Brigadier Andrew Molope, the notorious Bophuthatswana policeman responsible for the Winterveld massacre, was murdered by his own hit-squad. This was revealed by a man who took part in the killing, Bophuthatswana death row prisoner David Themba Mzimela.
In a written statement, Mzimela, a police informer, said he was ordered to act as a driver for an assassin imported from another area to kill the brigadier. He also took part in two other petrol bomb attacks – on the houses of Dr Sam Motsuenyane, president of the National Federated Chamber of Commerce, and community leader Martha Lebopo. He alleges that a hit list of prominent people like Motsuenyane, Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, general secretary of the Institute of Contextual Theology, and self-exiled Chief Lebone Molotlegi, of Phokeng near Rustenburg, existed.
The condemned prisoner -whose revelations chillingly parallel those of Almond Nofemela, the Pretoria death row prisoner who first revealed the existence of death squads – told lawyers he was pan of the Zebra Force hit squad which operated mainly in the Winterveld area north of Pretoria during 1986. The murdered brigadier allegedly ordered the shootings on March 26 1986 when 11 people were killed and numerous others injured in a soccer stadium in Winterveld.
Molope gave evidence before the Smith Commission of Inquiry appointed by the Bophuthatswana government to investigate the massacre. The commission’s findings have not been made public. The brigadier was apparently killed because his evidence might have implicated a very senior Bophuthatswana official. Says Mzimela: ”After some time we heard that Molope had told the court (commission) that the instruction to kill the Winterveld people came from high up.” His handler had called him and told him: ”Killer – that is my name they know me with – the time is ripe for Molope’s assassination.” Mzimela, a Winterveld resident, said he had been detained by Bophuthatswana Police.
Molope ”instructed three policemen to interrogate me … and afterwards to kill me”. But another policeman told the brigadier that ”I should be recruited into the police because I knew the comrades well”. He joined the ”homeland’s” police force as an informer only a few days after the Winterveld shootings, he said. Mzimela alleges that the tasks of the squad included attacks on community leaders’ houses and the elimination of key activists.
The Zebra Force’s clandestine operations were carried out using stolen cars impounded at police stations. He alleges the squad was divided in10 four groups, two of which operated in Winterveld and one each in Hammanskraal and Mafikeng. Mzimela says his first task was to spy on the houses of Motsuenyane and Lebopo. Both houses were subsequently petrol bombed, but no one was injured in the attacks. Mzimela says he was paid R 1 000 for each of the bombings.
During the Smith Commission, Joycelyn Motsuenyane and Lebopo as well as Molope gave evidence on the Winterveld shootings. On the day of the brigadier’s murder, Mzimela, fellow ”Bop squad” member and the assassin changed their car for a stolen car impounded at a police station. They then drove to ”Beirut” in Winterveld where Molope lived. Mzimela waited in the car as the assassin and another squad member went to Molope’s house. ”When I was approaching the house I heard a shot being fired and then I put more speed knowing that the assassination has been carried out,” he says. Back at a rendezvous the assassin took off his overalls, revealing a soldier’s uniform, says the condemned man.
Mzimela said he was paid R1 500 and promised a car and a house for his part in the assassination … Reports at the time said Molope, divisional commissioner of police for the Odi and Moretele districts, was shot dead about 8pm on 21 June 1986. At his funeral President Lucas Mangope said: ”He died for our independence.”
* Mzimela was sentenced to death after being convicted for murder and two armed robberies. – Charles Leonard & Vusi Gunene
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.
