. However, she did not expect that they would be victimised for being IFP supporters, since they attended all the ANC meetings in the area.

407 Within a day or two of arriving in Umgababa, their house was attacked by ANC supporters and burnt to the ground. Shandu told the Commission she was paralysed with fear when she heard the attackers coming. She wanted to close the door, but could not move. She managed to crawl into hiding from where she heard her three children and two grandchildren being killed, one by one:

They were not firing twice, they were firing only once and I could count them, 1, 2, 3, until they were finished. After they finished, only one was safe. That’s when they started pouring petrol on those bodies and then they lit all the corpses and when the fire caught the wardrobe my other grandchild, the one who was inside the wardrobe, got away. Linda, Thulile were on fire. They couldn’t get away. They were crying. They were not shot, but they were burnt. Bethwell, Mafike, Linda, Zipporah, Primrose and Thulile, those are the only people who died on the 20th, and Mafike as well. Mafike was the last one to die, because after they’ve burnt the corpses and I was – from where I was hiding myself I could hear Mafike. I heard one of the attackers saying, “I want him dead. Don’t let him loose”, and I heard him crying and then they shot him and they burnt him outside the house. They put a big plank and they burnt him.

408 The following people, all ANC supporters, were convicted in respect of this incident: Mr Sibusiso Cele, Mr Nkosi Mseleku, Mr Ronny Bheko Luthuli, Mr Nke Zikhali, Mr Goodman Luthuli, Mr Dumo Petros Mfeka, Mr Ba Cyril Mseleku, Mr Dumisani Sibiya, Mr Qinisele Mbatha, Mr Rickman Simo, Mr Jet Gumede, Mr Sipho Mkhize, Mr Michael Luthuli and Mr Sinqbile Gumede.