Amnesty Hearings — Pietermaritzburg — 1997-02-10

MR WILLS: This individual you said was killed, where was he killed?

UNKNOWN: He was killed at Mjeti, at the Chief's place, where there was an Inkatha meeting.

MR WILLS: Who did the community believe killed this individual?

UNKNOWN: The community believed that there were certain people from Eskhwani(?) who were shown by the local residents that this was the man.  Whether he did utter those words or not I am not clear, but he was apparently against the IFP.

MR WILLS: Mr Mzimela, I would like you to listen very carefully to the questions I am asking you.  Was there a belief that a certain political party was behind the killing of this individual, and if so, which political party?

UNKNOWN: It is something that happened.  It was the IFP which had convened a meeting at the Chief's place on that day.  It was directly involved in the killing.

MR WILLS: Can you give the honourable Committee an estimate as to the date of this occurence?

UNKNOWN: I don't think I will be able to be specific, but it was in mid-1990.  Then in December an attack took place, another member of Inkatha,  (name indistinct) Mzimela, was attacked and killed in his house together with his wife as well as his three-month old child.  At that time the Chief had put one of his sons in his position.  According to the information that we got it was discovered that he had been killed because he was a member of the ANC and he was mobilising the people in that area to be members of the ANC.  And they said that he should be killed because
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he was going to make people get aligned with the ANC.  On that day that they attacked his place they went to attack a certain family by the name of Xila, whom it was discovered that they were also ANC aligned.  His name was Xoto Xila.  Luckily they couldn't find him at his place because he had visited a certain place.

MR WILLS: ... any individuals who were involved in this attack on Bonge Nkosi Panana Mzimela?

UNKNOWN: Yes, when we did the follow-up as to how he was killed, we got the people who were involved and they were consequently reported to the police, but their case didn't go any further.

MR WILLS: Do you know the names of those people?

UNKNOWN: I think it is an open secret that the Chiefs had what was called the G3's who were keeping guard over them and on that particular day they were at Chief Lindilize Mzimela Tokosani Nguni.  The guns were taken from them on that day.  They were taken by an induna by the name of Gabathela Dhlamini.  And we asked as to where the guns had been taken to.  He didn't want to explain or elaborate and he was scared, so he couldn't do anything because the guns had been taken by the higher authorities and there was a certain man known by Thawo Xila(?) who was working for the KwaZulu Government and driving the cars.  We discovered that he was one of the people who was driving the cars that had gone to Bongo Nkosi Mzimela's place to attack.  Mlunzani Zungu was an Induna in Makolokolo.  It was discovered later on that he was present as well as Mkhononodaka Gumede.  They were all there and they convened a meeting before then and they used to have camps at his house before launching attacks.  It is the deceased's house.  They used to convene
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meetings at the deceased's house.

MR WILLS: What other incidents would you like to reveal to the Committee?

UNKNOWN: When this took place, when Bonkosi was killed, because they said he should not be a Chief because he was aligned to the ANC, quite a number of other people were his followers and I was also one of his followers.  We were aligned to the ANC and it was clear now that the situation was no longer conducive to being an ANC member.  It was difficult for us to hide ourselves and we ended up showing the community that we were ANC aligned and we did not believe that we had to be killed simply because we were members of the ANC.  It continued.  We spoke to the police, as I have already mentioned some names, but the police never went to arrest those people, not even a single one of them was arrested.  The very same police, Togozani Mguni was arrested but he was released the following day and that was the end of it.  Then in 1991 one comrade by the name of Lucky Mhlongo, who was at Sam's place they went to attack Sam's place and shot Sam there and killed him.  The people who did that were the Indunas Gambaqana Zuma, Mandla Nkosi Jaba Mzimela, Douglas Buza Mzimela as well as other people were present, but they were the prominent leaders.  So that's why I remember their names.   The first problem that we encountered was that as ANC members we were going to be eliminated.  And we remained being aligned to the ANC and we didn't want to have any conflicts with the IFP.  We used to conduct our meetings in the forests because we did not want to be detected by the Chief because the Chief was an IFP member and we kept on mobilising the community and recruiting them in a clandestine manner and they were able
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to give us information as to what the plans were as far as Inkatha was concerned.  
	Then in 1992 the IFP was holding a march at Makolokola what they call Nqabani.  They said that's where they made resolutions that they were going to harass the ANC people.  One of them was Gerhard Vana Mzimela, who was mentioned as the leader of the ANC because in 1991 Harry Gwala and Chris Hani came to Empangeni Hall and he took some of the comrades and that's what made him to be on the wrong side of the Inkatha.  We discovered that through Alfred Nutunhlongo, who was at the meeting that was held at (indistinct) Gumede.  It happened that on the 22nd February 1992 Gerald was driving his car from Mhlangubu.  Because the road was passing at that man's place, he saw the people who were in that meeting but he continued to drive and he proceeded to Maqegana and went to another person called Philemon Ndoda Mzimela to tell him that he had seen Inkatha members conducting a meeting and he said he saw Nontu and he came to warn us that we should take our children away because the Inkatha was going to launch an attack and he left and went to Mhlangubu to another comrade called (indistinct) Zondi.  At about six that afternoon he got those people on the road where they stopped his car and they shot him, he died instantly, and they took his car out of the road and threw it out of the road.  On that very same night another group of men who were armed went to the house of a certain man who was known as a person who mobilised the community.  He also owned a tuck shop and there was a belief that all those people who went into his house to buy were also directly involved in mobilising the community.  And whilst he was inside the tuckshop selling he saw a man who was standing at the 
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doorway and started shooting indiscriminately.  He got under the counter to try and hide himself.  Then he got a chance to escape, but he was not injured in any way.  Unfortunately three people who were there died and some were injured in the attack.  Jongula Mhlongu is one of those who died, Puma Hahlo Mzimela as well as his wife and the others got injured.  And one of the people who got injured was an IFP member.  But since he got injured he realised that the IFP had actually injured him so he changed floors and joined the ANC.

MR WILLS: Just for clarity, Mr Mzimela.   On the 3rd of December 1990, where an individual by the name of Bongo Nkosi Panana Mzimela was killed, is it correct that this individual was in fact your brother?

UNKNOWN: Yes, that was my brother.  We were born from separate mothers but from the same father.

MR WILLS: You also mentioned the death of Gerard Mzimela on the 22nd of the 2nd 1992.  Is it also correct that this Gerard Mzimela was your brother as well?