Human Rights Violation Hearings — Duduza — 1997-02-04

MR V MAZIBUKO: I can point out that quite a number of things were covered up by Titus.   That is with regard to the incident itself as that is what we referred to as the zero hundred hour, that is from the media as well as through the confessions of Mamasela, but the picture that I want to paint before this Commission was the situation that prevailed at that time as well as the reason for the targeting of most of the people that got involved later on in the squads, that is in Duduza,  Sakane as well as Kwatema.  When this took place, as Titus had already explained, that it was between 1984 and 1985, the situation was such that we realised that the areas within the Vaal, there was an outbreak of boycotts and Duduza was not an exception at that time and the way Duduza took up the struggle in February 1985 was such that we were staging demonstrations against the bucket system.  The organisation that was prominent at that time was not the Civic Organisation.  The Civic Association of Duduza was being pushed by COSAS and this resulted in the fact that most of the civic leaders in Duduza were aligning themselves more with COSAS, because the structure itself had problems in functioning and in the boycott that was staged with regard to the bucket system, many people who took part were members of the COSAS.  That is in 1985 I was a Chairperson of the COSAS in Duduza and John Emlangeni was the Secretary, the Publicity Secretary of COSAS and Tokizane Lala was working as an Executive and Humphrey Tshabalala was involved in Entertainment Committee.
 We were actually employing different strategies in the 
COSAS and some of the Comrades who were in Kwatema, that is 
Comrade Congress was a Chairperson of the COSAS in Kwatema and he was coming back from the Sasol Organisation and ASASO which was working closely with COSAS and he was coming from the University of Zululand and he use to fill us in with regard to the struggle so that we could continue.  At that time the situation that prevailed was that Comrade Ngungun Yani, who also died in that incident, was also a former Chairperson of the COSAS.  Machodi was also an Executive member heading the Cultural Desk of COSAS and Comrade Osborn Lamini was one of the Comrades who were dealing with disciplinary measures against members.  
 What I am trying to highlight before this Commission is the calibre of the targets and Joe Mamasela thought that he could wipe the leadership of COSAS so that we could be left with a vacuum.  So, as the reign of terror was conducted it became well known as to who their targets were.  The situation after the bucket system was that a certain boy was shot and it was COSAS which was prominent in that area.  After that boy had been shot, that is Lucky Nkwinazi, thereafter there were certain incidents that took place that followed each other which led to Duduza being ungovernable and after Lucky Nkwinazi had been shot and just before a funeral could be arranged, more than 20 members of the COSAS group were arrested.  They were charged with public violence and following that myself and Comrade John as well as the other ones I am sitting with, we were detained under Section 50, that is the Internal Security Act.  We were told that we were furthering the aims of a banned organisation.  We stayed there for 14 days in detention.  Some of us were tortured, some were assaulted and some were injured and we 
discovered later on that what they were actually arresting us for was for mobilising the community towards a certain group.  
 Thereafter the white people realised that, let me just divert and go out of the issue, talk with regard to Titus's issue and the Tobela family.  Comrade Sonto Tobela was a Secretary for the COSAS group.  She was an additional member and Mr Tobela himself was our co-worker because apart from being a member, I was a student's committee member which was dealing mainly with regard to age restrictions with regard to admission of students at certain schools.  We were also fighting for the rights of SRC members.  These members were also detained under the Section 50 of Internal Security Act and when they were released and when Mr Tobela's house was attacked, that is when Sonto was killed and comrade Saneli.  This brought here in the community that these forces, that Titus had referred to as the forces of darkness, were not prepared to arrest people only.  They even wanted to move a whole mile so our lives were at stake at that time and we needed a mechanism in order to be able to defend ourselves as well as members of the community.  
 During April and May we started mobilising ourselves as the COSAS members to try and get a strategy in order to fend off the attacks as well as the rule of apartheid and we were also a Congress of Students and we were coming from different homes which were being effected by social problems like rent, so we could not divorce ourselves from what was happening within the community itself.  So, COSAS, apart from fighting for students rights, they moved beyond that and they focused on issues or social issues that prevailed within the community at that time.  When we realised that 
our members were now being killed we started getting scared and we wanted to devise some mechanisms to fend off the attacks and we later on got to know that we were in the hit list and we were supposed to be eliminated as the targets of the system.  We later decided that we had to fend off the attacks in some way, that is when Congress Mashweni approached me and explained to me that there were certain people who had already approached him with regard to fending off the attacks, but the people who came to approach him were told that they should come to me together with that person.  
 I would like that to be put through to this Commission that these people came saying they were members of the MK and they were instructed to go to Congress, because Congress was close to me and Congress had to come straight to me.  In 1985 there was a directive from the ANC in exile that certain units from the Umkhonto we Sizwe would not be trained outside the country, but they would be trained inside the country and so we realised that we were going to be the first group that was going to be trained within the country.  When Congress came with the people and having briefed me that these people were coming from the MK camps and they were fully trained and they were going to train us as well to be part of the Umkhonto we Sizwe which was going to be trained within the country to defend ourselves against the vigilantes so that we can hit where it has most and the Government or the system.
 At that time I did not want to question their behaviour or the manner in which the directive came because it actually co-incided with a statement that was made by the ANC earlier on, that they were going to train people within 
the country and that is why I never actually bothered myself to ask many questions.  We welcomed these people as Comrades in Duduza and we said to them we were prepared that we should be trained in order to fend off the attacks from the vigilantes in order to protect the community.  That is what culminated to the incident that we are talking about today.  What Titus said just now is important that where we targeted, these houses were no longer occupied.  
 I want to be honest in one other aspect that in Duduza, as Titus has already mentioned, that at that time Duduza was the first area to be rendered ungovernable in the East Rand and Duduza was amongst the first, there were no police around, there was no one representing the situation, police or security officers within Duduza.  Probably, that is what actually caused Duduza to be rendered ungovernable because there were no Government officers within the area itself.

MRS SEROKE: We thank you very much, Valley.  Now, as a contact person, Mike came to you and he was wearing a balaclava?