Human Rights Violation Hearings — Empangeni — 1996-11-05

MR LYSTER: to the Richards Bay/Empangeni area.  Now, there were a number of areas affected by violence around these two towns Empangeni and Richards Bay including Ngwelezana, including rural areas as we've heard this morning, and including Ntambanana, and in all of these areas again the role of the police is very conspicuous.  But the most prominent part played by the police was in the Esikhawini area.  The Esikhawini area and, as I mentioned earlier, the Mandini area and Eshowe, but particularly in Esikhawini - before I touch on Esikhawini I must also mention that Nseleni itself was also a target of attacks by groups of outsiders in the presence of the police who did nothing to stop them.  In an affidavit mentioning an attack in 1990 by ANC officer bearer Bongani Msomi, he gives details of watching the attacks on the houses taking place and he mentions how a particular policeman called Duffles - that we heard of this morning - address the group of armed attackers, did nothing to disarm them ,just told them to disperse after they'd attacked because the police were there to look after them.  The only action the police took against the people under attack was to disarm them before the attackers moved in.  And Msomi is recorded as saying to Duffles, "I'm worried about what's left in my house, that it will be looted."  And sure enough, after he left the area, his house was looted.  No action whatsoever was taken.  When we get to Esikhawini, however, we see, of course, the virtual epicentre of hit squad activities.  We see in Esikhawini high levels of collusion between the KwaZulu Police in the area who were operating hit squads.  This has come out in court  in the trial of Mbambo Mkhize and Hlongwane.  We see collusion between them and management of the SA Police and including especially the security police in Empangeni.  And the situation in Esikhawini has been detailed on many occasions.  There's a vast body of information about it.  I myself gave evidence to the Goldstone Commission sitting here in Empangeni at the beginning of 1993.  There are a number of reports, submissions, court records on the activities and I just want to touch on some that have perhaps not been highlighted as much as they should have been.  I'm just going to mention some of the particularly important incidents in Esikhawini which show us the nature of the forces at work and first of all one of the earliest incidents - I say one of the earliest incidents because there were killings before that - there were two attacks on trade unionist Geoffrey Belani.  There were other murders - but in one of the earliest attacks on the youth, two youths disappeared at the beginning of July 1990.  Their mothers searched for them frantically.  Their bodies were found two weeks later in the township itself.  While the mothers were searching for their children, the one mother went to the local police and they taunted her.  She was worried out of her mind about her child but all they could do was laugh at her.  She went to the security police in Empangeni and they said, "No, don't come to us.  That's a KwaZulu Police matter.  We're not going to have anything to do with it."  The bodies were found two to two and a half weeks later.  The one mother, who I shall name because she is now deceased - both she and her husband have died since then  /- she was