WEDNESDAY, 5.00PM:
SELF-confessed Inkatha Freedom Party hit squad member Brian Gcina Mkhize has told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that he was one of a Caprivi-trained hit squad sent to kill African National Congress leaders in Esikhawini township near Eshowe, KwaZulu-Natal in 1991.
Mkhize, who is serving a 20-year sentence for two murders in 1994, was a one of a seven-member IFP hit squad that has admitted to being involved in more than 50 violent attacks in the province. He said the decision to kill “well known ANC killers” followed an attack in which ANC gunmen opened fire at people attending an IFP rally in Esikhawini in 1992.
Mkhize said that, up to this point, hit squads had only targeted certain ANC officials. After the incident at the IFP rally however, all ANC areas and gatherings were attacked.
He said Prince Gideon Zulu (now the province’s welfare MEC), who was one of the speakers at the Esikhawini rally, told him to attack both “ANC leadership and following”.
Meanwhile, Mkhize on Tuesday told the TRC that a Caprivi-trained hit squad was integrated into the South African Police, and deployed in KwaZulu-Natal’s SAP branches. He said members used their influence in the police force to cover up assassinations and random attacks aimed at furthering the interests of the IFP in the run-up to the 1994 elections.
Mkhize said that during training in the Caprivi, recruits were visited by IFP official MZ Khumalo, who read them speeches and personal messages from IFP leader ( and current Home Affairs Minster) Mangosothu Buthelezi.