TRC Final Report

Volume 6

Section 3

Chapter 2

Subsection 22

POPULAR PROTESTS 1990–1994

203. The Commission received a number of applications from local civilian ANC members or supporters. In the main, these applications cover local level conflicts with perceived enemies and political opponents, as well as incidents of arson and public violence relating to national campaigns and protests.

Clashes with the PA C

204. While clashes with the IFP dominate the picture in the 1990s, there were also several serious outbreaks of conflict between the ANC and PAC – mainly between the youth organisations linked to these bodies, COSAS and the ANCYL on the one hand, and the Pan Africanist Student Organisation (PASO) on the other. This conflict manifested itself in the Eastern Cape, Transkei and PWV townships.

2 0 5 . In Fort Beaufort in the Eastern Cape, conflict broke out between PASO and COSAS, spilling over into the community. There were attacks on both ANC and PAC members. On 21 February 1993, a large crowd of ANCYL supporters, including Mr Thobani Makrosi [AM0362/96], abducted two women, Ms Nomsa Mpangiso and Ms Nomangwana Mandita. Ms Mandita was later found dead in a street, partially burnt, with a motor vehicle tyre around her neck and a larg e bloody stone near her head. Medical evidence indicated that she had been set alight while she was alive and had sustained serious head wounds. Ms Mpangiso, who was pregnant, managed to escape. Makrosi was granted amnesty for his role in the abduction of the two women [AC/1997/0022].^{1 5 5}

Clashes in the homelands

206. Rank and file ANC membership, particularly youth, clashed with the traditional authorities and their political structures in the former homelands, particularly in the Ciskei and Bophuthatswana, which resisted free ANC political activity and threatened to oppose participation in the 1994 democratic elections.

207. Amnesty applications were received in respect of two attacks on suspected African Democratic Movement (ADM) members in the Ciskei. On 26 April 1993, the ANCYL resolved to kill 51-year-old Ms Nohombile Ntombazembi Mphambani, in the belief that she was an ADM member recruiting others to the party in order to attack the ANC. The following day, a group of over 100 youths chased Ms Mphambani and two of her teenage children towards the forest . When they caught Ms Mphambani she pleaded for her life, begging for forgiveness and promising to join the ANC. At its East London hearing on 18 March 1997, the Amnesty Committee heard that her pleas had failed:

MR MPHAMBANE: We continued to throw stones at her. She fell on the ground. The others arrived. She was already on the ground. They continued to throw stones at her. Some were beating her on the head with canes. After that when we were sure that she died we left as the ‘comrades’, we left her body there . We saw her children on the way. They asked if we’d killed their mother. We told them that we’d killed her and we then proceeded to ask which side they belonged to. The daughter then said she is an ANC member. Then she was asked to sing one song of the struggle. She sang.

208. Seven youth were convicted for the killing. At their hearing the amnesty applicants spoke with remorse about their actions. They were granted amnesty and released from prison.¹⁵⁶

209. ANC supporters in Bophuthatswana, another homeland ruled by conservative traditional authorities, faced a similarly restrictive political environment post1990. Two members of the Bafokeng Action Committee and the ANC, Mr Boy Diale [AM0081/96] and Mr Christopher Makgale [AM0080/96], applied for amnesty for the killing of the tribal chairman, Mr Glad Mokgatle, in the Bafokeng district on 29 October 1990.

210. The Amnesty Committee heard testimony on the political and immediate context of the killing. In 1990, the former Bophuthatswana was caught up in struggles to destroy the homeland government of Mr Lucas Mangope and his political representatives. Mangope’s appointment of Glad Mokgatle as tribal chairperson was bitterly opposed by the Bafokeng, whose rightful leader had been forced into exile. A group of people, including the two applicants, decided in a tribal meeting to kidnap Mokgatle and wrest from him the keys of the Phokeng Civic Centre from where the tribe’s affairs were administered. It was during this attempt that he was killed.

211. Members of the Bafokeng tribe, including the sons of Glad Mokgatle, testified in support of the amnesty application. They argued that amnesty would foster reconciliation and unity in their community. The two were granted amnesty [AC/1996/0001].

Incidents arising from national protest action called by the ANC

212. Several amnesty applications were received in respect of incidents in response to national events or campaigns called by the ANC. For example, the two-day national strike on 3 and 4 August 1992 during the campaign of ‘rolling mass action’ called by the Tripartite Alliance^{1 5 7} saw widespread prote s t .^{1 5 8} In one incident, two ANC members were granted amnesty for an arson attack on a building society in Ciskei and seven others for an arson attack in King William’sTown , E astern Cape.

Action in the wake of the assassination of Chris Hani

213. The wave of protest and violence that followed the assassination of Chris Hani in April 1993 resulted in large numbers of convictions for public violence, arson and other violence. Amnesty applications were granted for acts of public violence committed by ordinary ANC members at this time.