TRC Final Report

Volume 3

Chapter 2

Subsection 30

348 One of the earliest of these clashes reported to the Commission took place in May 1990 when CDF members broke up a meeting at Ndakana near Stutterheim and assaulted those attending. The meeting had been called to protest against the re-imposition of the headman system and against conflict within the community over the recent stabbing of an ANC supporter. Those assaulted included Ms Selina Qongwana [EC1267/96SBR] and Mr Vuyisile Shushwana [EC1268/96SBR].

349 By August 1992, violence was increasing, revenge attacks were taking place and communities were being split by political intolerance. In Tendergate, in the Hewu district of Ciskei, there was tension between ADM and ANC members. ADM member Richard Xabendlini [EC1980/96KWT] was attacked in mid-August. His home was burnt down and he died later of his injuries. An ANC member in Tendergate, Mr Alfred Welile Oliphant [EC0161/96QTN], was accused of involvement in this killing by his one-time close friend, CDF member Bennie Lumko. Oliphant was arrested and charged with Xabendlini’s killing. One night at the end of August, Oliphant’s home was set alight and he was shot dead as he tried to escape the flames. Oliphant’s widow, Ms Eunice Boniswa Oliphant, told the Commission:

There were rumours that the ADM had sworn revenge and said when Mr Xabendlini was being buried, Mr Oliphant’s body would be at the mortuary, and that is exactly what happened.

350 Mr Edwin Lumko, Bennie Lumko’s father, was convicted of the killing and sentenced to an effective three years’ imprisonment, but the Oliphant family believes that he took the blame for his son. The criminal proceedings were complicated by the disappearance of a witness, ADM member Nkoliseko Mrola, who disappeared in the Western Cape while under a witness protection programme³⁵. Ms Oliphant told the Commission:

There were people that were arrested after my husband’s death, but they were never held in custody because the day that they were arrested there were members of the ADM who phoned Gqozo and Gqozo sent a message that these people must be released immediately.

351 The Commission found records at Middledrift Prison in Ciskei which indicated that Mr Edwin Lumko had been admitted on 3 September 1993 and released again just 18 days later, with his three-year sentence recorded as having been completed. Lumko [AM7967/97] applied for amnesty in connection with Oliphant’s killing.

352 Tendergate ANC member Mr Tembilizwe Dywashe [EC0164/96CCK] was also allegedly killed by ADM members at that time. The family believed that a Mr Lumko and Nkoliseko Mrola were among those involved. A number of suspects were arrested and released soon after.

353 The Bisho massacre of 7 September 1992, which is dealt with below, seems to have set off an undeclared all-out war in Ciskei. A week after the massacre Mr Jimmy Kula [EC2120/97CCK], a headman and ADM member from the Msobomvu area of Middledrift, was stabbed to death and his family’s homes torched by ANC supporters. His widow, Ms Nosilingi Patricia Makupula, told the Commission it was in retaliation for the Bisho massacre. The home of Ms Victoria Jwaxa [EC2119/97CCK] was burnt down after she attended Kula’s funeral. On 15 October, people believed to be Ciskei soldiers attacked a Msobomvu home with guns and grenades and shot dead Mr Elby Ngayithini Ngece [EC0726/96CCK], apparently mistaking him for another family member they were searching for. Several others were injured. Mr Mthetho Ngece, SANCO member and chair of the local ANC Youth League, who is believed to have been the attackers’ intended target, told the Commission:

If I had the strength at that time and I knew who the perpetrators were I would have gone and revenged, because my family is as it is because of them … I have no forgiveness for these people.

354 The Ngece family believes this attack may have been in retaliation for the attacks on the Kula family and their supporters. Mr Madoda Shackleton Kula [AM6440/97] attended a hearing of the Commission and denied involvement in this attack. Kula applied for amnesty in connection with a hand-grenade attack on another Msobomvu household a week later, which did not result in fatalities. He was granted amnesty for possession of weapons but refused amnesty for the attack on the household on the grounds that this had an element of personal revenge and thus did not fall within the ambit of the Act.

