MONDAY, 11.30AM
The men who attacked the Heidelberg tavern in Cape Town four years ago said they were under orders to kill everyone inside, regardless of race. Nails were attached to grenades to inflict maximum casualties.
Former Azanian People’s Liberation Army (Apla) commander Luyanda Gqomfa told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s amnesty committee in Cape Town that his orders were to “go to that place and shoot people. Whether they were black or white was not the criteria. Oppressors have no colour, no race.”
Gqomfa, now serving a 27year jail sentence for the attack, said he had been ordered by senior Apla commander Sichumiso Nonxuma to attack the tavern because it was a hangout of security force members. In fact, most of the patrons there on the night of the attack were young university students.
“It was not my job to go and check who was a security force member. I was just ordered to shoot. We were not looking at the race or colour of the person. We just went there to shoot people.” Gqomfa said he attached nails to a rifle grenade to ensure maximum impact “and more casualties”.
The TRC said it would summons a Guguletu gardener who said he had seen five young men storing machine guns in a white Audi a few hours after the Heidelberg attack. As the car drove off, he noticed that a piece of paper had fallen from the Audi, containing directions to the Heidelberg Tavern. The gardener, Bennett Sibaya, gave the piece of paper to police, who said that no, Heidelberg was “up country”. They then destroyed the map.
The white Audi had a number plate which has since been traced to the Truth Commission’s own investigative head, Dumisa Ntsebeza. Ntsebeza denies any links to the attack and says he is being framed.