WEDNESDAY, 4.00PM
INKATHA Freedom Party leader Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi on Wednesday morning denied any knowledge of hit-squad killings by Caprivi-trained IFP members, and said he was astounded such allegations are being made.
On Tuesday the self-confessed commander of the Caprivi trainees, Daluxolo Luthuli, said there was no way Buthelezi could deny he was aware of the hit-squad killings during the 1980s in KwaZulu-Natal.
Luthuli was speaking after testifying before the TRC’s human rights violations committee on the activities of the “Caprivi 200”, a group of IFP and KwaZulu police members given military training at the SA Defence Force’s Hippo camp in the Caprivi strip in the 1980s.
In his testimony on Tuesday, Luthuli said the Caprivi hit squads were responsible for the assassination of several African National Congress leaders and sympathisers in the 1980s, including Reggie Hadebe, Congress of Traditional Leaders of SA president Chief Mhlambunzima Maphumulo, ANC-sympathising chief Msinga Mlaba and businessman Zazi Khuzwayo.
Luthuli claimed all assassinations were ordered either by himself or Zakhele “MZ” Khumalo, newly appointed IFP general secretary for administration, who was then personal assistant to Buthelezi.