TRC Final Report

Volume 2

Chapter 4

Subsection 30

284 Relatives and/or people associated with ‘collaborators’ were severely affected and in some cases suffered a similar fate. In one case [JB02624], the boys of the household were suspected of being police informers and a house was burned with the family members inside it. At least one person was killed and several other family members were severely burned.

285 Mr Mava Rwexu [EC0532/96ALB] suffered substantial loss when his house at Tantjie Location, Grahamstown, was burnt down by a group of unknown perpetrators on the grounds that his sister was a police reservist. At the time of the burning, his nieces Vuyisa, Priscilla and Nohose Hoboshe were in the house; all died in the fire.

286 A large number of people who were necklaced in the mid-1980s were people perceived to be police ‘informers’. The case of Ms Nosipho Zamela is reported above.

287 Cases of burnings were also reported in relation to boycotts. Tensions within communities and between residents and security forces during boycotts were common. In some areas, ‘boycott-breakers’ were severely dealt with by those who volunteered to monitor the boycotts.

288 For example, Ms Nombulelo Julia Delato [CT 00390/KAR] was seen by a group of youth buying meat during a consumer boycott in Colesberg. She was confronted and her meat was trampled on. She laid charges with police who began searching for those responsible. Ms Delato was a supporter of community organisations, but was seen as an informer after the incident. As she was married to a former Prisons Department employee, Mr Stanford Thembile Delato, who became a community policeman in 1983, the Delato family were increasingly labelled as impimpis (sell-outs). Delato’s home was stoned and police began guarding it and escorted her publicly. When, after a few weeks the police guard relaxed, Ms Delato was caught by a group of youth and set alight. She died in hospital. The Delato family could not bury her in Colesberg because of community hostility. A number of people were charged with her murder including Mr Tembile Falati, Mr Zolile Silwane, Mr Thabo Gusha, Mr Pingdyaan Kelem, Mr Titsha Mhlakulo and Mr Tifo Paul Setlaba. Setlaba was sentenced to death while others received long prison sentences.

289 People perceived to be practising witchcraft were sometimes killed by ‘comrades’, some by the necklace method. Ms Nofikile Dikani and her daughter Zameka Dikani (29) [EC1967/97ELN] were necklaced to death in Duncan Village on 2 January 1986. Comrades accused them of bewitching Fudwana (Fudukile) Dikani, Nofikile’s son, who was killed in October 1985 when an SADF casspir drove over his vehicle. According to evidence given to the Commission, Fudwana used to transport injured victims of police shootings to hospital [EC0943]; thus his death was perceived as a deliberate act. The other passenger in the vehicle, Mr Sivuyile Wellington Hobiya [EC0797] survived with injuries.

290 A number of people were killed by burning and necklace during clashes between organisations. These included clashes between gangs and comrades or residents; clashes between UDF supporters and people perceived as AZAPO followers; clashes between comrades and vigilantes, and conflicts between UDF/ANC and Inkatha/IFP. Some of these incidents are detailed in Volume Three.

291 Criminal elements were targeted. Campaigns such as the closing of shebeens at particular times aimed to reduce criminal activities. Criminal elements became victims in the process. However, shebeen owners who defied the campaign found themselves victims as well.

292 Some political activists were victims of burning and necklace killings in what, according to evidence from former state operatives as well as amnesty applications, now appears to be the work of security forces. Examples include the Cradock Four and PEBCO Three. The actions were done either to destroy evidence and or to suggest that the killings were conducted by rival groupings.