Wally Mbhele reports on the bribery and corruption behind the Eikenhof massacre convictions
THE state witness who helped destroy the alibis of the three African National Congress members convicted of the Eikenhof killings has confessed to lying in court because the police had promised him a R250 000 reward.
Abel Korope’s claim, made in a sworn affidavit earlier this year, also implicates Charlie Landman, former commander of the Brixton murder and robbery squad, as the man who told him to lie to secure the convictions.
Landman led the police investigation into the 1993 Eikenhof murders, for which ANC activists Siphiwe Bholo, Boy Ndweni and Sipho Gavin were convicted and jailed. They narrowly escaped going to the gallows.
The Pan Africanist Congress’s military wing, Azanian People’s Liberation Army, last month claimed responsibility for the massacre.
Zandra Mitchely, her 14-year-old son Shaun and his friend Claire Silberbauer were killed by AK-47-wielding attackers in Eikenhof in the Vaal Triangle during the early morning hours of March 19 1993.
The three ANC men were convicted on the basis of confessions that Bholo and Ndweni made to Landman, and because their alibis were judged false – partly because Korope contradicted them.
But in his confession, Korope now confirms their alibis. He says that, contrary to what he told the court, he did see the three jailed ANC activists in Wesselsbron in the Free State on the day of the killings.
The police, led by Landman, had encouraged him to lie with the promise of the reward, Korope said.
“The police promised to reward me with a sum of R250 000 if I am prepared to make a statement to incriminate [the activists],” Korope’s affidavit states. “I at no material time made any voluntary statement to the police.”
Korope’s false story was worked out with Landman and other white police officers over a braai at Wesselsbron police station, months before the activists’ 1994 trial in Heidelberg.
Korope never received the reward, and questions remain about who the beneficiary was.
Landman, who has left the police to join a private security firm, said this week that he did not remember Korope. “I have never heard of that man,” he told the Mail & Guardian.
Korope, however, proved to be crucial in securing the activists’ conviction.
Following Landman’s investigation, Bholo and Ndweni were arrested in Wesselsbron, while Gavin was handed to the police by Tokyo Sexwale and Mathews Phosa, now respectively the premiers of Gauteng and Mpumalanga.
Bholo and Ndweni were each sentenced to death three times (later commuted to life), while Gavin was sentenced to an effective 17 years in jail.
Both Bholo and Ndweni claimed in court that the confessions they made were extracted through torture by Landman. This was rejected by Judge David Curlewis. Landman has also denied torturing the men.
Korope’s affidavit alleges a shocking tale of police determination to trample the truth to secure a swift conviction.
The claim by the three activists that they were in Wesselsbron at the time of the murders was supported by Oupa Kulashe, the chief defence witness.
Kulashe, in turn, told police that his testimony could be supported by Korope, then a Wesselsbron store employee, and Korope’s then employer, John de Coster.
Korope says in his affidavit that he met the three activists when he collected groceries from Kulashe’s shop for De Coster. He also saw Bholo and Gavin the following day in De Coster’s store.
He says De Coster later introduced him to Landman’s team at a hotel in Wesselsbron. “I was in the vehicle with De Coster when he explained to me that there are people who would like to see me and they are members of the police from Johannesburg.”
Korope says that his shack in Wesselsbron was burnt down some time after the killing. He did not know who had done it, but Landman told him to say in his affidavit that Kulashe was responsible.
Korope also tells how he was given R150 “for food” by Landman after making his false statement. Police have previously been accused of attempting to buy witnesses in the case with new clothes and groceries.
De Coster could not be reached for comment this week and the M&G was told that he has emigrated. His brother, Peter, denied that De Coster “went to court to lie. My brother went only to testify that he did not see those guys here at the shop that day.”
He said both his brother and Korope went to testify against Kulashe after he had cited them as supporters of his story. Judge Curlewis found that Korope and De Coster had both told the truth in court. But he accused Kulashe of attempting to give the three a false alibi, and rejected as forgeries the entries they had made in his receipt book.
Korope was not available this week, but it appears that he was prompted to write his affidavit when he did not get the reward.
l The Transvaal attorney general’s office this week said it would not “be making any comments about the Eikenhof matter or subject”.