Amnesty Hearings — Pinetown — 1999-12-13

CHAIRPERSON: We're now going to start with the application of Clarence Mbongeni Majola, is that correct?

MS PATEL: That is correct, Honourable Chairperson.

CHAIRPERSON: As requested before for the sake of those preparing the record, I would ask the Members of the Committee to put themselves on record and then ask the legal representatives to do the same.

ADV SIGODI: Advocate Sigodi from the Amnesty Committee.

MR LAX: Ilan Lax, Amnesty Committee, from Pietermaritzburg.

MR PANDAY: Thank you, Mr Chairman.  The name is Mr ...(indistinct) Panday, I appear on behalf of the applicant, instructed by the TRC.

MS PATEL: Ramula Patel, Leader of Evidence.

UNKNOWN: Shireen Jelal, representing the families of the victims.

CHAIRPERSON: Right, shall we commence.  Mr Panday?

MR PANDAY: Thank you, Mr Chairman.  I think the applicant has to be sworn in.

CHAIRPERSON: Very well.

MBONGENI CLARENCE MAJOLA: (sworn states)

ADV SIGODI: Sworn in, Chairperson.

MR LAX: Thanks, Mr Panday.

MR PANDAY: Thank you, Mr Chairman.
	Mr Majola, is it correct that you are applying for amnesty in respect of the murders of Mavis and Oswald?

MBONGENI CLARENCE MAJOLA: That's correct.

MR PANDAY: Is it further correct that you are currently serving a term of imprisonment, that being 20 years?

MBONGENI CLARENCE MAJOLA: That's correct.

MR PANDAY: Mr Majola, is it also correct that you were born on the 14th of March 1954?

MBONGENI CLARENCE MAJOLA: That's correct.

MR PANDAY: Now Mr Majola, at the time of the killing of the two victims, did you belong to any political party?

MBONGENI CLARENCE MAJOLA: Yes.

MR PANDAY: And what was the name of the political party?

MBONGENI CLARENCE MAJOLA: The ANC.

MR PANDAY: How long were you a member of the ANC?

MBONGENI CLARENCE MAJOLA: I joined in 1990.

MR PANDAY: And what was your position in the ANC?

MBONGENI CLARENCE MAJOLA: I was a member of the ANC Recruiting Committee.

MR PANDAY: And in which area were you a member?

MBONGENI CLARENCE MAJOLA: In Block 3, Area 8 of Nduzuma(?)

MR PANDAY: Mr Majola, did you have anyone senior to report to?

MBONGENI CLARENCE MAJOLA: The Chairperson was Dumisani Mabuzela(?)

MR PANDAY: Mr Majola, as the ANC recruiting officer, what were your primary duties?

MBONGENI CLARENCE MAJOLA: It was to recruit members for the ANC in the area.  I was also Chairperson of Block 3.

MR PANDAY: When you refer to yourself as the Chairperson of Block 3, would you like to clarify your status as Chairperson of Block 3.

MBONGENI CLARENCE MAJOLA: As a Chair I called a meeting on the 7th of April 1991.

MR PANDAY: Now Mr Majola, being the Chair of Block 3, you mentioned that on the 7th of April 1991, you called a meeting.  Now what was the purpose of this meeting?

MBONGENI CLARENCE MAJOLA: The purpose was to discuss the development of the area, so that we could get running water and the erection of roads.

MR PANDAY: And in Block 3, were there any other political parties that were active?

MBONGENI CLARENCE MAJOLA: Yes, there was IFP.

MR PANDAY: You say there was the IFP, was the IFP still present in Block 3 when you were the Chairman?

MBONGENI CLARENCE MAJOLA: When I arrived there the IFP started attacking people and they were removed by the police ...(indistinct)

MR PANDAY: And who had seen to their removal, or who approached the police to have them removed from the area?

MBONGENI CLARENCE MAJOLA: I went to the SADF in Newtown A.

MR PANDAY: Now Mr Majola, do you know who was the head of the IFP in that area?

