Amnesty Hearings — Potchefstroom — UNKNOWN

DLANJWA GCINISIZWE: I'm talking about the South African Youth Congress. On the 23rd of August 1990, we were to have a meeting.  Okay let me go a bit further back, before the 23rd of August there was a meeting organised somewhere in July, it was an organised mass meeting. That mass meeting, it was going to discuss about the invitation to the MDM coming from the policemen who were based at the location, there was a threat and a rumour around the location that the houses of
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the police would be burned down because of the murder Hendrick Mkwanasi who was murdered by the police by two policemen and the house of one of the policemen was burned down. There was that threat that the policemens' houses would be burned down.  We had a meeting as MDM structures whether to accept the invitation or reject it after the invitation of the police.  Then we could not reach an agreement as to whether we should reject or accept that because of political implications of it.  Then we decided to take the matter to the mass meeting and indeed we did call the mass meeting to discuss the issue.  Whilst we were busy debating this issue in this mass meeting Nzimeni and his group arrived.  They had pangas and knives.  They had all the weapons you can think of that are dangerous except for guns, and they had car tyres around their necks which is a necklace symbol, in the past. They said we are selling them out as leadership and we are selling them out to our killers.  They threatened to attack us then and there. Nomazwe Chonemane, who used to work in the Lawyers for Human Rights who was there in the meeting as a resident of Kuma now she's a member of parliament in the North West Region, she tried to speak to Nzimeni and his group that the issue has not yet been finalised, we are still debating the issue and they must just be part and parcel of the deliberations of the meeting. And if ever you're reject it, just try and be available.  They did not want to take Nomazwe Jomela's advice.  We decided as leadership then and there that we must just recess.  That I knew him as a member of the South African Youth Congress is because he used to be present in our meetings and he was present in that meeting on that particular day but the manner and the approach that he used, 1A.	I/...
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I started suspecting him personally that there was something that was just not proper with him. But my analysis about him was not conclusive as such.  Thereafter we went to Mary Agnes' house then we discussed a few things furthermore, because there was the issue of the rent in the location that we were still discussing. And on the 23rd of August 1990, we were going to discuss the issue of rent in the location.  We were going to have a mass meeting in the local stadium.  We were preparing for the mass meeting that was to be on the 26th of August 1990. On arrival at the meeting in the local creche, the meeting didn't materialise because of the absence of certain key figures that were going to be there in the preparation of this mass meeting or mass rally. On the 26th of August or just before that, on our way out to Mary Agnes to try and contact these leaders that were absent, we met Nzimeni and his group being armed with these pangas and kerries and knives, they were having food and tinned stuff and bread.  We met them between creche and shops just in the open, being the leadership in the location they stopped us to find out that we did get the permission to use the stadium.  Mary Agnes Kunwana did explain to them that the permission issue of the stadium will be sorted out and they told that it is wanted urgently. We wondered as to what is happening.  We enquired as to where they were going to.  They just told us that they were monitoring in the location.  Having passed the shops, the shops were still open, they were carrying food and firearms. We suspected that there was something that they might have done. We enquired in the shopowners as to what happened. They told us that there were people who claimed that they were comrades and took food forcefully from their shops.  Then we went 
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back to Mary Agnes' house.  Then we discussed informally that these people, they are not comrades, they cannot be called comrades and (Tape 1A ends....)
......prepared for the meeting to be held on the 26th of August. I was assigned to go an get permission to use the stadium from the Chief Magistrate.  I was on very good terms with the Chief Magistrate of Klerksdorp.  In most cases we are not allowed to use stadiums in the location, particularly the police, they didn't like the idea, I don't know why. Then I came back with the permission to use the stadium.  It was on Friday when I came with the permission.  On the 26th of August, in the morning, my father woke me up to say that I've got a phone call from Mary Agnes. Mary Agnes told me to arrive at her house urgently.  Then I hurried there.  On my arrival I found certain ANC leaders in the location.  When I enquired if there was any problem they told me that Nzimeni came into Mary Agnes' house with a large group at about half past four in the morning, being heavily armed with pangas and they explained to Mary Agnes that no leader of MDM will be allowed to talk with the residents in the township. No leader's going to address that mass meeting on that day, and they demanded a sound speaker that we used to use in mass meetings and it belonged to Mary Agnes' sister who was staying in Johannesburg, for use in our meetings and they demanded that they will be back to collect them.  So we sat and waited.  They came, these people, with people that were being intimidated to join that group, to go to the stadium. That group just showed that they were heavily armed.  They went into Mary Agnes' street and I was terrified and quiet and one of them did ask me as to why am I so quiet. I just wanted to know as to what should I say.  1B.	He/...
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He told me that he must use the speaker.  I told him that you've got the speaker, we'll give you the speaker.  I told him that Derek Kosi, who was a member of the ANC and who was in the leadership as well will transport it with his car.  They said no, there's too many soldiers out there. So therefore they carried the speaker to the stadium.  Most of the people who were there, you could actually see that they were intimidated.  They looked surprised and confused, they did not know what was happening. They saw that here's the leadership that we've chosen, but what is actually happening?  Some of us came back to us, they never actually reached the stadium.  Those who came back, they told us that they were being taken forcefully out of the house with knives and pangas. One of these cases we referred to the police station, that it should deal with those matters, we don't have the power to deal with those. Then we proceeded to the stadium and we sat down as the leadership to discuss some of these issues, particularly in relation as to what was happening at that time regarding Nzimeni's issue and his group.  We came to a conclusion that we must go to a main hall because there was a meeting of National Union for Mine Workers.  When we got there we explained the situation to the comrades of the mines.  The workers gave us 50 marshals and two leaders of National Union of Mine Workers and go to the stadium and try and find out as to what is happening and what's Nzimeni's problem, because you know him as a member of the Youth Congress.  When we got to the stadium with the marshals, two leaders of the National Union of Mine Workers, they got to the podium to try and talk to Nzimeni. Nzimeni made his point very clear that these things have got nothing to do with the mines, it's a location issue