Bophuthatswana leader Lucas Mangope delivered a chilling warning to the Leeuwfontein community a month before clashes between residents and his police this week left 12 people dead. ”Bophuthatswana is like a prickly pear … tasty, but also very dangerous,” he said to the community that has been resisting the forced incorporation into his homeland that took place in December last year. ”I warn you strongly- not to abuse me. I am not your dustbin. Do not play games with me. If you do I will prick you and pierce you like a prickly pear. ”I have heard that you do not want to see my police force in this place. Know that I actually love them for carrying out my instructions … I am going to order them to come to this place. They will see to it that there is order in this place,” Mangope said. He did not know his words were being tape-recorded.
The clash on Saturday that followed this warning left nine Bophuthatswana police and two civilians dead. Since then a reign of terror has taken hold of the twin villages of Leeuwfontein and Braklaagte, which have been points of conflict since their forced incorporation into the homeland. A twelfth death occurred yesterday when police allegedly stopped a bus of civilians at a roadblock and started beating them all- leaving Moretsela Mafora, a man of over 65, to die. Villagers say police have been conducting house-to-house raids and beating people indiscriminately. Hundreds have been detained. When Weekly Mail visited the area this week; an atmosphere of fear, terror and hostility reigned.
And yesterday, Lydia Kompe, a fieldworker from the Transvaal Rural Action Committee (Trac), the first organisation to expose the violence in this isolated area, was also detained. Two residents who were released from detention in the homeland on Wednesday showing signs of severe assault, said they had been beaten re¬peatedly since their arrest on Saturday. ”We were on our way to the meeting (where the clash occurred) when police approached us and started beating us. In fact police, together with soldiers, began patrolling the village the previous night and on the morning of their meeting started ha¬rassing the youth, trying to get them not to attend the meeting.” ”We were taken in vans and beaten with rifle butts and kicked all over our bodies. We were driven to the Mmabatho Police Station where police from neighbouring stations and soldiers came to beat us almost the whole night. ”We were not given food till the next day. Even old people were beaten up. Some of the people were vomiting blood, while some had to be taken to hospital immediately upon release.”
The two residents showed their wounds and bruises, but asked that their names not be used for fear of victimisation. This week the two villages were almost deserted – except for hundreds of Bophuthatswana police conducting house-house searches. Over 100 villagers had been arrested, hundred others injured and a further hundred have fled the village. There were no men or youth in the villages -all have sought refuge in neighbouring farms or in the nearby bush-covered hills. The Zebras Football Ground, where I Saturday’s killings took place, looked: like a cemetery. Patches of black ash, from burned tyres and human flesh, marked the turf and filled the air with an odour of pain and suffering. Villagers staying next to the football said that since Saturday they had been hounded by the sounds of gunshots and the screams of the policemen who were burned to death by angry residents. A
large contingent of heavily-armed homeland police and army were conducting a house-to-house search. Some were in the vicinity of the football grounds picking up shoes and clothing. A shopkeeper commented: ”It is hell here. We are ruled by force. In the night were woken up at ungodly hours. Our children have fled the villages and are living in farms and in the bushes. We are not sure whether they are still alive or not.” Young children are now confined in their homes and can only be seen peeping through chicken coops and heaps of unwanted belongings in backyards. The only sound to be heard was the bark of dogs – which signalled that the police were approaching another house to search. Up to 15 police and soldiers entered one house at a time. Others combed nearby hills, looking for villagers. Many residents expressed the fear that the homeland police would avenge the deaths of their colleagues, saying they had threatened to do so during the raids.
One opponent of incorporation, popularly known as Mma-Mokgethi, described Saturday’s bloody confron-tation. ”The meeting on Saturday by both villages was a peaceful meeting seeking ways to resolve the incorporation. ”We had assembled at the football grounds to discuss our problems because the majority of our people do not want to be part of Bophuthatswana Suddenly a Hippo (armoured vehicle) and two police vans arrived. The police approached our leaders and said the meeting was illegal. The atmosphere was tense but people remained calm. ”After the leaders explained that the ·· meeting was legal, two vans left and the Hippo remained with five police, men inside ”The people remained calm, but the hippo drove through the crowds, firing teargas and shots. This sparked the confrontation. ”The people retaliated and threw stones at the hippo and its tyres were slashed. A petrol bomb was hurled at it. ”From there we all ran in different directions but from far I only saw black smoke as the Hippo was slowly driving out the football grounds. ”Then later shots and teargas was fired and police came in their numbers and more shots were fired. People ran in different directions, some to the hills and farms nearby.
”Since then a lot of them had not returned home and we do not know if they are arrested or not. It was like a war zone.” Another eyewitness, who did not want his name published, said people threw petrol bombs at the Hippo after the police inside it had opened fire. The five policemen inside were burnt and one resident, who was allegedly pouring petrol into the Hippo, was also killed. – One other civilian was shot and four other policemen were stabbed and hacked to death. He said South African police soon arrived with more homeland police and army. A police helicopter was used to track people in the hills. Residents said roadblocks were manned by both the homeland security forces and the South African police at the entrances of both villages.
However, this week the South African Police denied any involvement in the incident. On Wednesday night; 128 people were released from custody and eight people appeared in the Lehurutse Magistrate court charged with murder, arson and public violence. After their release, clandestine meetings took place around the trouble villages as residents were prepar¬ing themselves to attend the court hearing yesterday. Fourteen people appeared yesterday on charges of murder and malicious damage to property. They are due to appear again on Wednesday. Seven others appeared on a charge of arson, and were also remanded until Wednesday. Meanwhile, scores of people are said to be lying in the Leratong Hospital in Krugersdorp and the Bophelong Hospital in Mafikeng. However, there are many signs in· the town that resistance to incorporation is still strong. Residents are de¬termined to meet again, and fear that police will carry out their threat to avenge Saturday ‘s deaths. There is therefore a strong likeli¬hood of further clashes.
- The government of Bophuthatswana has been virtually silent on the incident. Colonel David George of the Bophuthatswana Police said earlier in the week that a large crowd armed with petrol bombs, axes and stones hand launched an unprovoked attack on security forces when they arrived to investigate an illegal gathering at Leeuwfontein on Saturday. Last night, the homeland ‘s department of foreign affairs said it had ”evidence that the unrest was instigated from outside the country. ”It is interesting to note that the two civilians who died (at Leeuwfontein; were from Krugersdrop and Johannesburg,” the statement said. It also attacked newspapers which published ”inaccurate reports” on the incident.
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.
