FRIDAY, 3.30PM
A FORMER African National Congress security guard, in his second day of testimony to the Shell House inquest, claimed that police were in cohoots with Inkatha Freedom Party marchers when they left the ANC’s Shell House headquarters unguarded minutes before marchers attacked the building.
The inquest is into the death of 19 people on March 28 1994, when 20 000 Inkatha Freedom Party supporters marched through Johannesburg to demand constitutional powers for the Zulu King and campaign against the first democratic elections. More than 50 people lay dead in the marchers’ wake.
Eddie Khumalo, now a police superintendent, told the inquest that four soldiers were deployed near Shell House on the morning of March 28 1994. He said a large group of marchers had gathered nearby outside Park Station, firing automatic rifles into the air and chanting the battle cry “Usutu!” Soon afterwards, Khumalo said, a plainclothes policeman had approached the four soldiers and ordered them to leave the area. Moments later, a group of marchers approached the building and opened fire on ANC guards.
Police legal representative D Joubert said police would deny they connived with anyone or any group in an attack on Shell House.