TRC Final Report

Volume 6

Section 3

Chapter 2

Subsection 27

Self-defence units and weapons supply

253. The most senior ANC applications received in respect of this region relate to the provision of weapons and training of SDUs by three ANC leadership figures. Mr Jeff Radebe [AM7170/97], Mr Ian Phillips [AM5951/97] and Mr Sipho Sithole [AM5950/97] served on the ANC South Natal Regional Executive Committee in a political capacity and also gave military support to the SDUs involved in the conflict.

254. The method adopted for weapons provision was that a vehicle with weapons loaded into secret compartments was left at a specified site in Durban. Radebe passed the car keys to Sithole who collected the vehicle, offloaded the weapons and secured them. He then distributed them to persons he had identified as trustworthy indifferent areas, mainly people he had worked with in exile. These persons would then distribute weapons on the ground. At the Durban hearing on 1 December 1998, Sithole told the Amnesty Committee:

I was responsible for setting up structures to ensure that those weapons were infiltrated down into areas, trouble spots where our own people were under attack.

255. Sithole estimated that some 150 AK47s with ammunition and a smaller quantity of grenades were brought in through this arrangement. Around twenty Stechkin and ten Makarov pistols were also brought in, although these were specifically for command personnel’s own protection. However, he testified:

The amount of weapons was about 100 to 150 which was very little by the demand that we were getting from the communities. In fact we would run dry most of the time, so we were not in a position to actually effectively organise our own communities in terms of self defence. (Durban hearing, 1 December 1998.)

256. A second regional MK commander also applied for and was granted amnesty for his role in the training of SDUs and the supply of weapons. Mr Ntela Richard Sikhosana [AM6332/97; AC/1999/290] was the Natal Midlands regional commander of MK. He testified that he was involved in the training of SDUs in the Midlands area from November 1992 to April 1994. Mr Sikhosana died in 1998.

257. As in the Transvaal, the evidence from amnesty applications suggests that communities and SDUs also sourced weapons from a variety of other sources , particularly Mozambique. Two members of an SDU in KwaMashu, Mr Thami Peter Mthunzi [AM5259/97] and Mr Timothy Mjabulelwa Tembe [AM5171/97], under the command of MK operative Linda Geoffrey Xaba, were arrested returning from Mozambique on 16 November 1994 in possession of AK47s hidden in their car door. Their passports revealed that they had made many visits to Mozambique during the 1992 to 1993 period.

258. Khetha Mpilo Khuzwayo [AM6175/97; AC/2000/004] was an SDU member in the Empangeni area who received training both locally and in Mozambique in 1992. He was arrested in a stolen vehicle provided by his commander Shadrack in early May 1994. At the time of his arrest he was in possession of two AK47s and ammunition, one Makarov pistol and ammunition, hand grenades and camouflage uniforms. He testified at the Amnesty Committee hearing in Durban on 15 November 1999:

After a while a need arose for us to be able to use bigger firearms, that was the time when we were dispatched to Mozambique, so that we could receive training in bigger fire arms as well as in explosives, because our enemies used to attack us using bigger fire a rms … At that time we were running short of bigger firearm s in our area so I had to go to Mozambique to fetch bigger fire a rms so that our a rea and other neighbouring areas could receive such weapons for protection … I did not question it when Shadrack gave me a vehicle to take to Mozambique and I would do so as he instructed. On my arrival to Mozambique, I will give that car to Steven Nkenyene and he will return the car with the fire a rms inside and I would drive the car back into South Africa.