MBONGENI CLARENCE MAJOLA: Yes.

MR PANDAY: Please give us his name.

MBONGENI CLARENCE MAJOLA: It was Mr Ngobo(?)

MR PANDAY: Now Mr Majola, I'm going to refer you to the 7th of April 1991, this is the date on which Mavis and Oswald were killed.  Could you explain to the Committee the sequence of events that had taken place and that had led to the killing of these two people.

MR PANDAY: I called a meeting in the morning.  The agenda was around the development of the area, that is after a meeting we had held with Mr Mxenga who was in the township development office.  When the meeting commenced there was a dispute arising out of inviting soldiers to come and protect the contractors who would be erecting the roads.  That was when Mr Oswald and Mavis raised the issue that we should approach an Inyanga at Eshowe or alternatively approach the KZP in KwaMashu, to protect the area.
	A dispute arose on that because ANC members who were present at the meeting were not in agreement with Oswald's suggestion.  I then sent about 10 people to his home because it had become clear that he was siding with Mr Ngobo, who was an IFP member.  
	I then sent these 10 people to his home.  On their arrival there they searched his home and they returned with a home-made firearm as well as some muti which was in a basket.  It was at that time that the people present were uneasy about Mr Mbuyisa. I questioned him as to what we should do on finding these items. He suggested that he should be exiled to Lindelani where Mr Ngobo was residing.
	As he was saying this the comrades that were present disputed the suggestion on the basis that he would go to Lindelani and return with some of his comrades, who would then attack us.  As Mr Mbuyiselwa - I was still standing there, Mbuyiselwa had the firearm on him and the comrades who were present at the meeting then assaulted Mr Mbuyisa as well as his wife Mavis Bengu.  
	After they were assaulted and as I was still standing there, Mr Mbuyiselwa Mlangene who was also my co-accused, then shot him at the back.  He shot him with the same firearm that had been found at his home.  The people then scattered and ran away.  
	Mavis also fled towards another direction and some people, a group of comrades, pursued her and they caught up with her and she was killed and a tyre was put around her neck and she was burnt.  Mr Oswald's home was also burnt down.
	On that same day I went to the SADF in Newtown A and reported that two IFP people who had tried to destabilise our meeting had been killed.  They said they are going to come and investigate, but the did not turn up.
	On the following day they also didn't arrive, they only arrived on the Tuesday morning.  And as we went to the scene, the police also arrived and I was arrested by the KZP Police.  One of them pointed a firearm at me and said I should eat Mavis's flesh, who had been badly burnt.  He said I should eat her flesh because I was responsible for that death.
	They assaulted me, arrested me and I was taken to the police station at KwaMashu.  On my arrival there I was also assaulted.  The deceased's child pointed me out at the police station.  On that same day I was told to go and identify some of my colleagues who had been present when these people were killed.  Because the meeting had been held in Block 3 and the incident had happened there, I went and pointed out my comrades in Block 3, Mbuyiselwa, Mahlango, Mapumulo and Ndlovu, as well as Thembisa Ngobesa, as well as somebody called Xaba.  They were all my co-accused.  After we were all assaulted at the police station in KwaMashu we were forced to make a statement, because we were accused of killing people in Nduzuma.
	I then reported to ANC lawyers in Durban.  I sent Gideon Mtetwa to contact ANC lawyers on my behalf.  One arrived at Verulam and represented me there.

MR PANDAY: Now Mr Majola, when it was discovered that the two victims, Mavis and Oswald, were siding with Ngobo, what was the reaction of the people and the comrades?

MBONGENI CLARENCE MAJOLA: They were all very troubled, such that they insisted that they should be killed because they supported the same person who was responsible for killing us in the area.

MR PANDAY: Now when you say they supported the same person, do you refer to Ngobo?

MBONGENI CLARENCE MAJOLA: Yes, they were supporting Mr Ngobo.  They supported Mr Ngobo, the two, Mavis and Oswald.