Human Rights Violation Hearings — Soweto — 1996-07-25

SHADRACK GOVENDER: My name is Shadrack Govender, I was residing in Zimbabwe in Harare from 1981 in the same house with Comrade Joe Gqabi.  There were the two of us who were ANC personnel there with one comrade who had recently joined from Cape Town.  Her name was Geraldine.
 Joe Gqabi was the chief rep of the ANC as Mrs Gqabi has pointed out. I was there supporting staff to him.  You will remember that it was a difficult time at that time for the ANC and for the Zimbabwean Government or the Zimbabwean people.  They had just acquired independence and there were no other security measures that were available or that were afforded the liberation movement. Indeed, at that time I lived there as a refugee who had just jumped the fence from South Africa instead of an MK member who was there, working there in Harare.
 We lived in a house in Ashton Park, 19 Eves Crescent. That house, we were provided with no security at that time, and we were not allowed to carry firearms either, except for one firearm that was issued to Joe Gqabi, which was a ,38 
SOWETO HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
6 S GOVENDER
pistol.
 Roundabout May that year or it could have been a few weeks earlier, but I think it was towards the end of May, Joe Gqabi had to go to Lusaka on consultation where the ANC headquarters were.  I would like to point out that at the time at 19 Eves Crescent in Ashton Park, we were living with a family of refugees who had just come from Botswana.  It was a family of a man and wife, Mr and Mrs Cilla and children, ranging - five children ranging from the age of about three months to 18 years of age.  We were all using the same car, a white Cressida that was issued to Joe Gqaba by the ANC for all our transport and means of getting around.
 Joe Gqabi went to Lusaka, I think it was, it could have been on the 30th of May to the headquarters.  It was on a Friday evening. I drove the car back to the house and parked it.  On Saturday, the next day, I was supposed to get on with the other work as would have been the case if Joe Gqabi didn't go through the Saturday.  But upon - for some reason something said I should inspect the car.  As it was a general security precaution, because we had always feared for attacks from the South African agents or from Government forces in South Africa.  That morning I looked, I decided to look under the car and I did notice that there was some foreign object. I knew exactly - on closer inspection I knew exactly what it was, as I was trained in explosives too.  I then reported the matter to the Zimbabwean police.  The matter was investigated.  The bomb disposal unit came from the Zimbabwean Army.  Part of the bomb was dismantled but a large part of it had to be detonated outside town.
 I must point that this was a scary act and a reckless 
SOWETO HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
7 S GOVENDER
act for whoever was perpetrating it or had planted it.  As not only were we the direct targets of the South African Government at that time, it was Joe Mqabi and I was a member of Umkhonto weSizwe myself, but there were civilians there. There were children, there were very young children. It was very clear that that was a residential area and it was a residence, it was not a training camp or anything.
 There was no follow-up, nothing was found, no clue was brought up, any arrest or any breakthrough.  The Zimbabwean authorities did warn Comrade Joe Mqabi that he should take extra precautionary measures as they were not - lost as to where or who will come and kill him.  
 There had been apparently, intelligence information to the point that South Africans had actually, the South African Government then had actually sent agents out there or had employed agents out there to carry out that work.
 On the day of his assassination, we had just finished our work at the office, at the ANC office and we had actually, we had a meeting that was urgent for that afternoon.  The meeting was a meeting between the people who were coming from the country, some of them were underground, activists, some of them were relatives of Geraldine Fraser at that time.  Some came from Europe.  
 We had struggled to find a safe venue to hold our meeting, and after constant search we decided that we would use the house, No 19 Eves Crescent as the house that was actually not functioning as an ANC residence any longer.  In fact, as part of precaution Joe Gqabi had a curfew there, he did not sleep there.  We had decided that he should leave by six o'clock in the evening, just before sunset.  
 That day we decided that we will have a short, this was SOWETO HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
8 S GOVENDER
going to be a short meeting, and there were many things that were happening.  These people were also travelling and we couldn't maintain contact with them lest the South African spies identified them and those were entering the country would be in trouble.
 We then decided that I should get another motor vehicle and transport the people who were going to be returning to South Africa, who by the way, had not skipped the country, they were just going to Zimbabwe on a visit.  
 I then - and also the use of another vehicle was so that they are not seen in an ANC vehicle. The white Cressida was planted with a bomb before and the one that Joe Gqabi was driving.
 We went to the house and where we had a brief meeting.  We had bought take-aways which we had as our dinner for that evening.  
 Because of precautions I arrived with those people after Joe Gqabi had arrived, and therefore I had parked the car behind Joe Gqabi's vehicle.   When we finished the meeting I got into my car and I reversed out. It was already close to six or just past his curfew at the house, the one that we imposed ourselves.  I waited for him to reverse out so that I can close the gate for him.  Joe Gqabi said to me no, no, Govender, what are you waiting for, go ahead. I said I will close the gate behind you.  He was a very humble man.  Despite his responsibility and the position in the ANC, that he held and the high regard that he had from the people, and the young people who were in the struggle, he said that he will close the gate himself, he would not - he would not hang around for someone to close the gate for him, and he said I should leave. I left the place.
SOWETO HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
9 S GOVENDER
 It was already dark, dusk. What happened thereafter, it is a reconstruction or my reconstruction of what could have happened.  
 Joe Gqabi had his briefcase in his hand and he was walking towards the car.  He had stepped out of the house, about to lock the door as we were walking towards the car. I think that Joe Gqabi got into his car and started to reverse out.  He was shot at the gate in the 19 Eves Crescent.
 I think that the information that the assassins had was probably that they would - they probably had information that he was leaving with an MK cadre and probably that he could also have been armed.  
 I am bringing this assumption because of the number of weapons that were at the scene.  There were at least four sub-machine guns that were fitted with a silencer and there was also a Beretta pistol that was fitted with a silencer too.
 Joe Gqabi must have died from a volley of fire from the sub-machine gun or what could have been an Ozi machine pistol. There was no way that I could have heard the shots or the burst of the machine-gun, as they were silenced.
 I returned to the house, because I still lived in the house with Geraldine and upon my return I was surprised to find Joe Gqabi's car still in the driveway. It was actually slightly parked against the fence, right down the driveway.  I was surprised at what I thought was a violation of security measures that we put on ourselves. So I immediately rushed into the house to inspect what was happening.  As I was about to open the door on the side of the driveway, I could see the car and I saw that the glass, the window had 
SOWETO HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
9 S GOVENDER
been shattered.  I wanted to inspect the car and to investigate.  As I was approaching the car, the door was 
riddled with bullets and I looked into the car, Joe Gqabi was slouched in the seat, on the - he had fallen onto the left passenger seat, front passenger seat.