Amnesty Hearings — Messina — 2000-07-03

MR KOOPEDI: He will testify in English, Chairperson.  MZONDELELE EUTHLID NONDULA:   (sworn states)

CHAIRPERSON: Mr Koopedi.  The application of Mr Nondula appears on page 23 of the bundle.

MR KOOPEDI: Thank you Chairperson.

MR KOOPEDI: Mr Nondula, I'm showing to you page 23 of the bundle of documents.  There is an application form there.  Is this your application form?

MR NONDULA: Yes, it is.

MR KOOPEDI: And I'm also showing you page 28 of the same bundle of documents, there is a signature under which the word "deponent" is written, is that your signature?

MR NONDULA: Yes, it is.

MR KOOPEDI: Now Mr Nondula, were you a member of a political organisation at any stage?

MR NONDULA: Yes, I was.

MR KOOPEDI: Which political organisation?

MR NONDULA: The African National Congress.

MR KOOPEDI: When did you join the African National Congress?

MR NONDULA: In 1982.

MR KOOPEDI: Where did you join the African National Congress?

MR NONDULA: In Lesotho.

MR KOOPEDI: Did you belong to the military wing of the African National Congress?

MR NONDULA: Yes, I was a member of Umkhonto weSizwe.

MR KOOPEDI: Did you receive any military training and if you did, briefly tell this Honourable Committee what military training did you receive and where did you receive it?

MR NONDULA: The first basic training was in Angola, a six month course and from there was in then East Germany and then the other I did was in Tanzania, Commander's course.

MR KOOPEDI: Now after you were trained, did you have an opportunity to be infiltrated into the country?

MR NONDULA: yes.

MR KOOPEDI: And when was this?  When were you infiltrated into the country and perhaps if you could be very broad about that.  Tell this Honourable Committee whether you belonged to any unit then and if so, how many of you were in that unit.

MR NONDULA: That was in 1985 when we were first infiltrated, being a unit of twelve.

MR KOOPEDI: Do you recall the month?

MR NONDULA: November, I think it's November 1985.  What actually transpired is, we were first briefed by our fellow Commander as to the nature of the operation that we were going to undertake, which in this case was landmines.  The briefing went thus:  politically speaking the Soutpansberg area was regarded, now let me say in military terms, the farming community in this area was regarded as the first echelon of defence in the sense that the population there was actually sponsored or even encouraged by the Government to maintain that area as being the trained personnel, therefore in this sense, legitimate targets in the view of MK and the African National Congress.  They were trained as Commandos to safeguard the border area and thus our order was then given to operate in the area.

MR KOOPEDI: Now I need you to get to your infiltration.  Did you belong to any unit?

MR NONDULA: Yes, as I've said, we were a unit of twelve.

MR KOOPEDI: Now who was the Commander of this unit?  Because as you would have it there were people commanding this unit, who was the Commander of this unit?

MR NONDULA: Okay.  The frontal Commander was Mancheck, unfortunately I don't have his real name at this stage.

CHAIRPERSON: Sorry, Mr Nondula, could you spell that?

MR NONDULA: M-A ...(intervention)

CHAIRPERSON: Can you try to spell it?

MR NONDULA: M-A-N-C-H-E-K.

MR KOOPEDI: Chairperson, if I may be of assistance, Mancheck has been spelled with a C-K at the end in a number of amnesty applications.  Thank you.

MR SIBANYONI: Maybe while you are there, you said you were briefed, who briefed you?

MR NONDULA: It was Mancheck himself who briefed us.

MR SIBANYONI: Thank you.

MR NONDULA: And thereafter we were transported to along the borders of Zimbabwe, just across the Limpopo, by the other side of Limpopo river where we stayed and slept overnight.  It was then decided that the unit must be divided into two, meaning six/six, each person carrying a landmine and a rifle and other ...(indistinct)
	The two units now, had to have different Commanders.  On the other unit in which I was in, it was ...(indistinct), he was the Commander.

CHAIRPERSON: Sorry, what was his name?

MR NONDULA: Agrippa.

CHAIRPERSON: Agrippa?

MR NONDULA: Yes, Mr Chairperson.

CHAIRPERSON: Was that a code name?

MR NONDULA: Yes and the other unit then was commanded by Chilies.

CHAIRPERSON: Chilies?

MR NONDULA: Yes, Sir.

CHAIRPERSON: Yes.

MR NONDULA: Then we slept over this side of the river for preparing ourselves for now the actual crossing of the border, which we did the following day at night, I would say around 9, past 9 somewhere there.  Then we went - we travelled deeper into the South, because the instructions were:  "In the area in which you operate, there are patrols, security patrols."  The order then was to lay these mine fields in the roads that are actually used for patrolling the area.  The following day we travelled almost the whole night ...(intervention)

CHAIRPERSON: Sorry.  When you say you travelled, was that on foot?

MR NONDULA: Yes, on foot yes, we walked, I'll say, ...(indistinct)  We slept because we could not operate during the day so we had to ...(indistinct) ourselves somewhere under bushes until it was dusk, then we began walking, moving now towards the border area, the border fence and on instruction, it's unfortunate at this stage I cannot remember the actual spots were certain landmines were laid, but then on instruction of an order, we would dig and then we placed the mine field and then we carry on.  The idea being that they should not be too clustered in case of detection.

CHAIRPERSON: So when you say on instruction you would dig and lay the landmine, in your unit, would you be the person giving the instruction?

MR NONDULA: That was Agrippa.

CHAIRPERSON: Oh, sorry, Agrippa?

MR NONDULA: Yes.

CHAIRPERSON: Yes, Agrippa.

MR NONDULA: Yes and also him, because he was, together with Chilies, the person who initially undertook reconnaissance in the area and I think I should add here that he was, Agrippa in this sense, he was almost familiar with the area itself because of reconnaissance that he had already undertaken.  So we laid these mine fields, all six of them and on the third day, we spent two nights inside, then on the third night we crossed over to Zimbabwe, that must have been on a Wednesday.

CHAIRPERSON: Now when you say you laid the six mines, were these on different roads or all on the same road, but at different places?

MR NONDULA: Not on the same road, different roads that actually lead to the main patrol route along the fence and the last one was actually put there on that patrol route, Mr Chairperson.

CHAIRPERSON: Yes and these mines that you laid, could you describe them?  I know very little about mines, I don't know if they come in different sizes, if some are stronger than others.  If you could just briefly describe the type of mines which you laid.

MR NONDULA: It must have been the weight of more or less 6 kgs, brown of a ...(indistinct) casing, with - now the substance I am not very sure now whether it was meant to be ...(indistinct) mines, it should have been filled up with TNT, I think so.

CHAIRPERSON: If you could just indicate with your hands about the size of the mine.

MR NONDULA: It must have been this size.

CHAIRPERSON: You're indicating about 25 cm, I suppose, just less than a foot.  Would that be round?

MR NONDULA: Ja, it's round and brown.

CHAIRPERSON: Yes, thank you.

MR KOOPEDI: Thank you Chairperson.  You've mentioned that your frontal Commander was Mancheck, but now who would have been the Commander, the actual Commander for this unit, the entire unit of twelve people before you were actually split into two?

MR NONDULA: He was the one.

MR KOOPEDI: Who, Mancheck?

MR NONDULA: Mancheck ja, because all the briefings we got from him, logistical arrangements and that kind of thing.

MR KOOPEDI: Okay.