Amnesty Hearings — Durban — 1998-12-02

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you everybody.  We will now be commencing with the application of Mr Zakhele Amos Zulu.  I have introduced the panel already.  I would request the legal representatives please to place themselves on record.

SATHYANDRANATH RAGUNANAN MAC MAHARAJ: Mr Chairman, I confirm that I appear on behalf of the applicant in these proceedings.  My surname is Maharaj and the initial is K.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you Mr Maharaj.

MS THABETE: I am Ms Thabela Thabete, the Evidence Leader.  Thank you Mr Chair.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.  I just again inform the people in the audience that the proceedings are simultaneously translated and in order to get the translation, you have to be in possession of one of these devices.
	English is on channel 2, Zulu is on channel 3.  These devices are available from the Sound Technician in the front here.  Mr Maharaj?

SATHYANDRANATH RAGUNANAN MAC MAHARAJ: Thank you Mr Chairman, may I proceed.

ZAKHELE AMOS ZULU: (sworn states)

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.  Yes, Mr Maharaj.

SATHYANDRANATH RAGUNANAN MAC MAHARAJ: Thank you Mr Chairman.  Mr Chairman, might I have leave to lead the applicant on certain issues of common cause?

CHAIRPERSON: Yes.  If Ms Thabete gets a problem with it, she can object at any time, but I think from the reading of the papers, there seems to be quite a lot that is common cause.

SATHYANDRANATH RAGUNANAN MAC MAHARAJ: Thank you.  Mr Zulu, it is common cause that you were convicted of the murder of four people in the Durban Supreme Court on the 5th of May 1994, and the names of these people that you have murdered, appear from ...

CHAIRPERSON: Pages 23 and 24 of the papers.

SATHYANDRANATH RAGUNANAN MAC MAHARAJ: From pages 23 and 24 of the papers?

CHAIRPERSON: Is that correct, you were convicted of the murder of Shlale Shlomile, Alfius Mbaso, Babulo Joseph Mthetwa, Sitize Dadada Ndamande and Johannes Hlatswayo and also of the attempted murder of Mpikiseni Njoyisa?  Is that correct?

ZAKHELE AMOS ZULU: Yes, that is correct.

SATHYANDRANATH RAGUNANAN MAC MAHARAJ: Mr Zulu, is it not also correct that you were sentenced in respect of all these offences to serve a term of imprisonment of 12 years?

ZAKHELE AMOS ZULU: Yes, that is correct.

SATHYANDRANATH RAGUNANAN MAC MAHARAJ: During or about July 1992, can you please tell the Committee where were you residing?

ZAKHELE AMOS ZULU: Yes.

SATHYANDRANATH RAGUNANAN MAC MAHARAJ: Where was that?

ZAKHELE AMOS ZULU: I was residing in Ndwedwe, Madada.

SATHYANDRANATH RAGUNANAN MAC MAHARAJ: Can you please specify in which area of Ndwedwe or Madada were you residing?

ZAKHELE AMOS ZULU: I resided in Madada, the area that was Inkatha area.

SATHYANDRANATH RAGUNANAN MAC MAHARAJ: Was there any specific name that was ascribed to this Inkatha area that you resided in?

ZAKHELE AMOS ZULU: Dendeni.

SATHYANDRANATH RAGUNANAN MAC MAHARAJ: How long is it that you resided in this area for?

ZAKHELE AMOS ZULU: Since birth.

SATHYANDRANATH RAGUNANAN MAC MAHARAJ: During your lifetime, did you belong to any particular political party?

ZAKHELE AMOS ZULU: Inkatha party.

CHAIRPERSON: Were you a member of Inkatha or just a supporter?

ZAKHELE AMOS ZULU: I was the Youth Organiser of Inkatha.

SATHYANDRANATH RAGUNANAN MAC MAHARAJ: For the record, can you tell the Committee whether your parents were members or supporters of the Inkatha party?

ZAKHELE AMOS ZULU: They were Inkatha followers, my parents that is.

SATHYANDRANATH RAGUNANAN MAC MAHARAJ: Did a set of events or circumstances lead you to leave the area that you were residing in and move to some other area?

ZAKHELE AMOS ZULU: Yes.

SATHYANDRANATH RAGUNANAN MAC MAHARAJ: What happened?

