Amnesty Hearings — Johannesburg — 1998-09-17

NKOSINATHI MPUMELELO MVIJANE: Before I got to know Moss, I grew up being a delinquent and I was involved in gangsterism and stealing cars.  I even got arrested for car theft as well as rape, two counts of rape.  As time went on Moss came to me.  It was the first time I saw him.  It was myself, Lulamile as well as Doctor when we were visited by Moss.  We were smoking dagga when he got to my place, that is where I was staying with my mother.  We were quite surprised as to what his visit entailed, but he wanted us to share the joint with him, that is the dagga joint.  We gave it to him.  He also requested us to give him some more of the dagga because he was not satisfied with the one that he got from us.  We explained to him that it was finished.  Then he gave us a R50,00 note to buy some more dagga.  Lulamile Kkwankwa took the money and he went to buy some more dagga.  Lulamile Khwankwa came back with the dagga and we smoked and also bought food with the money from Moss.
	And Moss at that stage started asking me as to which political organisations I belonged to or we belonged to.  I told him that we were not involved in any politics, but I had a desire to join or support the PAC.  And he asked me as to what we were doing idling in the location.  I told him that I was involved in gangsterism and he explained to me that it was not a good idea for me to belong to a gangster or a group of criminals, and he further asked me to stop being a member of the gangster.  I agreed with him, because what he was saying to me was quite true and that's when I realised the mistakes that I had committed before as a growing young man, and I was recruited by Moss.  
	He asked me as to whether I was able to use a firearm and I told him that I was not able to because I had never handled a firearm before.  He asked me whether I knew how to handle an AK47.  I told him that I'd never seen an AK.  And he asked me as to whether I had a desire to see or handle it.  I agreed with him and said I wanted to see the AK47.  
	He further explained to me that he does not have a place to stay and he wanted to stay with me.  But I explained it to him that we had hired the place which was not our own place and we shared the house with the people who stayed there, that is the owners of the house.  So I was not able to give him a place of abode.  Maybe if I could get my own place we could share.  I talked to the owners of the house who explained that if he was not a problematic person he could join us in that house.  So we stayed together with Moss, though I don't remember as to what the date was when we started staying together and what month it was.  
	I stayed with Moss and he let me into the secrets of the PAC and also made me politically aware and conscious of the political climate that existed at that time.  He told me that the enemies were police, soldiers, as well as all the other people who were working for the previous regime.  He explained to me that he wanted myself, Lulamile as well as Doctor to be members of the PAC who were going to fight for the black nation against the oppressive Government rather than being criminals.

MR MBANDAZAYO: Thank you.  Mr Chairman, I will proceed to paragraph 6 as he has already covered also paragraph 5.
"At the time he had two AK47s, Makarov pistol and two stick grenades.  He told us PAC and APLA do not have enough funds to buy weapons.  It is therefore going to be the duty of the unit to repossess arms from the State, that is SADF, SAP, traffic officers and any other law enforcement agents and also from the white people who were benefitting from the oppressive system of apartheid.  Moss told us that the South African Defence Force, SAP and traffic officer were the main pillars of apartheid and they have to be attacked and render the system of apartheid unworkable because the whites will no longer have confidence to the State if the people who are supposed to protect them are unable to protect themselves.  Moss told us that he was reporting his action to the director of operations, Leklapa Mpampahlele.  He told us that it will be our duty that at night we will patrol the street looking for police to attack them and repossess their weapons.  On the night of the 19th August 1991 we patrolled the street looking for the target.  It was Moss armed with AK47, myself armed with Makarov, Lulamile armed with Chinese stick grenade and also Doctor armed with Chinese stick grenade.  We could not find the target until in the morning and Moss ordered us to go to our respective places.  Moss and Lulamile went to their respective places and in the case of Moss he went to my home.  Myself, I accompanied Doctor to his home.  On our way we saw the traffic officer in the street and we decided to disarm him.  I told the traffic officer not to move and he tried to draw his pistol and I shot him.  Doctor took the pistol and we ran away.  On the way we met Lulamile who asked us what was happening and we told him what had happened, and I asked him to go to the place of the incident and check whether there are no people who saw us.  We went to my home where we made a report to Moss.  Lulamile came back and told us that there was a young boy who was talking to the police and told them who shot the traffic officer.  We then decided that we must leave the place and we left with Zinzeni Zulu ...(intervention)

NKOSINATHI MPUMELELO MVIJANE: Sorry.  There is a mistake somewhere somehow.  It's not Zinzeni Zulu, it's Mduzeni Zulu.  That is the boy who stayed in the same yard where I was staying.

MR MBANDAZAYO: Thank you, Mr Chairman.  Zinzeni Zulu, Mr Chairman, there was a mistake.  It's another Zulu who testified in court.  That's Zinzeni that one.  This one was Mbuzeni Zulu, the one in this.

NKOSINATHI MPUMELELO MVIJANE: ...[no Englsih translation]

MR MBANDAZAYO: Yes, it's Mbuzeni.  It's Mbuzeni this one, Mr Chairman.  Thank you.
"We then decided that we must leave the place and we left with Mbuzeni Zulu who promised to provide us with accommodation.  We went to Klipspruit in the house of his relative.  We asked the owner to keep the Makarov and the traffic officer's gun.  After some time we saw the police and traffic officers' vehicles stopping outside.  We decided to shoot them, but before we did that Moss noticed that there was a woman and it was my mother.  We then ran away through the back door.  We went to Meadowlands and we slept there, and the following day Moss left to attend another APLA cadre who was suffering from malaria.  We also went to Pimville, that is Klipspruit, to take the trafficker's pistol and on our way back we boarded a minibus taxi and it was stopped by the police and we were arrested.  We were assaulted by the police and we had to say something to save our skins.  Hence we made statements which were not, Mr Chairman, perfectly correct."
That's a typographical error.
"Which were not perfectly correct as we wanted to satisfy them."
Now, Mr Mvijane, can you take the Commission through the process.  What happened after you were arrested and assaulted?  What happened thereafter?