Afterwards, the observers, including senior attorneys, accused the South African Police of negligence, and even complicity, in the violence. They, and a number of residents, have signed affidavits accusing police of taking part in the massacre. ”There appeared to be a total breakdown of law and order and the SAP appeared to be involved in the commission of offences, by participation and omission,” a turning Richard Lyster of the Legal Resources Centre in Durban said.
Roy Ainslie of the Democratic Party unrest monitoring committee added: ”As a result of what I witnessed today it appeared that the SAP are contributing to the breakdown of law and order by openly siding with one of the groups in the conflict.” Not only did Ainslie see evidence of this, but he quoted kwaZulu Police members making similar accusations against their SAP colleagues. Lyster, in his affidavit, told how on Tuesday he saw a group of about 100 to 120 men armed with knobkierries, bush knives, pangas and sticks move along a road, entering houses while a Hippo vehicle drove in the vicinity of the group. Lyster added Ainslie had told him shots had been coming from the group.
The policeman in charge of the Hippo confirmed he ”had instructions not to disarm the group”, the lawyer said. Allegations made by residents in affidavits implicate the police in allowing vigilante groups to attack Mpumalanga residents, shooting at residents, looting their homes and showing partiality to Inkatha supporters. And yesterday the township was seal off by the police. Fighting broke out in the district early this week when a group of men allegedly stormed houses, setting them alight, and firing shots. The Democratic Party unrest monitoring committee member, Roy Ainslie, said on Wednesday night the death toll in the Natal township stood at 18. However several families from the area had since called the DP’s offices looking for missing relatives. The Pietermaritzburg township has been plagued by internecine violence between United Democratic Front supporters and Inkatha members since 1987.
Some of the allegations made this week include:
- That SAP members armed with a ”large gun” shot a young boy in the leg on Monday night and then threatened residents who tried to help him. This happened after a house was petrol bombed while police and ”kitskonstabels” stood watching and mingling with a group of armed men carrying sticks, knobkieries, bush knives and spears. According to another affidavit, a group of white policemen and kitskonstabels fired with long, pump action shot guns at random at youths on the streets.
- That kitskonstabels and white policemen in a Hippo watched while ”lnkatha people set my house alight” on Monday.
- At 12.30 pm on Monday a ”group of white policemen with uniformed special constables opened fire on my house with pump action shot guns,” said a resident in another affidavit. Special constables entered the house taking clothing and other possessions. They were then helped by a group of black men carrying sticks, bush knives and assegais.
Other affidavits indicate that police collision with Inkatha was evident earlier than this week. A Mpumalanga resident related in a sworn statement how, in April last year, a white policeman told him ”the Inkatha group had attacked the incorrect house” when he reported that they had bombed his house. ‘The Mpumalanga police station commander, ‘Smith’, said he was a member of Inkatha and there was no room for UDF members in Mpumalanga.
”Neither he nor the policeman who took the statement from me appeared to show any concern or interest in the matter I had reported to them. ”He also told me that the police knew of the Inkatha gangs that attacked the houses and the people in Mpumalanga. He said that often there were members of the police who took part in the attacks.
- Another woman reported that her house was searched and stoned by three white policemen in October. When she reported the incident a group of white policemen visited her and informed her that ”Mpumalanga was reserved for Inkatha people, and all others have to leave”. He did not care where she and her family went to -”that was not his problem” – but she should ”make sure she left immediately”.
The same woman two weeks ago, on November 20, witnessed three white policemen shooting a young boy. ”After he was shot another group of men, armed with sticks and pangas, attacked and killed him in the presence of police,” she said. Ainslie also said he witnessed police on Tuesday ”taking no action against gangs who swarmed into houses”. Lyster said Unit Three of the township, where almost all the violence and arson took place, is known to be inhabited by UDF supporters. Lyster believed from talking to people that the police were determined to undermine and harass people in this area to force them to leave the township in order to make way for supporters of Inkatha.
Ainslie added a kwaZulu policeman, a Colonel Dube, seemed to lack authority in the presence of the SAP. ”Other kwaZulu police members told me that they were being prevented from taking action by the SAP. They made serious allegations concerning the SAP. They said that the SAP had attacked and looted houses together with the vigilantes. They said that on Monday a SAP Hippo had trans¬ ported vigilantes from Section 4 to attack Section 3.” SAP liaison officer for Natal, Lieutenant Colonel Chari du Toit, said police had shot dead three people this week after they were attacked. He said police had a video to confirm that residents had fired shots at police.
Du Toit said police were shot at 10 times by residents on Tuesday. Concerning the allegations made in the affidavits, Du Toit maintained the ”SAP did follow ups, dispersed crowds and arrested agitators. We are there for law and order. We are unbiased at all times”. Furthermore, he said, people who had such complaints should come to the police. Natal police spokesman Colonel JG Lourens said the LRC had submitted affidavits to him. ‘These documents have been handed to the uniform branch for investigation,” he added. Concerned organisations such as the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (Contralesa) have set up an independent commission of inquiry, headed by Durban senior advocate RS Douglas, to investigate the causes of the violence. – Cassandra Moodley
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.
