TRC Final Report

Volume 6

Section 3

Chapter 6

Subsection 7

Links with the Inkatha Freedom Party

65. Applications and intelligence documents provide evidence that some IFP members and right-wingers collaborated on a wide front, particularly in efforts to procure weapons.

66. With the formation of the Concerned South Africans Group (COSAG) in 1993, the IFP formalised its ties with the Afrikaner Volks f ront, an umbrella body comprising a variety of conservative and right-wing groups.

67. Evidence before the Committee confirmed that, even before the formation of COSAG, AWB groups were working closely with the IFP, particularly on the KwaZulu/Natal north coast and to some extent on the West Rand. This association involved mainly the procurement of arms and ammunition, although there were also reports of AWB groups providing training assistance. Joint operations were planned in at least two instances on the KwaZulu/Natal south coast (See the Flagstaff police station attack below).

68. Former IFP member Walter Felgate testified at a section 29 hearing²³⁶ that most right-wing offers for joint operations to pro cure weapons were declined by the IFP.

69. Amnesty was granted to Mr Gerrit Phillipus Anderson [AM8077/97], an AWB member whose cell in Natal co-operated with the IFP to pro c u re and hide weapons between May 1993 and June 1994 [AC/1998/0005]. Anderson was an adviser on special AWB operations in Natal. He testified before the Amnesty Committee that the AWB procured weapons for the IFP as it was believed that the IFP could help the AWB realise its ideal of a volkstaat. He testified that the AWB leadership approved these actions. Anderson stated in his application that the homemade guns were hidden by an IFP member and later handed over to the Security Branch by a third party.

70. IFP supporter Mr Allan Nolte [AM2501/96] applied for amnesty for planning to poison the water supply of Umlazi in Durban with cyanide during 1993/4. The plan was never executed. Nolte testified that he was ‘on loan to the AWB’ for the planned operation and named other right-wingers who were party to the proposed poisoning operation. Nolte was later convicted of illegal possession of arms and explosives, an offence for which he was refused amnesty because it was committed after the cut-off date [AC/1999/0073]²³⁷ He testified that the aim of joint IFP/AW B operations was to isolate KwaZulu-Natal from the rest of the country in order to ‘take control of it’.

The Flagstaff police station attack

71. Four AWB members and three IFP members launched an attack on the Flagstaff police station in the Eastern Cape on 6 March 1994, with the intention of stealing arms for use by IFP self-protection units (SPUs).²³⁸ AWB members Harry Simon Jardine [AM6178/97] and Andrew Howell [AM5961/97], AWB/IFP member Morton Christie [AM6610/97] and IFP members Christo Brand [AM6422/97] and James Mkhazwa Zulu [AM5864/97] applied for amnesty for the incident. Before the start of the hearing, Mr Zulu was killed in a violent altercation and his application could not be proceeded with.

72. The applicants testified before the Committee that AWB Commander Patrick Pedlar and Mr Robin Shoesmith, an IFP SPU member, requested that they attack the Flagstaff station on a Sunday when it was thought that there would be only one SAP officer on duty. However, unbeknown to the applicants, the police were tipped off about the attack, allegedly by Pedlar himself. Reinforcements were sent to the police station and what had been foreseen as an easy robbery turned into a shoot-out. The police officer on duty, Mr Barnabas Jaggers, died in the attack and officers Wele Edmund Nyanguna and Mzingizi Abednego Mkhondweni were injured. The applicants managed to get away with a vehicle, arms and ammunition and a trunk containing R140 in cash.

73. Mr Jardine testified that, at the time, the AWB was preparing for war because the ANC was going to take over the country. In this volatile political climate, the AWB co-operated with the IFP because they shared ‘a common enemy’ in the ANC/SACP alliance. Working with the IFP would strengthen the might of the AWB in the south coastal areas of KwaZulu/Natal (Durban hearing, April 1998).

74. Mr Howell testified before the Committee that the IFP and the AWB shared the same belief in the self-determination of their people. Working together to combat the ANC’s rise to power would strengthen the AWB’s aim of achieving a Boerestaat (Durban hearing, April 1998).

75. Mr Christie testified that he had been instructed by AWB General Nick Fourie²³⁹ to assist the IFP in any way possible.

MR CHRISTIE: … I see in the news and what-not, the IFP or Zulus, as such, had marched with other right-wingers in other parts of the country. So, our objective was, obviously, to assist the IFP. You know, they not having the benefit of military training as what we’ve had and, of course, the ANC having benefit of military training from overseas, the IFP are left with no military training. I was instructed on that regard that we should assist the IFP in any way possible. (Durban hearing, 24 April 1998.)

76. Although he authorised the attack, Fourie was not involved in planning it. He did, however, warn Christie to proceed with caution and to be wary of local AWB Commander Patrick Pedlar, who was thought to be an informer for the Security Branch.

77. All five applicants were convicted of the robbery, the killing of Mr Barnabas Jaggers and the attempted killing of Mr Wele Edmund Nyanguna and Mr Mzingizi Abednego Mkhondweni. Their sentencing in the matter was delayed pending the outcome of their amnesty applications. The surviving victims, Mr Nyanguna and Mr Mkhondweni, opposed their applications on the grounds that the applicants did not disclose who actually wounded them and killed Mr Jaggers.

78. The Amnesty Committee found that the operation was associated with a political objective committed in the course of the conflicts of the past and that the relevant facts relating to the particular offenses had been disclosed, bearing in mind the circumstances prevailing that night. Amnesty was granted the four applicants [AC/1998/0015].