TRC Final Report

Volume 6

Section 3

Chapter 2

Subsection 29

269. Mr Avhapfani Joseph Lukwa [AM3278/96] and Mr Tshamano Edson Tshibalo [AM3277/96] killed nine people and burnt eleven properties at Folovhodwe and Muswodi Dipeni areas, Venda, on 10 March 1990. The two were part of a large crowd that went from house to house. They even targeted Tshibalo’s own father’s house. Their applications were refused due to lack of full disclosure [AC/2000/094].

270. Mr Josia Mauludzi [AM3282/96], Mr Norman Ramalata [AM3283/96] and Mr Samuel Matala [AM3284/96] applied for the killing of Ms Munzhedzi Emely Makulana in Mufunzi village on 21 March 1990. Members of an informal youth congress met and discussed the relationship between witchcraft and political repression, and decided that witches should be killed. Armed with petrol and tyres, a large group went to the home of Ms Makulana. She was pulled out of her home and assaulted with a sjambok, and petrol was poured over her. She was then burnt to death. Amnesty was granted [AC/2000/094].

271. Mr Marobini George Leshaba [AM4313/96], Mr Harriot Mathebula [AM4188/96] and Mr Muvhulawa Johannes Makananise [AM4301/97] applied for amnesty for the killing of Mr Johannes Soidaha Silema-Malatsi (also referred to as Malatsi or Malatjie) in the Ha Maila area on 19 March 1990. At a youth meeting held that day, four people, including Mr Malatsi, were identified as people who used witchcraft to assist government officials to retain their power. Money to buy petrol and other materials to kill them was collected at the meeting. At a second meeting, involving the wider community, it was resolved that the four who had been identified should be killed. Mr Malatsi, who was at the meeting, was attacked. A tyre was placed around his neck and lit. Mr Malatsi managed to get the tyre off and ran away burning. He was pelted with stones by the crowd, hit with sticks and stabbed. He was further questioned about his alleged witchcraft activities and identified others who worked with him, allegedly the same people identified earlier by the meeting. Tyres and petrol were fetched and he was ordered to drink the petrol. When he refused, petrol was poured over him, he was set alight and tyres were placed on top of him. Finally he died. Leshaba and Makananise were granted amnesty for this incident, but Mr Mathebula, who denied his role in the events, was refused amnesty [AC/2000/094].

272. The Amnesty Committee did not accept that all witchcraft incidents had a political orientation. Some accusations and attacks were clearly rooted in personal jealousies, feuds, local dynamics or relationships. For example, Mr Magome Freddy Tladi [AM2043/96; AC/2000/112] was refused amnesty for the killing of Ms Matule Bapela. Ms Bapela was doused with petrol and set alight in Marishane Village in the Nebo district, Northern Transvaal, on 20 August 1992.

Mr Golden Holiday Sekgobela [AM1026/96; AC/2000/113] was refused amnesty for hacking Ms Poppy Seerane to death on 15 December 1990 in Leboeng, Ly d e n burg District, Eastern Trans v a a l .

273. These ‘witchcraft killings’ were evidently the initiative of youth and residents responding at a local level to a period of political turmoil and transition. Through their actions they sought to express their opposition to the old homeland order and its social underpinnings. The killings provide a good example of how the banners of the UDF and the ANC were used to mobilise and embrace forms of collective social action against perceived oppression. Although the T-shirts, banners, songs and slogans of political organisations were worn, carried or sung during ‘witchhunts’, there were virtually no links to formal ANC structures. Most of the killings w e re essentially spontaneous. There is, indeed, evidence that the UDF and the ANC intervened during the early 1990 wave of witch-hunts in an effort to halt them.

CONCLUSION

274. Amnesty applications in respect of ANC operatives, members and supporters reflect the fact that the ANC was both a formal liberation organisation with an armed wing, as well a ‘social movement’ that mobilised ordinary citizens who fell outside its formal structures. The ANC sought to spearhead a ‘people’s war’ and to provide the banner under which widespread and varied forms of protest could be enacted by a range of participants. The ANC thus embraced those who acted in concert with its goals although outside its formal discipline.

275. Amnesty applications run the full gamut from leadership figures, MK operatives and SDU members to ordinary rank and file ANC supporters on the fringe of or even outside the organisation. Clearly, the ANC cannot be held accountable to the same degree for the activities of all these groupings.

276. Formal MK operatives constitute the group with the most direct line of command and control within the ANC. The ANC clearly has the highest level of authority in respect of its own trained military operatives who had the most direct line of command and control within the ANC. Secondly, there are SDU members, who clearly had some level of practical and moral authorisation from the ANC, and indeed the ANC Declaration embraces SDU members. Lastly, there are ordinary civilian applicants who acted in the name of or in support of the ANC. The ANC has the most remote level of responsibility for this group .

277. The findings made by the Commission reflect this range of levels of accountability, and have been confirmed.