Human Rights Violation Hearings — Pietermaritzburg — 1996-11-20

WITNESS:   A large part of it is in English, but - I mean is in Zulu, except certain smaller sections.  Maybe then I'll try to interpret as I go along.  It might not be easy.  Let me just continue then in Zulu.  Why do we say the things we are saying now?  It looks to us as if the detention of the UDF and the leaders of the COSATU, and the way the attacks took place in the community, all this could not prevent the people of Pietermaritzburg to continue with the violence.  This Seven Day War to us started a new way of attacking the community in the manner in which they were attacking the community, and soon after that the tendency of killing of the leaders of ANC started in this area.  So the nature of Seven Day War, the way one will look at it, and the manner in which the attack was undertaken, it does show that those were ideas coming from the apartheid government.  At ANC we did believe that - we were made to believe that this Seven Day War has to do a lot with politics, but one could tell and it was clear and obvious that that was perpetrated by the government of apartheid, and it was intended to destroy ANC and UDF.  It had no part at all in getting this country independent.  ANC believe that we should look deep into the following things.  We believe that we don't understand the Seven Day War if we don't give the picture of the role that the people of Pietermaritzburg played, especially after 1976.  For us to understand even the way the violence outbroke in 1975 we will say that since the banning of ANC in 1960 towards 1980 there was no a political organisation that could not say it represents all the people of Pietermaritzburg.  And we believe that Inkatha wanted to destroy ANC completely in this area.  We do believe that this area, this war was deliberately making the Inkatha stronger and a strong hold than other organisations.  Places like Sobantu and Imbali were not so much affected in this.  Even the forming of UDF in 1983, many people were not affected at the time when the UDF was being formed, but afterwards that started.  We will first talk about the pensioning in Huletts Aluminium(?).  This boycott brought some light and shed light to the community of Pietermaritzburg regarding this company, which is one of the biggest in Pietermaritzburg, and had so many employees, and employees had nothing called specials then.  We will say that the boycott, the importance of that boycott was described as though the leaders, and those who were behind it, were ANC members and UDF, and were fired from the company as a result of this boycott and the belief.  That brought so much influence in the community, and this stay-away took place in 1985, which was called to sympathise with those who were expelled and fired from work.  This stay-away followed shortly after boycotting the stores and buying and shopping from the shops.  And what is important to us, and which led to the Seven Day War, is that even so the people in Pietermaritzburg were very supportive, and that showed that they wanted to be with the UDF, as well as COSATU.  But what I will stay started the whole fracas in 'Maritzburg, and it even led to an outbreak of violence were the deeds of the Inkatha to force people to join Inkatha.  These plans of Inkatha to force people in order to join Inkatha were people like Sikiza Zuma from Harewood, Joseph Mabaso, KwaPatha, Makaliza and Dambuza, as well as Jerome Mncwabe in Imbali, David Ntombela at Vulindlela, as well as another Mr Mncwabe from Sinathi, just to make a few examples.  This led to the violation of the black people.  What was more apparent was that the police were not taking any action against the Inkatha in trying to force people to join them.  This made it so clear to us as the community that this was all a ploy, and it was a well-orchestrated plan.  Thus it did not come as a surprise that many of the places that were attacked during the Seven Days War were part of Vulindlela, which had many members who were aligned to the UDF and the ANC.  To count just a few, Taylor's Halt, Gezabuso, KwaShange, KwaMnyandu, as well as Inadi.  All these places made connections to be formed between Eden as well as Imbali, as well as the upper part.  That's why we believe that the attack that was orchestrated in these places was to prevent the UDF and the ANC so that they could not spread up to Vulindlela.  During that time of the intensification of violence is that the police were taking sides, because they were arresting UDF as well COSATU members, and they were not arresting Inkatha members.  One of the most important things that you must take note of in order to get a picture of the Seven Days War was that there were certain talks in 1987 between UDF as well as COSATU.  They were speaking with Inkatha, but the police came there during the negotiations and they arrested members of the UDF as well as COSATU and they left Inkatha members.  Now, this is what should be said and be put on record, that these talks of peace were initiated by UDF as well as COSATU.  Furthermore we should ask ourselves as to why these arrests were made and why did the police come to arrest UDF as well as COSATU members so that these talks may be derailed.  