Amnesty Hearings — Richards Bay — 1998-04-23

MR STEWART: Now Mr Dlamini if we were to deal with this chronologically it was after this murder that certain arrests of members of your group followed and that you were then moved out of Esikoweni. Now I am going to come back to that. But before I do that I am going to canvas some of the other incidents that you were involved with in Esikoweni for the purposes of clarity. So I will come back to the time when you had to leave Esikoweni. So now for the assistance of the members of the committee I turn to page 402 paragraph 61. Mr Dlamini do you remember the death of April Dliwe?

DAVID ZHELI DLAMINI: Yes I do remember.

MR STEWART: And like some of the other applicants is it right that at some time you thought that his name was Taliwe Mkanazi and that what is reflected in your affidavit?

DAVID ZHELI DLAMINI: Yes that is correct.

MR STEWART: But you now know that the person concerned was Mr April Dliwe?

DAVID ZHELI DLAMINI: Yes that is correct.

MR STEWART: Will you explain to the committee what happened in that incident?

DAVID ZHELI DLAMINI: I would say the Esikoweni local leadership knew these people. These are some of the people who were on the hit list, people such as Mr Dliwe. We came together. Myself, Nthena and Romeo, Mrs Mbuyazi and Hlongwane and Mr Pipi Biyela. And we agreed that Dliwe should be removed by Mqunazi because it had become clear that he is the one who is involved. Especially in Glangnesua. He is actually the one who was handing out guns to the people there. And the people of Glangnesua were attacked and Mrs Mbuyazi was informed. And we therefore knew that Dliwe was one of the people on the list. That is how we came together. We actually left, myself, Romeo and Nthena and we went to J1 to check out and establish as to whether Dliwe was at home. And when we arrived near the place where he stayed we saw him driving out of his house. We followed him. He took the main road in J1 we overtook his vehicle.
	On the road towards Esikoweni we took our turn to the right. We were hoping that he would follow us to our direction but he did not. He took the Glangnesua road instead. He proceeded up the steep and we made a turn and followed him. There were three of us in the car and Nthena said this is the opportunity there is no any other opportunity other than this one. 	And as we were driving through Magologolo, or something like that, there are two lanes on the road, we overtook this vehicle. Nthena was sitting on the passenger seat and Romeo was driving. The cars drove parallel each other, it was at night. And as they were parallel, Nthena had a G3 and at the time I had a 7.65, Mrs Mbuyazi's 7.65. As you know that Mrs Mbuyazi had certain positions within the IFP she would be given such firearms by people. Councillors and mayors would also receive these things from councillors and mayors. And these cars drove in parallel, Nthena tried to shoot. On attempting to shoot the gun jammed. And swiftly he fixed it. And he tried to shoot again, the gun jammed. And I was sitting in the back seat just behind Nthena. I then drew my 7.65 and said to Romeo: "Give me a gap, move ahead so I can try to shoot him from my position." And as Romeo gave me this position and the car in which we were travelling had proceeded so that my position was facing that of the driver of the other car I shot Mr Dliwe with one shot in the head. 
	We saw his car coming to a halt and we fled towards Port Danford. And we came back to Mrs Mbuyazi. We told her that we had carried out her instruction and she was happy. That is what I can say. That is what I still remember.

MR STEWART: You have mentioned there were three of you there; Nthena Mkhize, Romeo Mbambo and yourself in the car. Is that right, it was just the three of you?

DAVID ZHELI DLAMINI: Yes that is correct. But I also mentioned Israel. I made a mistake. He was not there because we had gone to conduct a surveillance at the time to check as to whether Mr Dliwe was at home. I made a mistake to include Hlongwane, he was not there.

MR STEWART: (...indistinct) Mr April Dliwe died as a consequence of your shot?

DAVID ZHELI DLAMINI: Yes that is correct because when we arrived at Mr Mbuyazi's place Nthena Mkhize went to the police station to try and find out as to whether this case had already been reported and indeed he found such a case being reported to the fact that Mr Dliwe died on the scene.

MR STEWART: (...indistinct) I want to take you now to the next incident. It is one which has been spoken about by some of the other applicants. It is the incident where amongst others what we now know to be Mr Jobe was shot. You thought him to be a teacher from a school. Do you remember that?

DAVID ZHELI DLAMINI: Yes I do remember that.

MR STEWART: What vehicle were you in, were you using for that incident?

DAVID ZHELI DLAMINI: We were using a white kombi. A ZG white kombi.

MR STEWART: And had that been brought to you by its driver Mr Thele?

DAVID ZHELI DLAMINI: Yes that is correct.

MR STEWART: And do you know who it was who sent Mr Thele to you with that vehicle?

DAVID ZHELI DLAMINI: If I still remember very well we indicated from Esikoweni that we needed a vehicle. And Ulundi was phoned. I do not know how it ended up but if I still remember very well M Z Khumalo is the one that must have sent Thele with the vehicle.

MR STEWART: (...indistinct) briefly because we have heard this from other applicants but will you tell the committee in your own words what happened on this occasion?

DAVID ZHELI DLAMINI: What happened here in J1 is that there was to be a meeting or an ANC rally or a meeting at a school in J1. Mr Thele then came from Ulundi with this vehicle. We were going to use the car for the whole week. Romeo, myself and Nthena took the car got into the car. And in the company also of Mr Hlongwane and Victor Buthelesi. This Victor Buthelesi was Pipi Biyela's body guard. We all went to J1 where the meeting was to be held, where the ANC meeting was to be held. We went on and before we came to the school two people came and I do not know the names of these two people. Nthena as our commander said: Hlongwane here are people." And the kombi stopped, we opened the door, Hlongwane and Buthelesi got out and shot these two people before we could even get to the school. And we proceeded. And at a short distance before the school there came a person who was carrying books. It was at night and we thought that the person was coming from the meeting. We were in the car at the time. He walked past the car and greeted us. He walked on. Hlongwane had just shot the two people and they were now coming to the car. And before they could get into the car Nthena said: "Hlongwane first bust," and he was pointing to the person who had just walked past the car. And they shot the person. And we fled in the car. We actually went to a bus stop.

MR STEWART: (...indistinct) bus stop.

DAVID ZHELI DLAMINI: I am not sure whether it is Mkobosa but I think it is Mkobosa. I am not quite sure.

MR STEWART: (...indistinct) continue?

DAVID ZHELI DLAMINI: Waiting for the bus. We did not ask any questions because that area was the ANC's stronghold. If a person was found on the spot it would therefore become obvious to us that he was ANC. We started shooting the people who were standing there. And we proceeded in the car as we were shooting. The car drove for a short distance before we could reach them and we then started shooting. And we drove to Mrs Mbuyazi's place, got off the car and we told her how we fared and she was so pleased.

MR STEWART: Mr Dlamini you have heard some of the other applicants confirm in answering a question from me that at the time that their amnesty applications were drafted and that yours was drafted, there was no contact between you and that your applications were not drawn up in consultation. Is that correct?

DAVID ZHELI DLAMINI: Yes that is correct indeed.