TRC Final Report

Volume 3

Chapter 5

Subsection 23

Public order policing in rural areas

137 Rural towns followed a markedly similar cycle of violence. During 1985, protest meetings were often broken up violently by security forces and street protests became more militant. Many towns saw at least one or two deaths of youth activists during 1985, which served to propel the townships into wider protest and attacks on those seen as collaborators. Worcester and Beaufort West are clear examples of this pattern. In certain instances, fatal police shootings were followed almost immediately by fatal attacks on so-called collaborators, as happened in Upington and Phillipstown. After 1986, police shootings tended to be at the hands of the special constables, discussed later. Certain incidents in rural towns are outlined below.

Worcester

138 In Worcester the spark was provided by the killing of Mr Nkosana Nation Bahume, after which a cycle of deaths and injuries took place until the end of the year.

139 On 16 August 1985, student activist Nkosana Nation Bahume [CT00547], aged twenty-one, was shot dead by the security forces. On 30 August, the local magistrate issued restriction orders on the funeral of Bahume, who was to be buried the following day. At the funeral, police fired at mourners, killing Mr Mbulelo Kenneth Mazula [CT00528], aged twenty. An eyewitness testified that “police dragged his body to the vehicle and took him to the mortuary”. People were assaulted, shot and detained by security forces in the uproar.

140 Mbulelo Mazula was buried on 8 September without incident. However, on 21 September 1985 Mr Andile Feni [CT08402] and two others were shot and injured by a policeman in Zwelethemba after a crowd had thrown petrol bomb at a police officer’s house after a mass meeting that had resolved to chase all police from the area following the killings.

141 On 1 October 1985, Mr Thomas Kolo [CT08400], age 18, was shot dead by security forces. He was buried on 11 October and the funeral was restricted by the magistrate. The following day, security forces shot Mr Zandisile Ntsomi [CT00320]. Ntsomi’s leg was amputated and he was discharged from hospital back into police custody the following day.

A nurse came along and brought me a wheelchair … and two packets of pills. I was wearing a hospital night gown. They drove me out of the hospital – I was on the wheel chair, put me in the police van – I was operated yesterday, let me remind you.

Dr Orr: [indistinct] … get the sequence of events clear in my mind. You had the operation on the Sunday. Your leg was amputated above the knee…. which is a serious operation and the doctor discharged you the very next day, is that correct? And he discharged you knowing that you were going back to the police cells, not to your home?

Mr Ntsomi: Exactly, that’s what happened.

142 Ntsomi was then driven in the van to Cape Town and back to Worcester.

‘We arrived in Worcester. As we were in the charge office … they told me that “these were the fruits of what you are doing in the location”. I still remember one of the policeman saying to me “you mustn’t worry – your leg will grow again”. It was funny to me because I have never seen a leg growing again. Seemingly he was very happy of what happened to me … I am not the same person whom I used to be – or I know myself to be’.

143 On 13 October, Douglas Ndzima [CT00821] was shot twice by police in Zwelethemba. That day Ms Martha Nomathamsanqa Mooi’s house [CT03026] in Zwelethemba was petrol-bombed by UDF members. Mr Mpazamo Bethwell Mbani (Yiko) [CT03026], her brother-in-law, was shot dead and his body set alight.

144 On 2 November 1985, Mr Cecil Roos Tamsanqa van Staden [CT00132] was shot by police and died two days later. The following day, Mr William Dyasi [CT00823] was shot dead by police in Zwelethemba. An inquest was held and Constable Michael Phillip Luff was found responsible for the murder but he was not prosecuted. At the intervention of the Commission the case was reopened, following which Luff applied to the Commission for amnesty [AM3814/96].

145 On 9 November, at the night vigil of one of the victims, Mr Buzile Fadana [CT00131], was shot dead after police arrived and an “armed encounter” resulted. His death marked an end to this cycle of killings and injuries that year.

146 By November 1985, an extreme environment of repression existed in Zwelethemba, which was declared out of bounds to all except residents. Roadblocks were set up and residents were only allowed to go to their homes on producing identity documents. There were twenty-four hour foot patrols, and searchlights swept the streets at night. Residents reported a heavy presence of Zulu-speaking policemen. Funerals of unrest victims were restricted to only fifty people and the family of the deceased. In one instance, forty young people were detained whilst participating in a funeral vigil.

THE COMMISSION FINDS THAT THE KILLING BY POLICE OF MR NKOSANA NATION BAHUME ON 16 AUGUST 1985 TRIGGERED A SEQUENCE OF VIOLENCE, IN WHICH NUMEROUS RESIDENTS OF WORCESTER WERE KILLED OR INJURED BY POLICE AND A NUMBER OF PERSONS AND BUILDINGS WERE ATTACKED IN RETALIATION. THE DRACONIAN RESPONSE OF THE AUTHORITIES, INCLUDING CURFEWS, ROADBLOCKS AND SWEEPING DETENTIONS, ONLY AGGRAVATED THE SITUATION.