We believe that this was part of a plan that was well orchestrated that there should be no negotiations between Inkatha as well as the UDF, so that the apartheid government could use Inkatha as a tool, a tool to try and prevent the struggle of the people.  This is what made a background so that there could be Seven Days War later on.  We also believe that the Seven Day War was not an action initiated by the community, that they were throwing stones at the buses as it has been alleged, as we are saying we believe that it was part of a State security strategy at that time.   What makes us say that, here are things that we wish to point out to this honourable Commission in order to clarify these issues.  We can just say the police were part at all times of the problems that we were facing in 'Maritzburg.  The National Party, it was important for it that at all times it should make sure that there continue - the killings amongst blacks was a continuing thing, so that people would think that this was a black on black violence.  The second thing that you must take into consideration, each time that the police - as it gives us hope that some of them have already made statements with this regard and some were saying that their aim was to kill UDF as well as ANC members.  That is why even the police were the ones who were giving Inkatha money, or sponsoring the rallies, especially the rally which was on the 25th of March 1990.  It was paid for by the police as it has already been said.  What is more important that we see as the members of the ANC and that we wish to put forward to this honourable Commission is that the apartheid government as well as Inkatha, they had the same aim that UDF and ANC should not go forth.  The thing that is most important is that on the side of the apartheid government the apartheid government was helping and it was being helped by Inkatha, because it used to make Inkatha to be on the forefront of the violence.  This is what we believe that was the job of the then government, and the white people would say it's a black on black violence, which was actually orchestrated by them.  And, as I've already counted, it is very apparent that people in 'Maritzburg had decided now that they should join UDF/COSATU as well as the ANC, and Inkatha found this as a loophole to align themselves with the police so that their people would not be attacked and would not be few in 'Maritzburg.  One other thing that we wish to put forward to this Commission is to give a reason as to why we say that the Seven Days War was a war of apartheid.  We think that at the time of unbanning of the ANC caused some tension amongst other groups, because they did not know what would be the consequences of unbanning of the ANC.  Some feared that if the ANC was unbanned maybe it was going to align itself with Inkatha, so they wanted to make sure that at all times all these other organisations are in conflict with each other so that there might be no unity.  One other thing that makes us say this is that the Seven Day War, we have never seen a fight that broke out during the day but nobody would be arrested and nobody would pay any attention to this.  What the leaders of Inkatha as well as the police were doing, it showed that there was a culture of impunity and they could do anything without being arrested.  What was the cause of the Seven Days War?  As I have already pointed out, now I want to say - or point out the core or the reason of the whole war.  The Inkatha says the reason - as well as other people and top police officials were saying that it was because the buses were being stoned.  That is the buses which were carrying the Inkatha members, that is on the 25th of March 1990, whilst they were heading to a rally in Durban.  They said the buses towards Vulindlela were being stoned by the residents.  We do not believe as the ANC that such action took place.  We never got any evidence as to how far true these allegations were, and we do not believe that it was only the stoning of these buses that caused such havoc.  But some of the residents of Eden came to report to us that they were actually attacked by members of Inkatha who were travelling in that bus.  We do agree that at times there would be stoning of the buses.  We will not deny that, but according to our knowledge this usually was done by the youths who had run away from the upper part of the valley because they had been chased away by Inkatha because they were followers of the UDF as well as the ANC, and at times because they did not want to align themselves with the Inkatha. There are certain people who had been chased away because they were not members of Inkatha and they did not want anything to do with Inkatha, which means they were enemies of the Inkatha.  Some of our people had been tortured, had been traumatised, and the police did not help them in any way, and they were not even arresting the perpetrators.  One other thing that I wish to put before this Commission that had not yet surfaced was the stoning of the buses.  The history of the Inkatha, as well as the stoning of the buses, is a matter that should be viewed in a different light because in 1992, when the Inkatha was coming back from Durban, they went past KwaShange and they started shooting the residents.  And they went to report to the newspapers and the media that the bus was being attacked, but a later inquest revealed that in actual fact it was the direct opposite.  