ZAKHELE AMOS ZULU: We were attacked by people of Ngonweni.

CHAIRPERSON: Sorry, what was that area?  Can you just say the people of which area?

ZAKHELE AMOS ZULU: We were attacked by people of Ngonweni, ANC people.

SATHYANDRANATH RAGUNANAN MAC MAHARAJ: You say you were attacked, how is it that these attacks came about?

ZAKHELE AMOS ZULU: They attacked the IFP base and they killed people, the IFP area that is.

SATHYANDRANATH RAGUNANAN MAC MAHARAJ: When would you say this had happened?

ZAKHELE AMOS ZULU: If my memory serves me right, I think it was in the middle of 1992.

MR LAX: How long before the incident for which you were convicted?

ZAKHELE AMOS ZULU: Please repeat your question.

MR LAX: Can you remember how long this attack on you or your area, that forced you to move, how long was that attack before the attack that you are here applying for amnesty for?

ZAKHELE AMOS ZULU: If I am not mistaken, I think that took place around August, July.

SATHYANDRANATH RAGUNANAN MAC MAHARAJ: And as a result of these attacks you say you moved away to another area?

ZAKHELE AMOS ZULU: Yes, that is correct.

SATHYANDRANATH RAGUNANAN MAC MAHARAJ: Where did you move to?

ZAKHELE AMOS ZULU: Ndelani area.

SATHYANDRANATH RAGUNANAN MAC MAHARAJ: Let's get to the events which led up to the murders of these people, or the killing of these people on the 2nd of February 1993.
	I would like you to tell the Committee how is it that it came, or who is it that decided that these people that belonged, or that these people should be killed.

ZAKHELE AMOS ZULU: Since the end of 1992, we were abiding in these areas peacefully, not resenting each other.
	They arrived in 1992 and they attacked the IFP area and killed IFP members.  Soon after that, since we felt this is, the violence was so rife, and we decided we should run away and go and reside in a different area, Ndelani, the area.
	We got there and stayed there a while.  The following year, just before February, before we attacked Mr Buxusa arrived and he is the one who told us that we should go and attack the Ngonweni area and also said, he also told us that we would find those people in a certain place.  We got to that area or to that place at about three o'clock, and we found them indeed gathered there because Mr Buxusa had already told us that they will meet at that particular place for a certain meeting and they were planning a plot against us, discussing a plot against us.
	We got there even before they could get to us, and attacked them right away.

SATHYANDRANATH RAGUNANAN MAC MAHARAJ: Before you go on, who is Mr Buxusa?

ZAKHELE AMOS ZULU: Mr Buxusa was the Head or the leader of the IFP in our area.

SATHYANDRANATH RAGUNANAN MAC MAHARAJ: Is Buxusa his surname or his first name?

ZAKHELE AMOS ZULU: Mr Mbonambi, Mbonambi is the surname, Buxusa is the name.

SATHYANDRANATH RAGUNANAN MAC MAHARAJ: Do you know what position if any, Mr Buxusa occupied or enjoyed in the IFP?

ZAKHELE AMOS ZULU: All I knew about Buxusa was that he is the leader of the IFP in the area, which we resided in.

SATHYANDRANATH RAGUNANAN MAC MAHARAJ: These acts that you committed on the 2nd of February, were these acts committed as a result of any specific directions from Mr Buxusa Mbonambi?

ZAKHELE AMOS ZULU: Yes, that is correct.

SATHYANDRANATH RAGUNANAN MAC MAHARAJ: Tell the Committee in further detail please, what happened when you arrived at this house.

MR LAX: Just before he goes to that, maybe he could just elaborate on what his instructions were before he got there.

SATHYANDRANATH RAGUNANAN MAC MAHARAJ: Mr Zulu, please tell the Committee what were your instructions from Mr Buxusa Mbonambi if any about you having to go to the area where the ANC, which was occupied by the ANC, what were your instructions?

ZAKHELE AMOS ZULU: Mr Buxusa furnished us with instructions that the ANC people at Ngonweni had already killed from our side.  In that way, he went on to say to us that these people should be attacked at a certain place and that is where we will find them, gathering there and we should eliminate them, kill them.

MR LAX: What place was that?  You said a certain place, which is this certain place?

ZAKHELE AMOS ZULU: That is the ANC area that we went to attack those people from.