TRC Final Report

Volume 3

Chapter 3

Subsection 52

Clashes in the workplace

328 In July 1990, not long after the release of Nelson Mandela, workers at the Durnacol mines, Dannhauser, went on strike over a wage demand. The subsequent industrial unrest at the mines developed along Zulu–Xhosa ethnic lines.

329 The mine employed mainly Zulu workers. Ms Kate Masiba [KZN/NNN/026/NC] told the Commission that her husband Mr Justice Masiba, a Durnacol employee for twenty years, was killed by other miners on 12 February 1991 because he was Xhosa.

330 A Xhosa-speaking worker claimed that the trouble had spread to the Dannhauser mine from the nearby Hlobane Colliery, where clashes between Zulu and Xhosa coal miners had caused at least ten deaths and many more injuries. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) claimed that Iscor management wanted to get rid of the union and was actively encouraging Inkatha to attack NUM members. The NUM alleged that mine security and the SAP had watched the attack, but had not tried to stop it.

331 As on the mines in the former Transvaal, certain members of the police and certain mine officials, especially the security officials, promoted the separation of Xhosa and Zulu people because this helped them to control the labour force. They encouraged the tendency of workers to join different trade unions according to their ethnic background – Zulu miners joining the UWUSA union while Xhosas joined the COSATU unions.

332 At Durnacol specifically, Zulu workers were encouraged to organise themselves separately from the rest of the workforce. They began to hold their own meetings. In late 1991, Xhosa miners were told to return to the Transkei. Fearing for their lives, the Xhosa-speakers fled their workplace. Amongst these was Justice Masiba. After a series of attacks on the homes of people of Xhosa descent, the Masibas fled to Madadeni. After a while Masiba decided to apply for a transfer to Durban and on 12 February 1991 he returned to the mine to collect his transfer forms. A large group of unknown mineworkers chased him back to his home, where he was killed. Ms Masiba remembers:

Most of the people who killed my husband, they didn’t even know my husband. They were new employees of that mine. They didn’t even know him. … When they arrived there, they found him inside the house. I heard he tried to run. He hid behind the wardrobe. They broke the door in my brother’s bedroom, and neighbours were there watching but they were scared to do anything. They broke the wardrobe, and that’s how he was killed. He had twenty-six wounds. They cut his tongue, they cut his genitals, they took his teeth out. They left him there. They put muthi all over his body.

After I received a message, I went there, I went to look for his corpse, and I was so scared because it was terrible. And they told me they don’t want to see me and my family, and they wanted to kill everything that belonged to him … Sergeant Komandu, who was handling the case, said there was nothing that he could say or do because whites refused him to arrest those people who killed my husband. So he said there was nothing he could do. That’s how he left, and up until today nothing happened.

333 Masiba’s attackers followed his widow to Madadeni, where she was living with her sister, and burnt all her possessions.

Party strongholds/‘no-go zones’

334 The rural and urban areas of Natal and KwaZulu were divided into a jigsaw puzzle of party political strongholds or of what became known as ‘no-go zones’. Townships were divided according to sections; rural areas according to valleys, rivers, ridges or roads. Often a party flag or graffiti would serve to stake out the party stronghold. It was impossible for people to be non-partisan without fearing for their lives and those of their families. Those people without strong party affiliations had no choice but to support the party in whose stronghold they were living. They were required to join the party, attend its gatherings and participate in its marches, night ‘camps’ and patrols. Failure to do this could be fatal. Victims who were questioned by the Commission about their political affiliations would sometimes give answers like: “We were under the ANC”.

335 Many of the attacks at this time were indiscriminate, perpetrated by men from one stronghold on people living in a stronghold of an opposing party. Often the victims were non-partisan but were labelled as IFP or ANC simply because of where they lived. The Commission heard many accounts in which victims were unable to explain why they had been attacked, but said that they lived in the stronghold of one political party and that the attackers were seen or presumed to be coming from a neighbouring stronghold of the opposing party.

336 Sokhulu, a rural area north of Richards Bay, was split into an ANC-supporting section and an IFP-supporting section soon after the unbanning of the ANC. Many reports were received of armed men from the IFP side launching attacks on people living in the ANC side. People from the ANC side who went across to the IFP side were killed.

The Killing of Caleb Mthembu and his brother-in-law

On 2 February 1992, Mr Caleb Fana Mthembu [KZN/MR/208/EM] and his brother-in-law, both from the ANC side, went to buy an ox in the area considered to be IFP. They were both shot dead.

337 By 1993, both the town of Escort and its dormitory township, Wembezi, had become demarcated into ANC and IFP sections, and even the taxi ranks in town were separated by party. In Wembezi, homes situated on the borders between ANC and IFP sections would be burnt, forcing their occupants to flee to one side or the other. Invariably they would flee to the side that offered them better protection.

338 Bergville is a small farming town in the foothills of the Drakensberg and is surrounded by a tribal area falling under the IFP-supporting chief Maswazi Hlongwane. The area became a strong Inkatha enclave. An attempt by some ANC youths to launch an ANC branch in February 1993 was aborted after IFP supporters allegedly intimidated them. A second attempt was made to launch a branch on 20 June 1993.

339 The ANC organisers sought permission from the magistrate to hold the gathering at the Woodforde soccer stadium and were issued with a permit to do so. They also informed the Bergville SAP station commander and peace monitors of their intention to hold a rally to launch a branch. When the ANC members began arriving at the soccer stadium for the launch, they found a group of IFP supporters gathered nearby. The IFP supporters were armed with traditional weapons and guns. It was clear to all that a confrontation was looming.

340 The police spoke first to the group of IFP supporters and then to the ANC leaders. They told the ANC to disperse, saying that the gathering was illegal because they had not received permission from Chief Hlongwane. After much deliberation and negotiation with the police, the ANC decided to disperse. While they were dispersing, gunshots and shouting filled the air. The ANC soon discovered that IFP supporters had barricaded all the access routes from Woodforde. Despite the presence of the security forces, six ANC members were killed. That night a number of homes were torched and as many as sixty ANC-supporting youths fled the district. It was several months before they were able to return to their homes.

341 Mr Thulani Sibeko made a written submission to the Commission on behalf of the victims and survivors of this attack:

What was really painful was the way those who died on 20 June 1993 were buried. They were buried by Inkatha without their parents or families. They were buried in the mountain wherein no one had ever been buried. It is not known whether they had coffins. Inkatha said categorically that they (the deceased) were Xhosas⁵¹ and should be taken to Transkei to be buried there.

342 Mr Sibeko was to have presented this submission publicly at the 1997 Mooi River hearing. However, he never got the opportunity: one of the alleged perpetrators was seen attending the hearing, so the Bergville delegation left soon after their arrival.

343 The Commission received statements indicating sporadic cases of violence in the northern Natal township of Ezakheni during 1992 and 1994. The bulk of the victims referred to incidents which took place during 1993. At this time, the township was largely ANC-dominated, with the exception of C1 section which was said to be IFP. Residents of C1 section had to pass through E section to catch taxis and buses to and from the township, and were frequently attacked.