Human Rights Violation Hearings — Pietermaritzburg — UNKNOWN

TIMOTHY SMITH: /Mr Magwaza,

TIMOTHY SMITH: Mr Magwaza, was shot while repairing his roof at his place.  Then on the 31st of January 1988 David Ntombela, as well as a number of men, were addressing a certain meeting of Inkatha at Sweetwaters.  Those who were present at that meeting claimed that Ntombela said anyone who did not want to belong to Inkatha should be killed.  He said he was personally prepared to go anywhere and kill all those who were not members of Inkatha.  He asked for special permission from the chiefs so that there would be a certain - the meeting would be stopped and he would take a group of people so that they could chase the UDF and the COSATU from Sweetwaters.  After the meeting, as we have already heard, they went out of the meeting and they attacked the Ashdown residents, where many people were killed.  Ntombela's notoriety spread quite far and wide.  They asked him at a number of areas where they wanted Inkatha to reign supreme.  His name was also mentioned at Brandville, Richmond, Impendle, Bulwer, Greytown, Mpumalanga, as well as the Troutville area.  In all the Natal Midlands the name of David Ntombela was and is known and feared amongst old and young.  And during the time we witnessed a strong presence of police in that area.  They were setting up a base camp on a farm which was quite close to us, and often we saw them at Ntombela's house or at the kraal.  They were always consulting with him, and at times they were relaxing and basking in the sun at Ntombela's place.  One day one policeman told me that he was accompanied by Ntombela to go and raid UDF members and kill them.  And during all that time the police were denying that they were taking sides int he conflict, but we saw them quite a number of times accompanying Induna Ntombela.  I could say that without the help of the police Ntombela would not have been able to be where he is today.  Without the help of the police he would not have been able to be in parliament today, because his case was supposed to proceed to court and he was supposed to be convicted.  Now, the behaviour of the police came with two immediate consequences.  Firstly the Inkatha members sent a message that they were above the law.  This was said by people at Elandskop, who said Inkatha was a law unto itself.  The second consequence was that the UDF or the Comrades felt that they had no protection nor security.  If they wanted to live and save their lives they had to protect themselves, even when it amounted to using violence.  This is why I said the partiality of the police caused the violence to rise by day.  Thirdly, it caused that the criminal justice system in the province was almost non-existent.  At the beginning of 1988 there was another sinister development within the community.  Mr Ntombela started recruiting the youths, especially to be trained as special constables.  Some of the youths came and they wanted to be trained as special constables.  They were sent on a six weeks training course, and thereafter they would be armed and deployed in the community and they would be policemen.  We were quite distressed at the recruitment of these youths because we realised that they had been chosen on the basis that they had been Inkatha members in that area, not because they were strong youths who had interests in keeping order.  We knew for a fact that some of them were involved in quite criminal activities, and we know that one of them is going to come before this Commission and render some evidence, because he ended up being convicted for murder.  Now, it is clear to us that this recruitment which went on in that community ... (incomplete - end of Side A, Tape 1) ... Brigadier Buchner also admits that it was his policy.  He says when he arrived in November he found that they needed more men on the ground, and he sent recruits on a six weeks course and thereafter he deployed them within the community.  The violence went down at that particular time almost to nil.  In that area the incidence of violence went up.  That was at the beginning of May 1988.  One of the young men who had been released from detention, Bonginkosi Dlamini, was shot in the head near Mbubane, and I buried him.  This marked the beginning of the killings by special constables in the area.  Some were killed in 1989.  On the 7th of June 1989 Leonard Sonny Ngcobo was killed and I was present.  On the 12th December 1989 Moses Lehla and Linus Ngcobo were killed.  On the 15th December Patrick Ngcobo and Samson Dlamini were killed, and I was also present.  All of these youths were killed during the night when they were going back to their homes from work.  They were killed because they were walking at night and it was rumoured that Inkatha did not want any members of the community to be roaming around at night.  The perpetrators were called the special constables from Umphumuza.  At times they would even boast of killing the youths.  The whole community was in panic because at night they had to be indoors, and they had to close their doors as well as windows, not knowing where the killers were going to come from.  Then in 1990 there were further killings were three people were killed at Mbubane.  During all that time there was tension between the upper as well as the lower parts.  The upper part, from Taylor's Halt up to Elandskop, was declared an Inkatha area, and from Gezabuso downwards it was a UDF stronghold.  Most of the UDF element in the upper part of the valley fled down to the lower part of the valley.  This tension between the two parts of the valley increased dramatically in February 1990 when the ANC unbanned and Nelson Mandela was released from prison.  On the 20th of February 1990 some buses on their way back were stoned at Eden.  That was in the afternoon.  I believe that some passengers were killed.  Mr Ntombela called a meeting the following day at his house.  This was a large meeting, there were a lot of people, and there was much talk of attacking the lower areas.  However, Brigadier Buchner, as well as Lieutenant Meyer, arrived and apparently talked them out of the attack.  A journalist who was there says he saw Buchner and Ntombela looked as if they were very much in good terms.  However, the issues of the buses never went away.  It continued and caused a lot of problems.  The people from the upper area of the valley knew that when they had gone to town they would be attacked at any time.  And the tension grew throughout the KwaZulu Natal province.  Political organisations were calling rallies.  On the 25th of March 1990 a big rally was called by Inkatha members, and it was going to be held in Durban, and it was said that they had to listen to the chief of the Zulus.