An African National Congress guerrilla has been shot dead in his hospital bed in Maseru – and Lesotho authorities have been accused of complicity in the death-squad style killing. Mazizi Attwell Maqekeza was shot dead by an unknown gunman last Tuesday night in the Queen Elizabeth II hospital where he was recuperating from a bullet wound sustained in an earlier incident. He was killed only days before he was due to be flown to Zimbabwe for medical treatment. He had told a relative he was afraid he might be assassinated by "South African assassins" who had allegedly been seen at the hospital.
Maqekeza had asked his Durban- based lawyer, Kwenza Mlaba, to arrange for him to move as he did not feel he was getting adequate medical attention in Maseru. Mlaba made arrangements with the ANC and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and Maqekeza was due to be flown out last Friday. Instead, a lone gunman shot him dead in his hospital bed on Tuesday night at about 7.45pm. The relative said his bed had been moved under a window a few days before, fuelling her fears for his life. The gunman shot through the window, while other patients in the ward watched. When the relative went to see him the next morning she saw "a pool of blood on the floor and the sheets were drenched in blood "
A police representative confirmed Maqekeza had been shot at the hospital by a lone gunman ruing through the window with a 9mm pistol. A policeman standing guard over Maqekeza had been unable to do anything. Two men had accompanied the gunman, but no arrests had been made so far. There was "no trace", he said, and the matter was "dark at present". Police had no idea who could be responsible, he said. The incident is likely to harden perceptions that Lesotho, under Major- General Justin Lekhanya, is acting in Pretoria's interests, particularly as the dead man's relatives say he was shot and wounded by members of the Royal Lesotho Defence Force earlier this year.
Last month Maqekeza was travelling with two friends at night on a lonely road near Tswaing Bridge in the Mafiteng district when they were stopped by heavily-armed soldiers. The soldiers demanded the three identify themselves. All three produced Transkei passports and -identified themselves as ANC members. "The soldiers told them if they were ANC, then they were exactly who the (Lesotho) State of Emergency was declared for," the relative said. The soldiers searched the three and their car and found a pistol on Maqekeza. "They lined them up and began to shoot," she said. Thandwefika Radebe, a Roma University law student was shot dead, Maqekeza was wounded in the knee, while the third man managed to escape. Radebe and Maqekeza were found the next morning by some workers, who took them to Mafiteng hospital.
Maqekeza was transferred to Maseru's Queen Elizabeth II HospitaI in a critical condition. The relative said Maqekeza had "been under guard at Queen Elizabeth hospital. He had told her he was being interrogated and tortured Mlaba said he had instructed Maseru attorneys to take "up the matter with the milltary council and had received assurances that Maqekeza's interrogation would be stopped, and that he would not be handed over to Transkei or South African authorities. Lesotho police have disputed this account.
A representative said Maqekeza was part of a "gang" that attacked police. They had been driving an unregistered foreign car and ran off when stopped by police. They had opened fire on police, the spokesman said. Maqekeza had been registered as a refugee with the UNHCR. But local UNHCR director K Afriyie said Maqekeza had once had a file with his office, but this was now closed. Maqekeza is believed to be the same man named as a "trained terrorist" by Law and Order Minister Adriaan Vlok in January this year.
Vlok had issued a statement in response to a report in Weekly Mail describing a shootout between ANC guerrillas and Transkei police in January 1987. Vlok said South African security police were called to assist Transkei police at the Lurwayizo trading post near Willowvale. Maqekeza, he said, had been one of four occupants of a car spotted in the area. Another was Zolile Ntlathi, who Vlok said was the commander of the ANC's Transkei military machinery. When stopped by Transkei police, the four escaped.
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.
