TRC Final Report

Volume 3

Chapter 6

Subsection 101

Conflict between SAP and MK/APLA members

744 Between July 1990 and August 1991, attacks on the police increased from 107 to 137.⁷⁹ The major perpetrators of these attacks were ANC and PAC guerrillas who had returned from exile, some of whom located themselves within local SDUs. Frequently, it was black policemen living in townships that were the most vulnerable and were targeted by SDU and MK members. The Commission’s Amnesty Committee received applications from ANC and SDU members for attacks on policemen. ANC member, Mr Simon Khakha ‘S’dumo’ Ngubeni [AM3128/96], applied for amnesty for the killing of SAP member Peter Ransayile. Ngubeni says that he threw a hand grenade at the deceased. Mr Mosiuwa Isaiah Khotle [AM3443/96] applied for the killing of a policeman during a shoot-out on 22 March 1993. Mr Thabiso Samuel Ntho [AM7914/97] applied for throwing a hand grenade at the SAP in Sharpville on 24 January 1992.

745 Mr Abel Phele’s [JB00828/03VT] son, Mr Frans Molefe Phele, a PAC member and returnee from exile appears to have been a victim of a drive-by shooting when he was shot dead, allegedly by police driving in a white city golf. According to Abel, the perpetrators, among them a policeman identified as Mohapi, are now standing trial in the Supreme Court. Phele testified that, since his return to the

country, his son had been continually pursued by police. He took two of his son’s friends who had witnessed the shooting to the police station to make statements. While there, one of them allegedly saw the car that had been involved in the drive-by shooting.

746 The conflict between the police and returned MK members led to a number of alleged shoot-outs with police, in the course of which MK members were frequently killed. In some instances, witnesses to such killings alleged that the MK members had been ambushed and executed and not, as was claimed, involved in shoot-outs with the police.

THE COMMISSION RECEIVED A NUMBER OF AMNESTY APPLICATIONS FROM ANC AND SDU MEMBERS FOR ATTACKS ON POLICE OFFICERS. THE COMMISSION FINDS THAT MEMBERS OF THE ANC WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR ATTACKS AND KILLINGS OF POLICE OFFICERS IN TOWNSHIPS, PARTICULARLY ON THE REEF IN THE PERIOD 1990 TO 1994.

THE COMMISSION FINDS THAT, DURING THE PERIOD 1990 TO 1994, THE FORMER STATE ITS ORGANS AND THE SAP AND SADF WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR EXTRA-JUDICIAL KILLINGS IN THE VAAL AREA.