THE story of how the state witnesses in the Eikenhof trial turned against the chief defence witness, Oupa Kulashe, is a tale of betrayal and deceit.
Kulashe, uncle to two of the three accused, said even his most trusted friends, patrons of his tavern, tuckshop customers and his only employee, repudiated him in the Heidelberg court.
He had thought they would all confirm his statement to the police, proving the alibi of the three accused. Hardly any of them did.
“I had mentioned their names in my statement because I knew they knew the three guys were here in Wesselsbron on the day the police said they were involved in the killing of people in Eikenhof [on March 19 1993],” he told the Mail & Guardian this week.
He still finds it difficult to accept that people who were once his friends became his sworn enemies. “Some have even claimed I intimidated them not to testify against these guys. One of them, [Abel] Korope, even claimed I burnt his shack,” says Kulashe.
Sipho Gavin, Boy Ndweni and Siphiwe Bholo, all members of a self-defence unit, arrived at his Wesselsbron house in the Free State during February 1993.
They had fled the Vaal Triangle where they feared a police witch-hunt against self-defence unit members. When he offered them accommodation, little could he realise the trouble that would follow.
“Everything in Wesselsbron went well until after some time when [former Brixton murder and robbery squad commander Charlie] Landman came to arrest them.”
Landman claimed the police had been sent both by FW de Klerk and Nelson Mandela, Kulashe said.
“I was shaken like a reed. We were forced to kneel down on the street with our hands held up above our heads and asked about Sipho’s whereabouts. It was a horrifying experience.
“At the police station, they started questioning me about their movements since they arrived here in Wesselsbron. I was also asked about Sipho’s whereabouts.
“I told them they never left this place since their arrival. A few days thereafter, we saw on television that the police were offering a reward of R250 000 for anyone who can give information that would lead to Sipho’s arrest.”
However, “a day or two thereafter, we heard that Sipho has been handed over to the police by comrade Tokyo Sexwale”.
After the arrests, Kulashe recalled: “Landman began frequenting Wesselsbron to have secret meetings with witnesses. I assume he used his financial muscle to lure them to become state witnesses and to give false testimony in court.”
One witness, Sergeant Joseph Maphasa, had spent most of the fateful day on which the Eikenhof massacre took place drinking beer with friends in his tavern, said Kulashe.
“From early in the morning this chap was drinking here, together with one of his colleagues, Sergeant Mofammere, and their friends until very late at night. In his testimony, he said he never saw the three guys here when he knew that they were serving him beer. Maphasa said he only saw them on previous occasions. But that, on that particular day, he was served by me,” said Kulashe.
Maphasa denied Kulashe’s account this week: “I never said the three were not in Wesselsbron on that particular day. What I told the court was that I did not go to Kulashe’s place that day.”
He said Kulashe’s statements could tarnish his track record in the Police, Prisons and Civil Rights Union of which he is an official.
Another witness who stunned Kulashe was his own employee, Outshwa Mbambala. “I thought I had someone trustworthy working with me. People can kill you while laughing with you at the same time.”
Kulashe said there were allegations that police had bought Mbambala’s testimony with clothing. Mbambala no longer works for him.
He recalled how he tried to contact another man, Matluku, who had bought a battery from one of the accused on the day of the Eikenhof shootings. “I wanted to take him with me to court so that he can help in countering some witnesses’ lies.”
But Kulashe said the man’s father told him the police said he must not interfere with them. “I was forced to leave without that witness. Upon my arrival in court, I was warned not to interfere with witnesses.”
Kulashe said he was arrested the same day and “locked up in Odendaalsrus”. He was charged with treason, intimidating more than six witnesses, obstructing police investigations and threatening to kill them. He was granted bail of R15 000, and was eventually acquitted in the Welkom Regional Court.
Kulashe said he felt vindicated by the Pan Africanist Congress’s admission that its members were responsible for the Eikenhof killings and the admission by one of the state witnesses that the police had told him to lie in court.
“It’s now up to the public to prove who was lying,” Kulashe said. “I’ll never forget.”