TRC Final Report

Volume 3

Chapter 3

Subsection 58

Forced recruitment

391 The Commission heard that during the 1990s, with violence now endemic in many communities, men were often required to attend night ‘camps’, to participate in patrols and to attend all political gatherings convened by the party in whose stronghold they resided. People who failed to participate in these activities were suspected of being supporters of the opposing party and were frequently attacked as a result.

392 The term ‘camping’ was used to refer to the gathering of men at a vantage point to keep watch and protect their area from attack by supporters of the opposing party. While the men ‘camped’, the women and children often congregated at a number of houses where they would sleep for the night. A number of people told the Commission how men who had refused to attend such ‘camps’ were targeted.

The Killing of Gcina Maphumulo

Mr Peter Maphumulo’s [KZN/NNN/139/PS] father, Mr Gcina Geoffrey Maphumulo, an ANC member from Murchison, went to visit his wife who lived in an IFP stronghold. He was confronted by IFP members who wanted him to join their ‘camp’. He refused and was killed.

The Killing of the Gumede Family On 11 September 1992, six members of the IFP-supporting Gumede family were shot and burnt to death when their home in Gobandlovu reserve, outside Esikhawini, was attacked. Earlier, a group of IFP members patrolling the area had stopped at the Gumede home and asked why their nephew Tholithemba did not join their patrols and ‘camps’. They then started burning the Gumede’s house.

When Mr Jameson Gumede confronted the IFP leadership about their supporters’ conduct, the group returned and attacked the whole family, killing Gumede, his wife Joyce and their four children Gugu, Sindisiwe, Thokozani and Nomusa.

Six-month-old Thabile escaped death but was seriously burnt on her face and upper body. Now five years old, she has lost her left ear and the use of her left hand, and is badly disfigured. Two local IFP leaders were arrested in connection with the attack but were later released without being charged [KZN/SS/025/EM].

The Attack on Makhosezwe Mthethwa

Mr Makhosezwe Mthethwa [KZN/KM/552/PS] from Murchison told the Commission how in June 1992 he was shot and left for dead after he stopped attending the night ‘camps’. Mthethwa said that he had become tired of the ‘camps’ and decided he was no longer going to attend. One of those who allegedly shot him was the IFP member who organised the ‘camps’ in the area.

Internal party conflict

393 Internal party conflict developed in both the ANC and IFP in KwaZulu and Natal and resulted in several deaths. The causes of these internal divisions included leadership struggles and suspicions that one or other party member was a spy or traitor.

The Killing of Bafana Kunene

The Commission heard that on 4 January 1990, Mr Bafana Julius Kunene [KZN/MR/057/PM], an IFP supporter in the Mphophomeni area, was found hacked to death after being fetched from his home to attend a night ‘camp’ of the IFP.

His widow, Ms N Kunene, told the Commission that, shortly before this event, Mfana Kunene had attended a night ‘camp’ meeting at which “they were given some orders that in the time of war they must distinguish between the ‘comrades’ and the IFP people”.⁶⁶ At the meeting, he was told to kill his brother, who was a ‘comrade’. Kunene felt that he could not do this and left the meeting.

The following night, he and his wife were woken up by men telling him that he must go with them to attend an Inkatha ‘camp’. He dressed and went out to join them. He never came home at all that night. The next morning his wife found his badly mutilated body.

394 Conflict broke out in Bhambayi, an informal settlement at Inanda, north of Durban, in December 1992. The conflict, triggered by competition for limited resources in the settlement, divided the community into two ANC-supporting factions, which came to be known as the ‘Greens’ and the ‘Reds’. In time, the smaller ‘Green’ faction felt itself being increasingly marginalised by the local (Bhambayi) and regional (Durban) ANC leadership. As a result of the high level of conflict, an ISU base was set up nearby and there were continuous ISU patrols in the settlement. As the ‘Greens’ were in the minority and occupied a small area in the heart of the settlement almost completely surrounded by the ‘Reds’, the ISU tended to position itself on the border between the two factions. This led to accusations from the ‘Reds’ that the ISU had sided with the ‘Greens’. In addition, there were numerous allegations that ISU members themselves were carrying out attacks on the ‘Reds’. These allegations of collusion only served to heighten the division between the two factions and further to marginalise the ‘Greens’.

395 In April or May 1993, the ‘Greens’ made approaches to the IFP and, a while later, people living in the ‘Greens’ section began identifying themselves as IFP supporters. In August 1993, an IFP branch was launched. Nine people were killed, eleven injured and eighteen houses burnt down on the day of the launch. From that time, the conflict in the community was perceived as an ANC/IFP conflict. By July 1993, monitors estimated that as many as 200 Bhambayi residents had died violently.

The Killing of the Zulu Family

On 4 September 1991, the home of Mr James Zulu in Port Shepstone was attacked and four members of his family massacred. At the time, Zulu was a respected community leader and an ANC member, although he had fallen out with some of the younger activists. The police’s main suspect in this case, ANC activist Alson Ngwazi, was killed on 25 May 1992. The Network of Independent Monitors (NIM) had the following to say regarding Zulu in their submission to the Commission:

“It is our suspicion that this massacre was the work of some ‘third force’ with support from the SAP for purposes of fuelling the local conflict … The brutal murder and mutilation of his family was blamed at the time by the SAP on the ANC and it appears to have turned Zulu into an anti-ANC warlord.”⁶⁷