TUESDAY, 3.30PM
A FORMER KwaZulu policeman, Gcina Brian Mkhize, 21, on Tuesday became the first of the “Caprivi 200”, Inkatha members given paramilitary training by the SA Defence Force in the 1980s, to testify before the truth commission.
Mkhize’s testimony was delayed since Monday following attempts by the National Party and former SADF chief General Kat Liebenberg to have TRC deputy chair Alex Boraine recuse himself from the hearing after alleging Boraine had demonstrated bias. The TRC refused the demands, reserving its right not to give reasons for its refusal.
Mkhize is currently serving a lengthy jail sentence for the murder of several people in Esikhaweni in northern KwaZulu-Natal in the early 1990s.
He testified how Inkatha recruits who received paramilitary training from the SADF at Hippo Camp in the Caprivi strip were told to believe that the African National Congress was the enemy because it supported communism. Political commissar Daluxolo Luthuli, who was their commander, told them it was better to suffer white oppression than to live under communism. The ANC regarded Inkatha as a stumbling block to freedom and did not recognise the organisation as consisting of freedom fighters, Mkhize said. Attacks against Inkatha by the ANC, the burning of schools and the assassination of former KwaZulu councillors and teachers prompted the decision to fight the ANC, Mkhize said.
He described how the recruits received basic training in the Caprivi in both offensive and defensive tactics.
The hearing continues.