Ann Eveleth=20
KWAZULU-NATAL Safety and Security MEC Celani Mtetwa — =20 named this week as a former paid police agent and gun =20 runner — is no stranger to the third force spotlight.=20
Allegations linking the former KwaZulu homeland justice =20 minister to gunrunning and to the notorious C10 =20 Vlakplaas security police unit first appeared in the =20 Weekly Mail & Guardian in June 1994 when it was =20 revealed that the Goldstone Commission possessed =20 evidence to this effect.=20
The second report of the Transitional Executive Council =20 task force on hit-squads also alleged that Mtetwa had =20 visited the illegal Mlaba camp where some 5 000 Inkatha =20 Freedom Party self-protection unit troops received =20 training in the use of firearms and other weapons. Many =20 of them were former Caprivi trainees — a group of 200 =20 IFP members who had received clandestine South African =20 Defence Force training in the Caprivi Strip in 1986, =20 during Mtetwa’s tenure in the homeland justice =20 ministry. =20
The reports fuelled a controversy at the time, =20 threatening to split the fledgling KwaZulu-Natal unity =20 government when the IFP’s Premier Frank Mdlalose’s =20 decided to appoint Mtetwa to his present post as Safety =20 and Security MEC. =20
Earlier this year, Durban Supreme Court Judge Nick van =20 der Reyden heard evidence from self-confessed KwaZulu =20 Police hit-squad killers Gcina Mkhize and Romeo Mbambo =20 that Mtetwa had delivered a crate of 25 AK47 rifles to =20 the IFP offices in Empnageni, northern KwaZulu-Natal. =20 No contradictory evidence was led in that trial. =20
Mtetwa was “unmasked” last week by the Sunday Times — =20 together with IFP Gauteng leaders Themba Khoza and =20 Humphrey Ndlovu and IFP members Victor and James Ndlovu =20 — as a paid police informer who received monthly =20 payments of R1 000 to R2 000. His pivotal role in =20 gunrunning between the apartheid state’s security =20 apparatus and his party has been confirmed by the now-=20 public Goldstone Commission transcripts.=20
Khoza, and Humphrey Ndlovu, who this week denied the =20 allegations, were first linked — along with 16 senior =20 KwaZulu policemen — to hit-squads by the March 1994 =20 TEC report revealed in this paper. The report said =20 Khoza and Ndlovu “were involved in the planning” the =20 November 1993 massacre of 11 people at Nqutu, northern =20
Khoza and Ndlovu’s brother, Victor, were first linked =20 to gunrunning by the March 1994 Goldstone Commission =20 “third force” report as the recipients and distributors =20 of home-made guns manufactured and supplied by =20 Vlakplaas. That report said Khoza had been recruited by =20 former Vlakplaas member and Absa employee Brood van =20 Heerden. The report also alleged that C10 had paid =20 Khoza’s bail and legal fees when he was arrested with =20 weapons at a roadblock in September 1990.=20
IFP Secretary-General Ziba Jiyane said this week that =20 the allegations raised against IFP members in the De =20 Kock trial were “unproven” and still had to be tested =20 in court.=20