TRC Final Report

Volume 3

Chapter 3

Subsection 42

282 Former special constable Nelson Shabangu [AM3676/96] was also on duty when the fighting broke out. He told the Commission that he was directed to take his Riot Unit vehicle to pick up a group of special constables living in the valley. He then drove this group to the outskirts of KwaShange where he, together with other members of his Riot Unit, stood by and watched as the special constables attacked, burnt and looted houses at KwaShange. The special constables then returned with stolen property, which they loaded onto the police vehicle to be taken to Mr Ntombela’s home. Cattle which had been stolen from the residents of KwaShange were also driven to Mr Ntombela’s home. Shabangu told the Commission that a big party was held at Ntombela’s house later, to which the police were invited. At this party they braaied the meat of cattle they had stolen.

283 Another former special constable, Mr Nhlanhla Philemon Madlala [AM3432/96], was not on duty on 27 March 1990 so he fought on the side of the IFP. He told the Commission that he was amongst the group of Inkatha supporters and special constables who gathered at Ntombela’s home before descending into the valley to attack (Seven Day War hearing, 19 November 1996).

284 SAP spokesperson Director Daniel Meyer, who was on duty during the Seven Day War, was questioned regarding the role of the SAP during the war:

Did you ever during the Seven Day War disarm the Inkatha people?

No, I didn’t. I don’t know whether other policemen did so.

Why did you not do it?

There could be many reasons for that. On that specific day we were so busy – I am now talking about the Tuesday. I just had to run from one scene to the other to attend incidents of shooting.

You were so busy that you could not disarm the people who were going to kill other people and burn their houses. You were busy doing what? You were running up doing what, if you could not disarm the people who were going to take lives of the people?

I hear you, Chairperson …

Are you surprised that the UDF people hated you, as you have just said yourself?

No, I am not surprised. I am not surprised, especially not after all the evidence that I have listened to …

My last question, and it’s probably an unfair question to ask you, but I am going to ask it. If the violence on that scale had happened in a white area, you wouldn’t have tolerated that at all, surely?

During those times more than likely no, we wouldn’t.

285 The Reverend Mr Nsimbi from Edendale criticised the police for being negligent and indifferent. He spoke of how bodies were left to decompose in the streets for days before the police collected them. He told the Commission:

I think it will be my grandchildren who will see the Canaan land. I think I will die here, here in this wilderness.

286 The SADF was also criticised for its apparent absence during the Seven Day War. Witnesses alleged that the SADF was deployed in the valley only in mid-April, once the fighting had passed.

287 In accordance with the law, the SADF was only deployed in support of the SAP during the Seven Day War. At a joint planning committee meeting between SAP and SADF officers, a decision was taken to deploy the Defence Force resources on the lower Edendale Road to ensure that the road to Pietermaritzburg stayed open. Throughout the week, Defence Force personnel (approximately 100 men) and six military vehicles did not venture beyond Edendale Road. Brigadier Swanepoel, the Commanding Officer of the Pietermaritzburg-based Group 9 at the time of the Seven Day War, told the Commission that he had realised that the situation was bad. He said that he had contacted the SADF headquarters requesting more troops and calling for urgent “intervention on a senior level”. The additional troops, four companies from the Transvaal, arrived in mid-April 1990.

288 By the end of the week, an estimated 20 000 people had been displaced from their homes. Most, if not all, of these people had lost everything they ever possessed. No disaster relief was forthcoming from the government. It was left to churches and humanitarian organisations to attempt to provide relief and assistance. Most of these people have not returned to their homes to this day. Father Tim Smith described to the Commission the lasting, devastating effects of that violent week:

Drive out to Edendale past Esigodini up the hills to KwaMnyandu, KwaShange and Gezubuso. There, in a band of land about four kilometres wide, you will still see the effects of destruction of that week of March 1990: houses and shops burnt to the ground, schools abandoned, weeds growing in fields and up through the insides of dwellings where a few years ago thousands and thousands of people lived.

289 Several witnesses told the Commission that it was not accurate to call these seven days a war, because the word ‘war’ implied a battle of equals, whereas the overwhelming majority of the victims were from one side. They were caught unawares and many were totally defenceless and unable to fight back. The victims were those who were unable to run away fast enough – women, children, pensioners and the sick. Survivors called it an armed invasion, a political cleansing.

290 Reflecting on the events of March 1990, Father Smith had the following to say:

After all these attacks and murders we tried to obtain some justice but without success. We tried the police; we tried to hire lawyers; we tried the press. I even had an hour’s interview with the deputy attorney-general of this province. We failed. After all that, it seems to me that the people, the ordinary people, have been failed by the organs of government. Indeed, it seems that the criminal justice system had almost completely broken down.

In not a single case that I have mentioned, from the murder of Angelica Mkhize and her daughter in 1987 up to the deaths of scores of people in the Seven Days War in 1990, has there been a prosecution. No one has been found guilty for all the murder, the arson, the damage to property, the theft, the intimidation, the assaults that have taken place in Vulindlela. It is little wonder that the province has experienced so much carnage, when the perpetrators know that they will never be caught and the victims know there will never be justice.

291 Mr David Ntombela was invited to make a public submission at the Seven Day War hearing. Initially he agreed but on the actual day he refused to testify. His attorney read out a statement on his behalf in which he claimed that the Commission in its present form was biased and would not give him a fair hearing. He also claimed that he had not been given sufficient time to prepare for the hearing and had not been able to obtain copies of statements implicating Ntombela in the violence. Some months later, the court found in favour of Ntombela and the Commission was obliged to provide Ntombela with all statements in which he had been detrimentally implicated.