Amnesty Hearings — Durban — 1998-10-21

M R NDLOVU: We discussed this matter with Tabani and he told me that after receiving this information that this person supplies weapons to the ANC.  I should try and find out information.  He said he had also worked at kwaMashu Police Station.  I said that I will try and trace this person Sumusesu Gumede and he said I should try indeed to trace him and try to find out if he does work at the kwaMashu Police Station because he was the one behind our attacks at Mpumuza.  I did this as he had instructed me and because he was a youth leader.  I then left for kwaMashu and I did discover that he indeed worked at the police station as a reservist at the police station.  I then reported to my brother that yes I had found out about Sumusesu Gumede and he said that it fine, he would then try that we meet and we obtain a vehicle that will transport us to go attack him because we could not get hold of him Kaluza.  They would sometimes meet at Kaluza when he came to bring the weapons but there were a lot of people around that area including women and children therefore other people would get hurt, people who were innocent if we actually attacked him there, but because we wanted just him alone we decided that we should go and attack him at kwaMashu.  We then planned this in 1991 on the 16th April, that we should proceed to the kwaMashu Police Station where we found out there was where Mr Gumede worked.  Tabani said that we should try and contact Mr Patrick Zondo who was on good terms with him, who could help us in supplying a vehicle for us to transport us to Durban.  I had also discovered that this person used to work at the school, Tandakwazi was a school in kwaMashu, doing the night shift 6 to 6.  We left my home and we went to Mr Zondo at the Mpumuza area and Tabani asked him to transport us to Durban but we did not give Mr Zondo the entire information that we were going to attack this person.  Tabani told him that he was going to see a friend in Durban.  We could not divulge everything we had to Mr Zondo because we did not completely trust him to keep the information to himself.
	Mr Zondo agreed to take us.  We then used his car and proceeded to Durban to kwaMashu where we would find Mr Gumede.  We left Pietermaritzburg at about 5 p.m. and arrived at kwaMashu at about quarter past 6 in the evening.  We parked our car opposite the school, Tandakwazi, and my brother said I should get off and I alighted from the car and I looked around and I realised that he had not arrived as yet so we decided to go back to the police station because the police vehicles would transport people who were going to do guard duties around the area, therefore it could be that maybe they had not left the police station.  We went back to the police station.  We met a certain man and I enquired if the guards had left and he said, yes it seems like the had left.  We then returned to the school where he was supposed to be, that is Mr Gumede.  When we arrived near the school we saw this person approaching from the hostel, approaching the school.  We sat in the car and he went into the school where he was supposed to do his guard duties.  We told Mr Zondo that we were returning shortly and we left him in the car.
	My brother and I went in and I showed him, I pointed him out the school.  I stood outside the school and my brother went in and he called out to him.  Mr Gumede seemed surprised when my brother called him to come to him and he tried to run away and my brother still tried to call him.  My brother drew his gun, he fired a shot, he missed him and Mr Gumede ran away.  He followed him, fired another shot and Mr Gumede fell.  He shot him at the back of the head and Mr Gumede fell.  We then went back to the car.  On our way back to the car I told him that we are sometimes attacked by people from the townships.  If you leave that gun behind and there is a bus stop nearby where he fell there will be people around, it could happen that those people would pick up this gun and use it to attack other areas.  I told him that we should not leave the gun behind because somebody else may see it and take it and use it elsewhere and it could be used in attacking other people, other IFP supporters or even ourselves and my brother agreed with me and we decided that we should take that gun.
	Tabani picked up the gun and we went into the car.  We told him that we had found our friend and then we had to return.  We then returned to Pietermaritzburg to the Mpumuza area.  Mr Zondo dropped us at home and he proceeded to his home and we thanked him for his assistance.
	Tabani was very pleased with my information because the ANC had gained strength because of the assistance that they had received from this person.  Our members were even afraid and people were afraid of joining the IFP.  I was also happy that we could find this person and we felt that the violence maybe will subside because this person was the one behind the supplying of the weapons that were used in the conflict.
	After a while, in 1992, it was discovered that the people who had killed Mr Gumede were now known to the police, that is myself, Tabani and Mr Zondo.  I do not know how this information leaked to the police, I just heard that Mr Zondo had been arrested in Durban and I was also being sought by the police.  I was also arrested with regards to the crime and I was charged and convicted.  Tabani was also arrested with regards to the same incident.  In 1992 we were released on bail.  During the same year in June, on the 3rd, police arrived, that is from the ...[indistinct] Police Station.  They said that they had gotten information.

CHAIRPERSON: Sorry, is it back on?  The interpretation just went off for a little while but I think it's back on.  Yes, carry on, sorry Mr Ndlovu.

MR DE KLERK: Thank you Mr Chairman.  Mr Ndlovu, were you then subsequently charged in the High Court and convicted?

CHAIRPERSON: I think you were saying the police arrived after you were released on bail.  What happened then?  I think there was something he was going to say.  Probably about ...[inaudible]