TRC Final Report

Volume 2

Chapter 7

Subsection 32

KwaZulu/Natal: Violence and the killing of IFP leaders

407 Evidence before the Commission indicates that there was no overall strategy on the part of the ANC to kill IFP leaders in the 1990s. However, a number of IFP leaders and members were killed by ANC members acting in various capacities – as members of SDUs, as residents of ANC-supporting communities and, less often, as members of MK.

408 In most IFP submissions to various commissions of enquiry, no distinction was made between MK and SDUs as paramilitary units. The activities of the local SDUs/paramilitary structures were seen to have been directed by MK. Whilst the Commission received amnesty applications from MK members who facilitated and armed the SDUs, in the majority of incidents analysed there is very little evidence of MK involvement in the direct or indirect killing of IFP office-bearers.

409 In a submission to the Goldstone Commission in 1992, Mr Kim Hodgson of the IFP said that, while the IFP believed that MK had been involved in the violence from the beginning of the conflict in KwaZulu/Natal, there had been an unprecedented military offensive against the IFP since August 1992. This included covert ANC hit-squad operations in KwaZulu/Natal and the systematic killing of IFP leaders.

410 After the ANC had made its first submission, the Commission asked it to clarify its military policy towards the IFP and whether the ANC leadership considered members of the IFP to be “legitimate military targets”. The ANC responded that it had no military policy with regard to Inkatha and that it had never considered Inkatha members or officials as targets simply because they aligned themselves with Inkatha. It attributed attacks on IFP-aligned individuals to the roles these individuals played as ‘state collaborators’, whether as warlords, vigilantes, councillors or informers. The ANC denied “allegations to the effect that MK has been engaged in ‘serial mass murder’ of Inkatha officials and alleged that this perception was a STRATCOM operation designed to prevent Inkatha from throwing in its lot with the ANC as the negotiation process began”.

411 Between 1990 and 1993, MK cadres were implicated in the murder of seven IFP leaders. In two cases – those of Mr Arnold Lolo Lombo and Mr Mfunzelwa Ngcongco – there was sufficient evidence to suggest MK involvement.

412 On 31 October 1990, Mr Arnold Lolo Lombo [KZN/GSN/073/PM] was killed with a 9mm pistol by two gun men posing as police detectives at his place of employment in the Pietermaritzburg city centre. Lombo was the IFP chairperson of the Mvundleni area. Mr Sipho Motaung [AM3902/96], Mr Nhlanhla Sibisi [AM3903/96], Mr Johannes M Sithole [AM3904/96] and Mr Bekimpendle Dlamini [AM3905/96] applied for amnesty in connection with this incident. Motaung and Sibisi were trained members of MK. Motaung appears on the certified personnel register of MK, Southern Natal region and was integrated into the SANDF. He died in 1997. The applicants were granted amnesty on 1 August 1997.

413 The family of Mr Mfungelwa Ngcongo [KZN/FS/138/DN], an IFP organiser in Umbumbulu, told the Commission that he was shot in Ntiyane, Umbumbulu on 1 November 1991. In the week preceding his death, there were several attacks in the area. Six people were killed at a wedding ceremony at the home of IFP leader Mr Mbuzini Shezi, and IFP member Mr Falo Ngcongo was injured in a hand grenade and a rifle attack on his home. On 3 November the KwaZulu Police (KZP) station in Umbumbulu was attacked with RPG7 rockets, and on 11 November four people were killed and two KZP members injured in an RPG 7 rocket attack on a police van.

414 According to Security Branch records for this period, the main suspect was Mr Sbu Mkhize. It was noted that he appeared to be driven by revenge for the death of his father, ANC leader Sipho Mkhize, allegedly at the hands of KZP member Constable Simphiwe Mvuyane. Sbu Mkhize died in a shoot-out with police in July 1992. He was listed as deceased on the MK integration list but does not appear on the certified personnel register of MK. There was also a suggestion that Sbu Mkhize was involved in the murder of IFP leader Mr Wiseman Mthembu in Port Shepstone in December 1991.

