TRC Final Report

Volume 6

Section 3

Chapter 3

Subsection 6

Attacks by IFP supporters

43. The Amnesty Committee heard that IFP applicants became involved in spontaneous attacks on people they believed to be UDF and/ or ANC supporters. The aim was generally to drive non-IFP supporters out of particular areas , thereby entrenching IFP strongholds. According to Mr Phumlani Derrick Mweli [AM0599/96], the UDF was a threat to the IFP and ‘should cease to exist’. Mr Mweli spoke of receiving instructions to further this aim:

MR MWELI: The instructions would entail killing, to kill and eliminate UDF and in other words UDF should cease to exist. MR SAMUEL: Why did you want UDF to cease to exist? MR MWELI: I t ’s because it was alleged that it was burning people’s houses and that they will bring ideas of the communists. MR SAMUEL: So was that your political objective in trying, in carrying out these orders to kill UDF people? MR MWELI: Ye s . MR SAMUEL: Now without going into the specific instances that you were charged for, I’d like you to describe and set the background about these skirmishes, the fights that were going on. Without going into individual cases here , tell us ...(intervention ) CHAIRPERSON: What, are you talking about skirmishes in which he personally was involved? MR SAMUEL: I want you to speak about those instances where you and the UDF people clashed, in which you were involved, without dealing with specific instances. Just tell us what used to happen when UDF members confronted ANC members, or IFP members. What happened then? MR MWELI: Between IFP and UDF there was enmity, and the two groups were fighting against each other, and each time IFP member would be seen around the area of Penduka we would be killed by the others, and as well as vice versa, each time they would see the UDF members in ...(indistinct) would be killed. Soth e re was that, and the fact that the IFP members, they wanted to eliminate UDF members and they will cease to exist, and ANC people as well, we aimed at killing. Sometimes there will be people killed from IFP’s area who will be killed for no apparent reason, for the fact that that person is residing in the area of IFP will be killed for that, without any action whatsoever. (Pietermaritzburg Hearing, 11 February 1999)

44. Mr Mabhungu Absolom Dladla [AM4019/96] and Mr Nkanyiso Wilfred Ndlovu [AM4058/96] applied for amnesty for an attack on a taxi in the Table Mountain a rea in which ten people were killed on 5 March 1993.

MR ALBERT S: Yes, can you explain to us what you hoped to achieve by attacking this kombi? MR DLADLA: Nkanyezini is an ANC stronghold and we people from Mboyi could no longer walk past there. We could no longer go to town to buy. We were imprisoned in our area. Our people would be free to walk after this. (Durban Hearing, 26 March 1998)

45. The applicants testified before the Amnesty Committee that they had carried out the attack with the intention of killing the occupants of the vehicle whom they believed to be ANC supporters on the grounds that an ANC member called Qeda Zulu had used the vehicle to transport members in the area. The attack had been triggered by an event three days earlier when unknown gunmen had shot and killed six children who were on their way to school. The parents of the children were all Inkatha members. The Committee heard that they and other residents of the Inkatha-controlled area of Mboyi were constantly attacked when they travelled through Nkanyezini, an ANC-controlled area. The applicants testified that, although they had not been instructed by their leaders to shoot and kill the occupants of the minibus, they had taken it upon themselves to do so.

46. The Amnesty Committee accepted the argument that they were ‘caught up in the senseless violence in the area between members of the ANC on the one hand and the IFP on the other’, and that the offences for which they were convicted and for which they were applying for amnesty were committed in the course of the struggles of the past and were associated with a political objective. Amnesty was granted to Mr Dladla and Mr Ndlovu for the killing of ten people and the attempted killing of six people in their armed ambush of the vehicle [AC/98/0012].

47. Mr Phumlani Derrick Mweli [AM 0599/96], IFP Youth Chairperson, applied for amnesty for killing seven ANC supporters. The killings were preceded by a series of attempted killings and assaults in Imbali, Pietermaritzburg.

48. At the time of the incidents, the Black Local authorities Act 192 of 1982 had come into effect, imposing town councils on a number of townships. In many are asin KwaZulu, the IFP had gained control of these councils, which were perceived to be to be illegitimate by supporters of the UDF. In Imbali, this manifested itself as a battle for territory between Stage 1 (a predominantly UDF area) and Stage 2 (a predominantly IFP are a ) .

49. Phumlani Mweli was between 14 and 15 years of age when he committed o ffences that were directed indiscriminately at supporters of the UDF. He told the Amnesty Committee that he had received general instructions from IFP leader Mr Abdul Awetha and prominent IFP members Mr Jerome Mncwabe and Mr Gasela to attack members of the UDF who had been identified as ‘enemies’ because of their residence in an ‘IFP area’. Mweli received firearms and ammunition from the IFP leaders. He was also given muti (traditional medicine), which he claimed ‘would give us a crave to kill and braveness to kill others but be protected at the same time…’ [AC/1999/334]

50. Between 3 and 16 January, Mweli killed seven UDF supporters, including an 1 1 - year-old child, Simphiwe Patrick Majozi, for which offences he was convicted in 1990. He was also responsible for the killing of Mr Stanley Shezi, four attempted killings and two assaults.

51. Mweli killed Mr Vikani Jacobs Sosiba near his home on the instructions of Mr Thu Ngcobo and Mr Gasela. He testified that Sosiba was bringing UDF ‘comrades into Stage 2 to attack IFP members’ [AC/1999/334]. After an attack on the car of IFP leader Mr Abdul Awetha near a garage in Stage 1, Mweli and Imbali (together with Mr Hoosain Awetha and Mr Bheki Zulu) shot Mr Thokozani Hlela and Mr Linda Moloi near a garage that was regarded as UDF-controlled. Mweli said that he did not know if the deceased had been involved in the attack on the vehicle but that they had killed them in order to send a message that they would defend themselves.

52. On the instructions of Mr Jerome Mncwabe, Mweli then embarked on a random killing spree to scare the UDF into leaving Stage 1. In the process, he killed Mr Sibusiso Mdluli, Mr Simphiwe Majozi and Mr Bhekizulu Gwala.

53. The families of the victims had reservations about whether the applicant had fully disclosed the facts but gestures towards reconciliation were extended between the parties. The Amnesty Committee granted Mweli amnesty on all counts, with the exception of the murder of 11-year-old Simphiwe Majozi. The Committee noted that this murder could not be re g a rded as an attack direct e data political opponent as there was no evidence connecting Majozi to the UDF.