| Time | Summary | |
| 06:23 | Reggie Hadebe was meant to be a survivor. In the 1970s when most avenues of protest were closed he was a rising star in Inkatha. By the time the UDF began pushing against apartheid in the 1980s, he was again prominent. When Nelson Mandela walked out of prison Reggie Hadebe was the ANC’s deputy chairman in the troubled Natal Midlands and working hard to end the civil war. He never made it. Police say it took three snipers to finally kill him. More than a 100 guns taken in raids have been tested. The guns have vanished and so have the killers, for now. Because, as Christina Scot explains, there are at least three people determined to find the assassins: Reggie’s widow Sibongile, Reggie’s friend John Jeffries who was there when he died and a man who has never met Reggie Hadebe, detective inspector Lionel Groenewald. | Full Transcript and References |
| 07:17 | This is the Hadebe family home in Pietermaritzburg. Reggie never saw it. After surviving several assassination attempts the charismatic ANC leader took out insurance on his life. A few months later the policy was called in. A practicing Catholic, Reggie was looking forward to the birth of his seventh child, he wanted a girl and he hoped for a Christmas day birth. Nonduduzo was born on December 25th 1992, two months after her father was shot through the head. | Full Transcript |
| 07:52 | So when you ask her ‘who’s your father?’ she will tell you ‘Reggie.’ ‘Where is he?’ I have photos in my bedroom and in the lounge. She’ll say ‘there’s my father.’ So, she knows him through the photos. | Full Transcript |
| 08:07 | Reggie Hadebe’s widow, Sibongile, a highly skilled obstetrics nurse is trying to escape four years of bad memories. // Since my husband died, I’m still having that heartache, especially because I don’t know who killed him. It’s three and a half years now and yet I don’t know who killed him, there’s nobody who’s coming forward. So staying here really makes me sick. | Full Transcript |
| 08:36 | Although two self-confessed IFP hit men have claimed involvement in her husband’s death, the case is still unsolved. This frustrates Sibongile. // ‘Alleged IFP hit squad mastermind Daluxolo Luthuli claims he was involved in the October 1992 assassination of KwaZulu-Natal Midlands ANC leader Reggie Hadebe and that he carried out one of the worst mass murders in the province.’ // ‘Mr Luthuli, a former Umkhonto we Sizwe soldier and IFP field organizer, has fled his Ulundi home and entered a state witness protection programme to disclose damaging secrets about the IFP’s network of killers.’ | Full Transcript and References |
| 08:46 | So thus the investigation that I’m doing, because nothing so far has been done with that man who has just confessed. So, I’m trying to do something about it. | Full Transcript |
| 08:58 | This type of personal tragedy has been replayed in thousands of families across KwaZulu-Natal. What makes Reggie Hadebe’s death so unusual was the professional behaviour of his killers. | Full Transcript |
| 09:11 | It was very much an ambush. They were waiting there for us. They knew what they were after and they did it. | Full Transcript |
| 09:18 | John Jeffries survived the same attack that killed Reggie and badly hurt another colleague. | Full Transcript |
| 09:23 | We’d been at a peace meeting at Ixopo with the IFP to discuss violence in the area. After that meeting we had a meeting with the South African police to discuss some of the security problems that were being experienced in the area and after lunch proceeded back to Maritzburg along this road. I believe that the people who had been at the meeting must have had some involvement in it, so I believe we must have been monitored. This spot that they chose was a very good one. The car had to go quite slowly as it’s a hairpin bend. There’s a low wall. There was a very loud bang. It was almost as if there was a fire cracker going off. They hit Reggie with the first shot. They must have known where he was sitting in the car and it all indicated it was fairly carefully planned. | Full Transcript |
| 10:18 | One of the policemen called to the scene of the assassination that day was Lionel Groenewald. | Full Transcript |
| 10:25 | This attack took place on a relatively busy road. There must have been people - it was broad daylight - there must have been people travelling on the road. We have no independent witnesses. We’ve got absolutely nobody who can really come forward and say ‘we were involved, we did this and this and this.’ | Full Transcript |
| 10:43 | Detective inspector Groenewald is now attached to the Midlands branch of the investigative task unit. One of his many responsibilities is the unsolved murder of Reggie Hadebe. He has no eye witnesses and no guns. | Full Transcript |
| 10:57 | There are rumours of ANC involvement, as in a power struggle; there are rumours of IFP involvement, because of the political situation at that stage. There was basically a situation of war existent in the Richmond area between the IFP and the ANC. There are also allegations of third force activity, third force involvement. | Full Transcript |
| 11:15 | Groenewald warns against believing every claim reported in the papers, although the IFP hit squad allegations are being followed up. One prisoner who came forward was so authentic his confession was videoed and he was asked to show the police the scene of the murder. // ‘IFP self protection unit member Sibusiso Mbhele, who is on trial in the Supreme Court in Pietermaritzburg on four counts of murder, two counts of robbery and two counts of illegal possession of firearms, has told The Natal Witness how members of his unit planned Hadebe’s assassination and how Hadebe, Harry Gwala’s right hand man, was identified to the killers. // Mbhele said a prominent tribal figure in the Ixopo district, his two sons – one of whom was in the SPU and whose name is known to The Natal Witness – two members of the KwaZulu Police and himself were watching the evening news on television during which Hadebe said he would be attending the peace meeting in Ixopo the next day. He said the chief ...more | Full Transcript and References |
| 11:29 | He took us right to the opposite side of the valley; I’d say about ten kilometres away from the actual murder scene. I’ve spoken to numerous operatives, I’ve spoken to the people from Vlakplaas, the guys who we arrested and who were convicted of the KwaZulu hit squads. They are unable to assist us. I’ve spoken to members of our security forces; they are unable to assist us. I’ve spoken to members from National Intelligence, Military Intelligence, as well as the other intelligence agencies and nobody seems to be able to come forward with any shred of evidence. We are investigating this case as a murder case, be it KwaZulu police involvement, the KwaZulu government involvement, the national government involvement, the ANC involvement or whoever is involved. The public who knows something about it, who knows something definite can come to us. They can contact me, my cell number is 082 800 3642 or you can reach me on my pager, which is a Maritzburg number 943 044. My code is ...more | Full Transcript and References |
| 12:49 | But would it make any difference? // Ja it would make a difference, you know, to know why it was done, how they planned it, what their intentions were. Those kinds of things. | Full Transcript |
| 13:01 | I don’t know. | Full Transcript |