355 On 22 September Mr Ndodiphela Maseti [EC0481/96CCK], a former headman from the Middledrift area who had joined the ANC, was attacked by ANC-aligned youths. His home was burnt down and he was chased and burnt to death. His widow, Ms Thandiswa Beatrice Maseti, told the Commission that her husband was targeted because he had once been a member of Upper Gqumashe Tribal Authority. The Commission received amnesty applications from Mr Zukile Makhaphela [AM6438/96] and Mr Ludumo Mati [AM6439/96] in connection with this. They said they were part of a group that stoned and burnt Maseti because of their anger over the headman system.

356 ANC member Banele William Mxoli [EC2248/97CCK] was detained under the Ciskei state of emergency in October 1991; a week after the 1992 Bisho massacre, his home at Perksdale Mission in the Middledrift region was petrol-bombed by attackers believed to be ADM members. The following day another arson attack was launched on his home by people armed with guns. The Commission received amnesty applications from Perksdale Mission headman and ADM member Richard Ziyanda Mandita [AM3498/96] and four other ADM members, Mr Welile Mamayo [AM3499/96], Mr Mbulelo Ngxoweni [AM3024/96], Mr Japie Nimrod Mandita [AM3025/96] and Mr Bongani Mandita [AM3026/96]. Richard Ziyanda Mandita said his own home had been burnt down and he had attacked Mxoli and three others in revenge.

357 At the end of 1993, violence took a different form when a hit squad, apparently linked to the ADM, was set up. This group targeted ANC members and individuals who had spoken out against the ADM. On 23 December 1993, ANC member Mongezi Martin Ndudula [EC2090/97CCK] was shot and fatally wounded outside his home in Dimbaza. On 9 January 1994, Mr Khangelekile Tanana [EC2043/97CCK] was shot dead and Mr Thembani Moyeni [EC2083/97CCK] shot and injured while they were walking along the road on their way to an ANC meeting near Peddie. About two weeks later, the family of Mr Zongezile John Gamzana [EC2023/97KWT] at Phakamisa near King William’s Town was attacked at night, leaving three people injured. ADM chairperson Titise Mcoyiyana, Peace Force security employee Vuyisile Madikane, former MK member Jeffrey Moshumi, civil servant Dingaan Somtsora and CDF member Mongezi Reuben Solani subsequently faced thirty-seven charges including murder, attempted murder, armed robbery and weapons charges relating to incidents in December 1993 and January 1994. They were acquitted on all counts.

THE COMMISSION FINDS THAT THERE WERE VIOLENT CONFLICTS BETWEEN THE ANC AND ITS ALLIES AND THE CISKEI GOVERNMENT AND THE ADMIN THE FORMER CISKEI DURING THE 1990S. THESE CONFLICTS INVOLVED KILLINGS, ATTEMPTED KILLINGS AND SEVERE ILL TREATMENT. THEY WERE INFLUENCED BY POLITICAL INTOLERANCE ON BOTH SIDES AND WERE EXACERBATED BY THE THEN CISKEI GOVERNMENT’S INTOLERANCE OF LEGAL OPPOSITION. THEY INVOLVED BOTH AD HOC ATTACKS BY SUPPORTERS OF BOTH SIDES AND TARGETED ATTACKS BY ANC/MK MEMBERS ON CISKEI SECURITY FORCES (IN CONTRAVENTION OF THE ANC’S SUSPENSION OF THE ARMED STRUGGLE) AND BY CISKEI SECURITY FORCES ON MK MEMBERS AND/OR PROMINENT ANC MEMBERS.

THE COMMISSION FINDS THAT KILLINGS, ATTEMPTED KILLINGS AND SEVERE ILL TREATMENT WHICH OCCURRED DURING THIS CONFLICT WERE GROSS VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS, FOR WHICH THE ANC, THE CISKEI GOVERNMENT AND THE ADM ARE HELD ACCOUNTABLE.