Amnesty Hearings — Palm Ridge — 1998-11-23

MR SIBEKO: Ma'am I've got a few questions out of what you have just testified.  Now in the questions or the statements that you took from the members of the public, are you in a position to say whether the attacks were between which part of the community and the attack was from which part of the community to who?  To whom was it necessarily directed at?

SALLY SEALEY: In the beginning, in 1990 when the violence first began in the Reef townships, the Witwatersrand, most of the violence began after a call by the Inkatha Freedom Party which at that particular time was not a political party but a cultural movement.
	Most of the violence began when Inkatha decided to form a political party and they began a very aggressive recruitment campaign, particularly in the East Rand hostels.
	Many residents of these East Rand hostels were not prepared to join the Inkatha Freedom Party and they in fact fled those hostels.  Many of them fled into the areas, for example like Polla Park which was right next to the Kalenjoni hostel at the time. 
	Once these people had fled into Polla Park, many of them had fled without their belongings which had remained in the hostel, what happened then is they tried to retrieve those belongings and that is basically where the violence began.  When people tried to retrieve their belongings they were attacked.  
	Originally there was an excellent relationship between the people of Polla Park and the hostel dwellers who stayed at the Kalenjoni hostel.  For example, the Polla Park informal settlement at the time had no access to water and the people of Polla Park used to go into the hostel and use the water which was available in the hostel.
	After the Inkatha Freedom Party declared itself a political party that is when the violence began.  After people tried to retrieve their belongings they were then attacked, the informal settlement was attacked, the residents of the informal settlement at Polla Park then attacked the hostel and it began a whole vicious circle of attack and counter-attack.
	From the statements we could identify that the violence was between residents which supported the African National Congress and those residents which supported the Inkatha Freedom Party.

MR SIBEKO: Now you stated that some of those statements that you took from the members of the public were submitted to the police, are you in a position to say what happened to such statements, were there follow-ups, were there investigations, what happened?

SALLY SEALEY: In the beginning due to the fact that there was no investigation on many of these cases, hence we had the meeting with Political and Violent Crime Unit.  For example we gave them plus minus 200 statements related to the forced removal of residents in the Penduka/Thokoza area, Khatlehong area.  Most of those cases were actually closed undetected.
	Despite the fact that we offered, we informed the detectives that we would be prepared to bring the witnesses to them, witnesses could actually identify perpetrators by name and address, nothing was ever done about those cases.
	There are one or two cases where we were able to, for example the murder of Prince Mhlambe who was an ANC leader in Polla Park, we were able to give the police, assist the police with witnesses on that particular case and for example, a prosecution followed.
	The problem in the township at the time, there was so much violence and a lot of the violence although people could identify the perpetrators from a particular group they couldn't actually identify the perpetrators by name.  And I think that was one of the problems that the police experienced at the time.
	So despite many of our efforts very often we were unable to identify the specific people that were involved and - ja, basically that ...

MR SIBEKO: Finally Ma'am, are you in a position to say or are you in a position to know as to how did these Self Defence Units come into existence?

SALLY SEALEY: Basically there were two phases to the defence of Thokoza.  Originally in 1990 when the violence began there were no Self Defence Units in the East Rand.
	Primarily what happened in the beginning is that returning members of Umkhonto weSizwe tried to organise cells of people to try and defend the community and initially that is how the units began to evolve.
	However later when people began to become more organised, residents started collecting money and this money was then used to purchase weapons.  These weapons were purchased from areas like Polla Park, areas like the Vosloorus hostel.  These weapons were then purchased by the community to be used in defence.
	Shortly after that, towards about the end of 1992, the beginning of 1993, a document was developed by the African National Congress entitled "For the Sake of our Lives".  That is when the Self Defence Units started to become a bit more organised.  In Thokoza for example a Central Command was set up.  
	Now the Central Command consisted of 14 sections.  The Thokoza township was divided up into 14 sections, Lusaka-A being one of those sections.  Each section had a commander and a deputy commander which sat at the Central Command level. Also at the Central Command level the political leadership of the ANC, the South African Communist Party as well as the civics had a representation at the Central Command.	  How the central - the Central Command used to meet every Tuesday at a local school. 
	Now the way the Central Command worked - sorry, the Central Command also had an overall commander by the name of Bonga Nkosi.  It also had a secretary by the name Seko Thulo.  It also had a head of logistics, Sydney Nemorani and a deputy commander, Michael Lucky Siepe.  Then each section had a commander which represented the SDUs from that area.
	Each of those commanders that represented the 14 sections had a certain amount of autonomy.  Obviously when they were faced with attack they couldn't run to the central command to get orders, so basically they relied on their own commander to issue orders down to the SDU members.  So when they used to meet on a Tuesday they then would report back to the Central Command the activities of the week and what had been happening.
	Also the Self Defence Unit commanders were issued with walkie-talkie radios and hence there was communication between the various sections.  So if for example Penduka, which is the area closest to the hostel and which has been named Thambo and Slovo Sections, is the area that most affected by the violence.  Often they would radio for reinforcements to the other sections and then the commanders would send  his Self Defence Units to those areas.
	So the Central Command didn't necessarily act as a war cabinet issuing out orders and commands to the various Self Defence Units, it was more of a co-ordinating body which co-ordinated the activities of the Self Defence Units.
	It also acted in many senses as a, people were allowed - for example, if there were any complaints about Self Defence units, for example if a Self Defence Unit member had fired a firearm unnecessarily or had pointed it at, had pointed it at someone or had used the weapon for criminal activities then that issue would be raised at the Central Command level and they would try to resolve that issue there.

MR SIBEKO: Thank you, Mr Chairman, I don't have any further questions.
NO FURTHER QUESTIONS BY MR SIBEKO

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Mr Sibeko.  Advocate Steenkamp, do you have any questions?

ADV STEENKAMP: Mr Chairman, if you would allow me just two questions.
	Miss Sealey, according to the Commission, the Truth Commission's final report, the Commission has found that between the years 1990 to 1994 the ANC was responsible for contributing to a spiral of violence in the country throughout by specifically the creation of, and of the arming of the SDUs.  Do you have any comment on that?