415 On 22 February 1992, Mr Mnandi Dladla, IFP deputy-secretary in Wembezi, was shot near his home by an unidentified gunman armed with an AK-47, who fired at him from the vehicle of ANC leader Mr Teaspoon Mkhize. Witnesses stated that Mkhize and his son, Mr Jan Mkhize, were in the vehicle and confronted Dladla. Family members implicated an MK cadre, Mr Ntela Sikhosana, in the murder, although none of the eye-witnesses did. Ntela Sikhosana died on 23 August 1998.

416 On 30 September 1992, Gideon Sibiya (IFP Chairperson, Ningizimu), Mthembeni Xulu (IFP organiser) and a Mr Nene were shot at SJ Smith hostel in Durban. A hand grenade was hurled at Sibiya’s vehicle and they were then gunned down with an AK-47 rifle. An MK cadre, Mr Vusumuzi Zungu, was found injured at the scene. An inquest report found that he and others participated in the attack. The IFP noted that Zungu had been militarily trained in Angola in 1984 and 1987. A Vusumuzi Zungu (Bonga Madlala) appears on the certified personnel register of MK and the MK integration list.

417 None of the witnesses identified the assailants. Sibiya’s son stated that he saw Zungu when he returned to the scene after reporting the incident to the police. An AK-47 with blood stains and other armaments were found; the blood stains were tested and could have matched that of Zungu. However, Zungu tested negative for gunshot residue on his hands. Insufficient evidence meant that the Commission could not resolve the discrepancies and was unable to make a conclusive finding in this matter.

418 On 18 March 1993, Mr John Thembani and Mr Boyce Mpisane, both IFP convenors in Umlazi CC section, were gunned down with an AK-47 and 9mm pistol in Thembani’s yard. ANC member, Mr Sibonakaliso Boni Mchunu, was convicted and sentenced to fifteen years’ imprisonment. A second suspect, Mr Thumbu Nzama, could not be traced. The police interrogated a Mandla Sithole and others after receiving information that the deceased had been warned about an MK attack on them that day. Sithole could not be connected to the crime.

419 UDF/ANC community members or youth were implicated in the killing of a number of IFP supporters, including office-bearers. The majority of reported cases occurred in Pietermaritzburg. Most were unpremeditated. Precipitating factors in the attacks were:

a The victim was passing through or visiting in an UDF/ANC aligned stronghold (section or area) on foot or in public transport. The attacks were opportunistic and there was no evidence of a common perpetrator grouping. Included in this category are Mr Dumisani Awetha and Mr Elliot Bongani Mncwabe, both sons of well-known IFP members.

b The victim was living in a UDF/ANC stronghold. Mr Meshack Xaba, a hostel resident in Bruntville, was killed as he walked towards the IFP-supporting hostel enclave in the midst of a UDF-aligned community. Three members of the Shandu family [KZN/LPM/100/EM] were killed on suspicion of being IFP members four months after they moved to Umgababa from KwaMakhutha.

c The victim intervened in some way in an action by a group of UDF/ANC members. Two IFP supporters were killed on 11 February 1990 when they drove through a funeral procession for a UDF member in Mpumalanga in 1990.

d The victim died in a defensive attack. Councillor Shadrack Dlamini was petrol-bombed by ANC youth in KwaMakhutha in 1987, after he opened fire on a group which had come to discuss the water shortage with him. One youth was injured. Mr Momo Ndwalane [KZN/EDS/102/PS], an induna, was stabbed in Murchison in December 1991 after he approached youths in a threatening manner armed with a G3 firearm after the entire community failed to attend the Chief’s Christmas meeting.

e The victim died in an ongoing fight between ANC-aligned and IFP supporters. Mr CC Cele, IFP chairperson at SJ Smith hostel, was killed when a petrol bomb was thrown into his room in retaliation for an attack on the ANC leader in the hostel earlier in the day.

f The victims were killed in a ‘factional dispute’ that had assumed political overtones. Mr Simon Buthelezi, Mr Sotho Makhatini of the IFP and herbalist Mr M Gumede were killed in an attack on their kraals in Swayimane in October 1989 by 500 members of the ANC-aligned Mabheleni clan.

g The victim was involved in the traditional structure or was an office-bearer. Mr Alson Mbambo, an induna in Esikhawini, was killed by ANC youth in June 1992 at a communal water pump.

420 In the majority of these attacks, the victims were stabbed, stoned or petrol-bombed. In nine incidents firearms were used.