TRC Final Report

Volume 2

Chapter 4

Subsection 12

Gross violations of human rights committed in ANC ranks and in exile

98 The Commission heard accounts of violations committed by members of the ANC’s security structures and by guards of internment camps such as Camp 32 (Quatro), and of orders given or policies adopted by those in political leadership structures which led to such violations. Most such violations occurred outside the borders of South Africa.

99 The bitterness felt by those who claim to have been loyal to the ANC and the cause it represented and who felt they had been betrayed by their own Movement’s inability to deal openly with such human rights abuses, is captured in the words of Mr Joe Seremane whose brother, Mr Timothy Tebogo Seremane (aka Mahamba) [JB04441/01GTSOW] was executed in Quatro camp. Joe Seremane told the Commission’s special hearings of prisons in July 1997:

I come here to express the feeling of betrayal by compatriots and comrades … I want somebody to come and tell me what my younger brother actually did that he deserved to be shot like an animal being put down after being brutally disfigured so that of his best friends could not recognise him … Why do you think we ran and volunteered to risk our lives, calling for your own return home, for justice, supporting you in your call to be treated under the Geneva Conventions and you couldn't treat your own that way? … Suddenly nobody has ever come across this young Seremane, suddenly nobody has ever known him, suddenly nobody has a record to show what kind of trial he had, he faced. Was he defended or was he not defended? And where was the accountability that you couldn't account to his people and say he is dead? … I have been on the Island, I have gone through hell. I have been tortured, nearly lost my life … I have seen what it means to be tortured. But when I think of Chief Timothy and compare the way he died, to my suffering, my suffering is nothing…

100 The ANC’s second submission, presented to the Commission in May 1997, contains details of ANC structures and personnel, MK camps and commanders, and ANC rehabilitation and detention centres, an operations report from the ANC’s security department, a description of the workings of the Morris Seabelo Rehabilitation Centre (‘Quatro’ camp) and case studies of ‘enemy agents’ who infiltrated the ANC. In addition, confidential memoranda were presented to the Commission containing the names of those executed by military tribunals (with names additional to those in the first ANC submission). Further information about events associated with the ANC in exile was obtained at the Commission’s ‘recall hearing’ on 12 May 1997, at the ‘armed forces hearing’ on 10 October 1997, and in the Section 29 hearings of former ANC commissar Andrew Masondo and former commander of Camp 32, Gabriel Mthembu held in March/April 1998.

101 The Commission does not believe that information relating to abuses committed by the ANC has been deliberately withheld.

102 The capacity of the Commission to investigate abuses that took place in other countries was limited. The Commission obtained information, to a large extent, from statements by victims/survivors of ANC violations and amnesty applications by ANC members responsible for such violations. Where possible, corroboration was obtained by taking statements from third parties who were present.

Background to Human Rights Violations by the ANC in exile

103 Before the establishment of a security apparatus by the ANC, problems of discipline or security were handled by the MK command structures, headed from 1965 by Commander Joe Modise.

104 Between 1979 and 1989, the ANC was responsible for committing various human rights abuses upon its members in exile. Many of these abuses were committed by the ANC’s security department (established in the mid-1970s) – known by the acronym NAT (for National Security) or Mbokodo/Mbokotho (‘crushing boulder’).

The detention camp in Angola known as Quatro (Number Four), officially called the Morris Seabelo Rehabilitation Centre or Camp 32, was set up in 1979 as a ‘rehabilitation centre’ and was one of the places where significant abuses took place. Violations also took place at the ANC’s headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia as well as in Botswana and elsewhere in Angola.

105 The Commission heard that a ‘spy scare’ in the ANC in 1981 and the poisoning of MK members led to an atmosphere of paranoia about infiltration by agents of the South African government. It was in this context that a number of ANC members were detained and tortured. Some died as a result of assaults and a few were executed. In its Operational Report which it submitted to the Commission, NAT claims credit for uncovering a spy network in 1981 in an operation known as Operation Shishita.

106 Barely two years after the ‘spy scare’, a rebellion amongst soldiers in MK camps in Angola resulted in further violations. Frustrations among MK members in the Angolan camps led to the Mkatashinga mutiny of 1984. Mutineers at Viana camp were persuaded to end the mutiny by Chris Hani. The leaders were detained; thirty-two were held in Luanda State Security Prison where two died between February and July 1984.

107 Three months after the Viana mutiny, there was a further mutiny at Pango camp. The Pango camp mutiny was forcibly crushed by ‘loyalist’ MK troops with the assistance of Angolan troops. There were casualties on both sides. The mutineers were captured. Some were allegedly tortured, seven were executed and the rest were transferred to Quatro. ANC NEC member Ms Gertrude Shope intervened and prevented further executions.

108 Many of those detained in 1984 were held for a number of years without trial. The Commission received statements from detainees who were subjected to assault and torture between 1986 and 1989.

109 The events created an awareness of levels of dissatisfaction among MK members, as well as of abuses that were occurring. An internal commission of enquiry into the mutiny made certain recommendations about the treatment of prisoners and the role of the security department. Certain measures were taken to establish legal structures and procedures for dealing with dissidents, including a code of conduct adopted in 1985 and the establishment of the post of ‘Officer of Justice’.