TRC Final Report

Volume 2

Chapter 7

Subsection 21

252 Between December 1993 and April 1994, a third training project was run at the Dinizulu camp near Ndumo in northern Natal. Here Inkatha supporters were trained in civil disobedience with the intention of making elections in KwaZulu rural areas impossible. The camp was disbanded after Chief Buthelezi announced that Inkatha would contest the elections. Former IFP National Council member Walter Felgate, who played a central role in facilitating the training at Dinizulu, told the Commission that it was “inescapably a conclusion of the intention of that camp” that people would be killed.

253 An informal alliance between the right wing and the IFP emerged after the formation of COSAG in 1993. The alliance played itself out in weapons smuggling and paramilitary training, primarily on white farms and KwaZulu nature reserves. There were also a few cases where IFP and right-wing members took part in joint attacks.

254 Prominent South Coast IFP leader Mr James Zulu (now deceased) [AM5864/97] along with six right wingers (Christo Brand [AM6422/97], Morton Christie [AM6610/97], Harry Jardine [AM6178/97], Patrick Pedlar, Roy Lane and Andrew Howell [AM5961/97] all applied for amnesty in respect of the bombing of the Seychelles restaurant in Port Shepstone in February 1994 and the attack on the Flagstaff police station in the Transkei during March 1994. One police officer was killed and another injured in the latter attack. The applicants stated that they had conspired to bomb the Port Shepstone offices of the NP and ANC, but had abandoned these plans because of the commotion caused by the bombing of the Seychelles restaurant.

255 On 29 March 1994, eight local KwaMashu ANC leaders were kidnapped and five executed in the KwaMashu men’s hostel, an IFP stronghold. The victims were part of a delegation of local ANC leaders that had arranged a peace meeting with their local IFP counterparts. As arranged, the eight men went to an Inkatha hostel to hold the peace meeting, only to be kidnapped and taken to another section of the hostel where five of them were executed. The other three were able to escape. The chairperson of the Inkatha branch in the KwaMashu A section hostel, Mr Alton Khanyile, was found guilty on five counts of murder, eight counts of kidnapping and two of attempted murder and sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment. The IFP paid for Khanyile’s defence during the trial.

256 On April 1994, eight employees of a private pamphlet distribution company were tortured and murdered in Ndwedwe, north of Durban. The eight men had been distributing Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) pamphlets explaining voting procedures. Mr Qaphele Dladla, an induna of Ndwedwe, was convicted on eight counts of murder after being found guilty of instructing his ‘amabutho’ to execute the men for promoting an election which Inkatha did not support. The IFP paid Dladla’s defence fees.

Ciskei and Transkei

257 In the Eastern Cape, the major conflicts were between the Transkei military government and Pretoria, and between the Ciskei and the ANC.

258 In July 1989, Transkei arrested six heavily armed white men who allegedly set off from South Africa, crossed the border with ease, and headed to Umtata to kill Holomisa. In December 1989, two more South Africans, including a serving member of the SAP, were arrested in Transkei on similar charges. Both these attempts seem to have been part of the ongoing attempts to unseat Holomisa, which culminated in the abortive Duli coup attempt of November 1990.

259 On 4 March 1990, officers in the Ciskei military overthrew Lennox Sebe and installed Brigadier Oupa Gqozo in his place, an action that apparently did not involve South African security forces. In the early months, Gqozo’s government allowed organisations to operate freely. However, within six months the SADF had sent in an MI unit that operated out of Ciskei and deliberately turned Gqozo against the ANC alliance.