| Time | Summary | |
| 01:41 | In 1986 a bloody civil war erupted in KwaNdebele and neighbouring Moutse. To make the small poor homeland of KwaNdebele viable for independence the South African government planned to incorporate two non Ndebele regions. One of them was predominantly Pedi speaking Moutse. But the people of Moutse resisted both incorporation and independence. The fighting that ensued left over a 150 dead, even more injured and almost all businesses in the region destroyed. // The forces against independence were an unusual mix: the Pedi speaking people of Moutse allied with the UDF comrades and the KwaNdebele Royal Family. It was here, at the Royal Kraal that mass meetings were held to mobilize the people. | Full Transcript and References |
| 02:42 | KwaNdebele was not independent. KwaNdebele government had a father, and the father was Pretoria and we knew very well that this idea was from Pretoria because Pretoria wanted to prove to the world that the homeland system were a workable option in South Africa. They were trying to prove liberation movements wrong. | Full Transcript |
| 03:05 | Fighting for independence was the KwaNdebele government who had a secret weapon, a vigilante gang called Mbokodo, which means ‘the grinding stone.’ At Mbokodo’s head were the chief minister of KwaNdebele, SS Skosano and minister of the interior Piet Ntuli. | Full Transcript |
| 03:29 | They were formed to persuade the Moutse”s Sotho speaking people to agree to be part of the KwaNdebele, which the Moutse people rejected and resisted until they won it. They were very fierce guys. When they go and attack they used to have a kind of a paint. They painted themselves white, whether they make a cross because you couldn’t go closer to them. I was very scared of them. | Full Transcript |
| 04:05 | From late 1985 Mbokodo conducted a series of mass raids against the people of Moutse and their Ndebele allies. In December 1985 67 year old Mmusi Mathebe was one of those taken to this hall and tortured. // They were going to give me 28 lashes. It was not like that. The one was standing this side the other was standing on the side. I was just in the middle of the table when the other one sjamboks me the other one will sjambok me until they were tired of assaulting me. | Full Transcript and References |
| 04:53 | But it was in 1986 that the Mbokodo reign of terror really took hold. In one of the most notorious cases of human rights violations in this area between 200 and 360 Moutse residents were abducted and again brought to the Siyabuswa hall. They were subjected to 36 hours of torture and ritual humiliation. // They put soap and they took a hosepipe and they poured water then in that foam, they put us in that foam and they came with sjamboks and we were beaten. | Full Transcript and References |
| 05:40 | Solomon Mahlangu was one of the many UDF comrades who got a taste of Mbokodo’s venom. He too was taken to the Siyabuswa hall and tortured. // At about 6 pm. They came at the chief minister of that time, mister SS Skosana. Then he asked me several questions then he said to me. ”Mister Mahlangu if you are here, if you are going to tell those people the honest truth then you must know that maybe sometimes you can be safe, but if you are not going to tell them the truth know very well that you are not going home, you are going to be killed.” By that time, there after I was started to be beaten by those Mbokodo youth brigades. But firstly I started to being punched by this man who’s called Mabena. He was one of the bodyguards of the ministers, mister Piet Ntuli. And then I was beaten by those people and they were having pick axes. Some of them were having guns; some of them were wearing sjamboks. They were having many things and some of the members of the vigilante group … they ...more | Full Transcript and References |
| 06:59 | Wherever Mbokodo is you will always see the caspir behind them, you’ll always see the van behind them. They were never really moving alone unless they were going at night when people were … but daylight they would never move alone. And that’s why I agree with all those who are saying Mbokodo and the police were working hand in glove, never really worked in isolation. | Full Transcript |
| 07:30 | The comrades retaliated and KwaNdebele burned. Chris van Niekerk was then in charge of the KwaNdebele police. He was opposed to independence and to the KwaNdebele government’s use of Mbokodo to terrorise the local people. // The KwaNdebele government was actually my boss so I had to kind of obey them, etc. but regarding the Mbokodo I couldn’t do it so on several occasions I went to them and I warned them not to use the Mbokodo to set up roadblocks, to attack people. | Full Transcript and References |
| 08:15 | In Pretoria, Mbokodo’s rampage was becoming a headache and its leader, Piet Ntuli an embarrassment. // Piet Ntuli was originally placed there by the government to become the next chief minister, however he went out of control and it was clear that the government could not detain him in terms of the Act because he would have had a bad influence on other members of the government and hence Piet Ntuli became a poisoned ivy for the South African government and the only way out was to get rid of him. | Full Transcript and References |
| 09:10 | With Piet Ntuli’s assassination things were spinning out of control for the KwaNdebele government. They fired Van Niekerk and replaced him with this man. Brigadier Herzog Lerm was prepared to do what the cabinet asked of him. // Lerm of course came here and made all of Mbokodo special constables so they could proceed with their activities legally under the flag of the police. | Full Transcript |
| 09:42 | I was sent here to heal the breakdown in trust between the RSA government and the KwaNdebele government. | Full Transcript and References |
| 09:53 | Eight days after Lerm’s arrival the speaker of the KwaNdebele’s legislative assembly announced that independence was being thrown into the deep ocean. The battle was lost but the war was not over. The KwaNdebele government only abandoned their dream in 1988. | Full Transcript |
