TRC Final Report

Volume 2

Chapter 6

Part Part5

Subsection 3

Blessing Ninela⁶

Age unknown; ANC/MK.

Killed 13 July 1988; exhumed 6 August 1997 at Bulwer.

Mr Blessing Ninela was allegedly an MK operative who was arrested on 13 July 1988 while on a mission to Natal to place bombs. The Durban Security Branch did not have admissible evidence to use against him in court. They decide to kill him, and drove him to a railway line just outside Bulwer. They shot him and then blew up his body to make it appear as if he had blown himself up in the process of placing explosives. He was buried in a pauper’s grave in Bulwer.

Zola Tati

Age unknown; MK.

Charles Tsatsi

Age unknown; MK.

Both killed 10 November 1986; exhumed 11 November 1997 at Sekoto cemetery, Louis Trichardt.

Mr Zola Tati and Mr Charles Tsatsi, with Mr Milo Malatsi, formed part of an MK group which was ambushed near Soutpansberg while infiltrating from Botswana.

Titus Dladla (aka Zakes Bhanaza), buried as Michael Sekupe

Age 28; ANC/MK.

Thuluso A Matima⁷ (aka Derrick Lekota), buried as Abione Thela

Age 32; ANC/MK.

Both were killed on 22 November 1982, exhumed 27 November 1997 at Piet Retief. See the account above under Victor M Mgadi. The Johannesburg office Investigation Unit exhumed the remains of these two cadres from Thandokukhanya cemetery (Piet Retief).

Mzwandile Radebe⁸

Age 27; ANC/MK.

Killed 14 August 1986; exhumed 27 November 1997 at Piet Retief. Mr Mzwandile Radebe was a member of MK who came into the country from Swaziland and was killed by the security forces.

Ruben M Letsila (aka Bernard Zonke)

Age unknown; MK.

Killed 1986; exhumed 9 December 1997 at Sekoto cemetery, Louis Trichardt.

Mr Ruben M Letsila was travelling in a minibus from Zimbabwe when the vehicle was stopped at a roadblock. He was shot and killed by security forces near the Motale River in Venda.

Richard B Molokwane⁹ (aka Mmutle Ramanase)

Age 26; ANC/MK.

Vincent Sekete (aka Sydney Sebephu)

Age 32; ANC/MK.

Killed 28 November 1985; exhumed 10–12 December 1997 at Piet Retief. Mr Richard Molokwane, Mr Victor Lunga Khayiyane and Mr Vincent Sekete died in a shoot-out with the police, following an attack at the SASOL complex on 28 November 1985.

Emmanuel Mthokizisi Mbova Mzimela (aka Dion Cele)

Age unknown; ANC/MK.

Killed 1988; exhumed 10 March 1997 at Elandskop farm.

Mr Emmanuel Mthokizisi Mbova Mzimela was an MK member based in Swaziland. The Security Branch in Durban and Pietermaritzburg obtained information that Mzimela would be prepared to co-operate with the police. He was abducted from Swaziland in July 1988. He indicated that he was not prepared to cooperate with the police. They decided that they could not release him as he might continue with his activities (including the smuggling of arms into South Africa and the recruitment of people for internal and external training in the ANC). They therefore killed him and buried him on a farm in the Elandskop area.

Brian Ngqulunga¹⁰

Age 42; South African Police/askari.

Killed 21 July 1990. Exhumed 16 March 1998 at Vlakplaas.

Mr Brian Ngqulunga was a member of a team from Vlakplaas, led by Captain Dirk Coetzee, which murdered Griffiths Mxenge, prominent Durban human rights lawyer. Ngqulunga was later tortured and killed by his own handlers at Vlakplaas in 1990 under orders from Colonel Eugene de Kock, when they felt that he was becoming a security risk to them. Colonel De Kock applied for amnesty for the killing. Ngqulunga’s family approached the Commission and requested that his body be exhumed from the farm, to be buried at the place of their choice.