Human Rights Violation Hearings — Pietermaritzburg — UNKNOWN

UNKNOWN: Under threat of sanctions, a declining economy and military reversals in Angola, South Africa moved to modernise racial discrimination through the tricamerel parliamentary system for whites, coloureds and Indians, and some form of limited representations for blacks not in the so-called independent states.  This move was resolutely opposed by Inkatha and the United Democratic Front, which was formed in opposition to the tricamerel proposals.  When this parliamentary system was approved it needs to be recognised that it had an underbelly, which was an octopus like state security management system, that had taken over huge sections of government at all levels, and was designed to deal with protest and rebellion without giving the tricamerel system a bad name.  The new strategy was essentially one of repression through management and destabilisation techniques that operated secretly and extra-legally.  The so-called joint management centres operated even in the smallest of towns.
Unfortunately by now relationships between Inkatha and the left were cold, and any hope of some kind of concordat between Inkatha and UDF were doomed.  The UDF was already mobilising very successfully among, particularly, the youth in the urban townships of the Natal Midlands, and this struggle was to become the seed for the violent conflict of the mid-80s and the early 90s.  However, it needs to be noted that what was essentially a political conflict, and which was allowed to develop for various reasons, fed on various fractures and breaks and faults within the Natal Midlands, and these fractures included such things as housing shortages, transports costs, the cutting out of Imbali and Ashdown townships from Pietermaritzburg Municipality, the role of Inkatha supporting town councillors in the Government-imposed black local authorities, and the conflict between Inkatha and the UDF, the trade union movements, Inkatha's reaction to school unrest and boycotts, the rise of vigilante groups associated with Inkatha and backed by the police, the intolerance of opposition by the KwaZulu Inkatha authorities, and of course, finally, the conflict between the United Democratic Front and the Black Consciousness Movement.   
In the early 80s the schools became a site of struggle, and there was enormous conflict between more conservative, older people, and young people intent on radical change.  Gradually relationships worsened between the two movements.  Many of the events related to this worsening situation are linked to the May 1985 boycotts of firms in Pietermaritzburg in sympathy with the strikers at the Sarmcol Rubber Factory in Howick.  This strike arose out of an attempt to gain recognition for the union.  All the African workers in this factory were fired, and it led to enormous conflict in this region.   In addition the states of emergency were used almost exclusively as a means of attacking the UDF by the police.  Inkatha was able to flout the emergency regulations at will.  And as an example of that I give the example of what happened on the 24th of August 1985, when 100 armed vigilantes came from a meeting addressed by KwaZulu Legislative Assembly member, VV Ndlovu, and urged the community to get rid of the Federal Theological Seminary, which they claimed had fomented unrest and harboured criminals, that is people associated with Imbali Civic.  They were led by the mayor of Imbali, an Inkatha leader, the chairman of the Inkatha branch, and the VV Ndlovu himself.  They told Dr Mgojo, the Commissioner present here, and the President of the Assembly at that time, that if the seminary was not empty by the following Friday it would be burnt to the ground.  Now, what this indicates is that a meeting, a gathering with intimidatory intent was allowed to take place without any police action, and evidence began to accumulate that the State security services were increasingly partisan in their approach to the political conflict.  They let Inkatha vigilante groups act with impunity.
During this period, during the period of emergency rule, there were frequent allegations of assault and torture of detainees.  The police supported and protected vigilantes who had committed crimes against what the police perceived as the enemies of the State, namely the UDF and COSATU.  A good example of this support was the apparent enthusiasm with which certain members of the Security Police, notably Warrant-Officer Rolf Barber, procured guns for Inkatha vigilantes in the Imbali area.  Some of these guns were subsequently used in political murders.
The tension developed further.  Again a clear example of police partisanship relates to the events in the Mphopomeni township near Howick in December 1985 soon after the formation of COSATU in November 1985, which undoubtedly was seen as a threat both by the Security Forces and by business interests.  After the strike I've already mentioned the consumer boycott raised tension in the town.  It was often enforced by young comrades.  The finale to this conflict and this strike was the bussing in of a 200-strong Inkatha group into the township of Mphopomeni, which was the home of many Sarmcol workers, on the evening 5 ... (incomplete - end of Side A) ... was then escorted out of the township by the police.  Within a day or two three of the perpetrators were arrested after a professional investigation by the Howick Police, but they were then ordered to release the three accused by high ranking police officials.  The inquest findings delivered in March 1988 found nine named Inkatha members were responsible for the murders, against whom as yet there have been no prosecutions.  One of them was Vela Mchunu, who together with about 200 other Inkatha KwaZulu men had recently had South African Defence Force Special Forces military training in the Caprivi, and clearly the training of 200 men for offensive operations against the ANC, UDF and related organisations is itself the subject of the ongoing Magnus Malan and others' trial.  Whatever the outcome of this trial the evidence led suggests that a hidden hand or third force played a malignant conspirational role in the Midlands conflict.
/INTERPRETER

INTERPRETER: This conflict between IFP and the community began when the Government implemented the tricamerel government, and this meant that we had laws for Indians, coloureds and blacks.  These laws were suppressing people.  UDF and Inkatha didn't want to accept this.  As time went on Inkatha and UDF started having conflicts between each other.  This was because they couldn't see through one eye, but they all agreed that they needed houses, transportation.  Inkatha was against strikes, school boycotts, consumer boycott, and workers' strikes.  Inkatha fought against these.  The Government wished - there was a state of emergency implemented.  At that time what was noticed was that the state of emergency only applied to blacks.  We remember the meeting that the Inkatha Freedom Party had in 1985 where it was discussed that a college should be closed, a ministerial college, because they were also fighting against the state of emergency.  Dr Khosa Mgojo was at that college at that time.
One other thing that was used to segregate black people was the way that the police worked.  They were siding with the Inkatha Freedom Party so that they suppress other political organisations.  That caused cracks in liberation movements.  Many people died.  They were killed by people trained by the Inkatha Freedom Party in Caprivi.  The testimony was quite clear that these people had been cleared by Inkatha members, but there was absolutely nothing done about that.