TRC Final Report

Volume 2

Chapter 6

Part Part5

Subsection 2

■ EXHUMATIONS (IN ORDER OF DATE OF EXHUMATION)

Phila Portia Ndwandwe¹

(aka MK Zandile) Age unknown; ANC/MK. Killed in 1988; exhumed 12 March 1997 at Elandskop farm, KwaZulu-Natal.

Ms Phila Portia Ndwandwe was allegedly the acting commander of Natal MK activities from Swaziland and was responsible for the infiltration of ANC cadres into Natal. Durban Security Branch members abducted her from Swaziland. She was not prepared to co-operate with the police. They state that they did not have admissible evidence to prosecute her and that they could not release her, so they killed her and buried her on the Elandskop farm.

Phumezo Nxiweni²

Age unknown; ANC/MK. Killed 4 November 1988; exhumed 14 March 1997 at Verulam farm and reburied in the Eastern Cape.

Mr Phumezo Nxiweni was allegedly the commander of an underground MK unit in Durban, which the Security Branch believed was responsible for several bombings. Durban Security Branch members arrested him on 4 November 1988. He refused to work as an informant. They therefore decided to kill him. He was buried on a Security Branch farm near Verulam.

Lesaja Sexwale³ (aka Reggie Gladman)

Age 31; ANC/MK.

Sureboy A Dali (aka Titus Ntombela and Charlie Bronson)

Age unknown; ANC/MK.

Thabo Rakubu (aka Shakes Mde Lungile)

Age unknown; ANC/MK.

Mthimkhulu Mavuso (aka Patrick Xesi and Zola Mqadi)

Age unknown; ANC/MK.

All four were killed on 13 August 1981 and exhumed on 9 April 1997 at Lushof farm, Rouxville, near Aliwal North.

Mr Lesaja Sexwale, Mr Sureboy A Dali, Mr Thabo Rakubu and Mr Mthimkhulu Mavuso were members of a unit of MK operatives deployed in the former Transkei. On 7 August 1981, they were caught in a police roadblock near Elliot. There was a shoot-out in which Rakubu and Mavuso died. Sexwale and Dali escaped but were cornered on 13 August 1981 at Barkly Pass. They were overpowered and died fighting. The four bodies were buried secretly on the farm Lushof in the magisterial district of Rouxville (near Aliwal North).

Ntombi Kubheka⁴

Age 41; ANC/MK.

Ms Ntombi Khubeka was killed in May 1987. A body which is believed to be hers was exhumed from a pauper’s grave at Groutville on 5 May 1997.

Khubeka was allegedly an MK member who co-ordinated the external and internal combat units. Durban Security Branch members arrested her in May 1987. She allegedly died of a heart attack during interrogation. The possibility that she was tortured cannot be ruled out. Her body was disposed of in Inanda/ Newtown to conceal the cause of death and the identity of the perpetrators.

Victor M Mgadi (aka Daniel Neto), buried as Sipho Gazi

Age 27; ANC/MK.

Killed 22 November 1982; exhumed 6 May 1997 at Piet Retief.

According to Mr Lungile Wiseman Magxwalisa (aka Thomas Zondo, Nthebe), the sole survivor of the incident, he and Mr Victor M Mgadi, Mr Titus Dladla, and Mr Thuluso A Matima, all MK operatives, crossed the Swaziland border at Mahamba on 22 November 1982 and took a taxi from Piet Retief to Pongola. The taxi driver reported them to the police, who stopped themata roadblock. Matima refused to give himself up to the police and therefore shot himself. Mgadi and Dladla ran away and were subsequently shot by police from a helicopter. When the family of Mgadi approached the Commission, the KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng investigation units together exhumed the remains of Mgadi, buried under the name of Victor Mokagetla (grave 802), from Thandokukhanya cemetery, Piet Retief.

Bheki Mkwanazi⁵ (aka MK Tekere)

Age unknown; ANC/MK.

Killed 1989; exhumed 6 August 1997 at Elandskop farm. Mr Bheki Mkwanazi was allegedly an ANC operative who was caught by the Durban Security Branch while on a mission to place bombs in the Durban area at the end of 1988 and beginning of 1989. He was not prepared to cooperate with the police and there was no admissible evidence that could be used against him in court. The Durban and Pietermaritzburg Security Branch members therefore killed him and buried him on the Elandskop farm.