Now, when we look at this we must look at it critically from both points of view.  We should know that this is a blatant lie, and they are shielding themselves, they do not want to speak the truth.  They just wanted a reason as to why there was the start of the Seven Day War.  Let's agree that the buses were attacked on that particular day, but now the question that arises is now could there be such an attack simply because the buses were stoned?  So many people were killed later on. Could the stoning of the buses be that reason?  And thereafter we should ask ourselves as to why the places that were attacked were not the places where the stoning of the buses took place.  One other thing that we should take into consideration is that many people who got injured and who were killed were the women as well as the children and elderly people.  We do not want to believe that this category of people could have thrown stones at the buses.  Why was it necessary that people should be killed because of the throwing of stones?  These are just reasons that they used to kill people.  The question is, if the people who were attacking were saying they did this in retaliation because they were also attacked, then they are saying that they did attack, whether it was in retaliation or not.  And they are agreeing that they were planning, and it was a well orchestrated plan which was launched later on.  We want to put it before this Commission that the Seven Day War was a means to try and foment the violence that we have already talked about.  We want this Commission to look critically at this matter and ask itself as to why this fight or this war took place on the 25th March of 1990.  We, as the ANC members, believe that this was a well orchestrated plan, and it was planned by certain members of the apartheid system so that they could prevent the ANC from mobilising the people and making people to align themselves to it, because this happened hardly two months after the ANC had been unbanned.  This was quite an attack that we saw taking place throughout the world immediately after the ANC had been unbanned.  Because of that we see it's wise that this Commission should look at this matter critically, because the reason why the Seven Day War took place could have been linked to the unbanning of the ANC.  What did the other people or members of the Inkatha do?  Many of the people who were directly involved and directly affected, as well as eye witnesses, they have mentioned names of certain members or leaders of Inkatha who were prominent.  They mentioned the names of David Ntombela, Shayabantu Zondi, Gavaza Khanyile, Lololombo, as well as Philip Zondi.  We believe that these people who took part in these should be investigated by this Commission.  They should come forward to come and give an explanation as to what happened during the Seven Days War.  We are mainly expecting that the leaders should come and answer these questions.  The first question that we would like them to answer was that they knew or didn't they know about the attack before it took place?  All these people who had been mentioned were leaders in certain areas.  We find it very difficult that there could be such an attack when the members or leaders of Inkatha didn't know.  With regard to David Ntombela there is testimony that there was a meeting that was held at his place on a Monday, that's the 26th of March 1990, and that was a day before the attack.  The second question that I would like to ask this Commission that they should come forward answer to this Commission, what steps did they take in order to try and prevent the attack?  Are there any attempts that were made to prevent certain people from attacking?  Why didn't they take steps to get in touch with ANC/UDF as well as COSATU members in order to try and prevent the attacks, or why didn't they get connected with other members of the ANC besides the ones in 'Maritzburg?  Let me just remind you that there were certain talks between the UDF and Inkatha members.  This means that there were some connections through which there could be negotiations between these two particular groups in order to prevent the Seven Day War.  The other question that should be answered by these leaders is that did they ever report to the police of the imminent attack?  Did they ever tell the police that they should come and quell the situation, especially in preventing their followers from being attacked?  The other question that we want them to come and answer is that did they ever condemn the attack after it took place?  Did these leaders help the attackers to get arrested?  Now we are going back to the security forces, in particular the SAP, which was operating during that time.  For the ANC the fundamental questions revolve around the role played by the security forces in the conflict - the police conduct.  Firstly, were the security police aware of the planned attacks prior to them commencing?  We wish to say that we do not accept the fact that the police say they did not know that there was going to be an imminent attack.  The first point that we should bring forth is that the police were very quick to arrest ANC as well as UDF members.  The Flying Squad would arrest you at that very moment.  