WEDNESDAY, 3.00PM
IN continuing testimony before the inquest into the deaths of 19 people during an Inkatha march in March 1994, the Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday heard that the number of staff guarding the African National Congress’s Shell House headquarters was doubled and additional firearms issued after promised police reinforcements failed to arrive.
Shell House security chief Andrew Sitlabane, now employed by the National Intelligence Agency, said the number of guards at the ANC headquarters was increased from 25 to 50, and 21 additional weapons were issued, including an AK-47 assault rifle.
Sitlabane told presiding Judge Robert Nugent he telephoned police captain Chris Wilken and told him the ANC expected an attack on Shell House. According to Sitlabane the information he received from his senior was that the building would be attacked and the ANC leadership would be assassinated before the 1994 elections. Sitlabane said Wilken promised to send reinforcements and additional police patrols. He said to his surprise he found not more than six policemen stationed there that morning, as thousands of Zulu marchers filed past the building.
On Tuesday, Sitlabane told the hearing he had been given the AK-47 by late ANC security chief Leonard Radu “in case there was trouble”, and he had in turn given it to one of the ANC security guards outside the building. Sitlabane said it was the first time he had seen an AK-47 at Shell House.