Now, they cannot come forward and tell us that they did not know that there was an imminent attack when there were so many people milling around, going around being armed and conducting meetings.  We also do not believe that the police did not know about the meeting that was held at Mr David Ntombela's house on the Monday, 26 March 1990.  The other question that we ask ourselves that the police should come and answer, why did not they know that there was a conflict in 'Maritzburg, and why didn't implement some plans to stop these attacks from taking place?  Why were the police or security forces unable to contain the attacks?  We do not believe that it could happen for seven days without the police not being able to contain the attacks.  The attack was KwaShange, KwaGezabuso, KwaMnyandu, Xalusa, Ashdown involved a large group of armed men, and they used to travel long distances during broad daylight.  The police had vehicles, as well as the soldiers.  Why didn't they prevent this march from taking place?  After the massive attacks on Tuesday the 27th March 1990 the police should have been able to foresee, even if we do agree or we don't agree, maybe they were taken by surprise, but during the attacks on the 27th they should have foreseen the consequences of the attack.  Why weren't they able to contain it?  What we find very difficult as the ANC is that there is not even a single person who was arrested.  As we have already said these attacks took place during broad daylight.  There was not even a single person who appeared in court and was acquitted.  The police had a culture of telling us the reason, but we do not accept the reason as the members of the ANC and as people who have got hindsight.  The police said they could not arrest the people because there were very few people who went to report to them with regard to  these attacks.  We think that this is an unacceptable reason.  When there's an attack during broad daylight for seven consecutive days why do - why should the police wait for the people to come and report to them?  Why can't they go out and investigate the matters?  General Buchner also went to a meeting of the Inkatha and he was listening to certain speakers who were addressing the meeting.  But there is a matter that is of fundamental importance that the Commission should look at, as to whether the police were able or not to quell that situation, because it is a known secret that the police had alliances with Inkatha.  Director Meyer, who had just given his testimony, it is very important for us to say that he was condemned by the Supreme Court Judge because of the relationship that existed between and Abdul Ahwed.  Superintendent J P van den Heever ... (incomplete - end of Side A, Tape 3) ... positions in the police force.  The question that we ask ourselves is if they had this relationship is it not what culminated to the Seven Day War?  In this new South Africa if these attacks were directed at Scottville, or Wembu or Priestbury I am not doubtful at all that it was not going to take more than an hour.  This shows us quite clearly, as members of the ANC, that the lives of black people were taken very cheaply during the apartheid era, and the Seven Day War is evidence to that.  To conclude we shall request this honourable Commission to investigate deeply about the role that was played by the police, as well as the soldiers, with regard to the seven day attack, especially the Flying Squad and the SBs.  In other places it has been shown that the SBs were directly involved in these attacks, and what troubles us most is that this branch of  the police force has never ever been investigated with regard to the attacks.  We do not believe that they conducted themselves in an orderly manner.  We wish that the Riot Unit should be further investigated, which was later on called the Stability Unit, and it was led by Major Terblanche, as well as the KwaZulu Police and the special constables.  What we want to say about these groups, as members of the ANC, is that even if they can give lengthy explanations and say that some of the police were acting on their own accord, we wish this Commission to investigate as to whether these groups which were existent under P W Botha, and they were called security management structures, and what was done by these groups was done in Pretoria, and it was known in Pretoria and well orchestrated.  We also wish this Commission to investigate as to what Jack Buchner's part was in all this, because he was also a high-ranking official in Pietermaritzburg.  We wish that he could also be investigated.  Before he came to 'Maritzburg there are some rumours that he was very connected with the Vlak Plaas.  During the Seven Day War Buchner was in charge of the ZP Police, and we know that the KwaZulu Police have got a very bad reputation, especially with regard to their conduct.  Some of the police, like Captain Brooks, Warrant-Officer Verber, as well as all the other high-ranking officials should be investigated, especially with regard to the part that they took during the Seven Day War, if they did.  We will not be free if these investigations do not take place as to what part did they play.  Honourable Chairman, as members of the ANC we believe that the names of the people who were directly  involved shall come forward on their own accord to come