living
Expelled ANCleader Sifiso Nkabinde walks free on 18 charges of murder and the question is posed: who should be afraid this time? Ann Eveleth reports
More than a dozen people died in KwaZulu-Natal hot spots within days of the acquittal of political wildcard Sifiso Nkabinde last Thursday.
None of the deaths – one in Richmond, four on the South Coast and seven in Maphumulo – can be placed at his door. But the fatal defects of the case which led to Nkabinde’s exoneration for 18 murders suggest that the institutional shortcomings which fed the province’s bloodshed remain unchanged as the next election contest looms.
The African National Congress – which once shielded Nkabinde from criticism and then ousted him last April as an alleged apartheid police spy – blamed his acquittal on Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Jan Combrink, chief police investigator Director Bushie Engelbrecht and Attorney General Tim McNally.
Judge Combrink was a member of the former Broederbond. He joined 13 other provincial judges last month in rejecting Judge Vuka Tshabalala’s candidacy for deputy judge president, in preference for a fellow ex-Broederbonder.
During the trial he forced witness Vusi Ndlovu to disclose his witness-protection hideaway in open court – in spite of the mysterious murders of three witnesses before the case reached court. While not strictly illegal, critics say the move raised lingering questions about the judge’s sensitivity to the impact of the case on the bloodstained community of Richmond.
However, no one has proved Combrink ruled in error. In a detailed judgment which first raised the spectre of the “unconstitutional” police bugging of Nkabinde’s legal consultations, Combrink built his critique of the state’s case on a mountain of investigative shortcomings.
He branded many of the 30 state witnesses garnered by Engelbrecht as “liars”, and contrasted them starkly with Nkabinde and his two “credible” alibi witnesses who placed him far from the scene of some of his alleged crimes.
Engelbrecht had spent 55 weeks building his case against Nkabinde. But the five-week trial went to court heavily reliant on accomplice witnesses and others who crumbled in the dock. Engelbrecht told the Mail & Guardian his team had effected 26 arrests in the Richmond area, and “we did our best”.
Rising to “super-cop” status in the wake of the Christmas 1995 massacre of 18 ANC supporters in Shobashobane, Engelbrecht’s quick arrests led to the conviction of 13 Inkatha Freedom Party supporters.
But his failure to secure sufficient evidence against any policeman in the Shobashobane case has since come under criticism. An internal police inquiry into the massacre has disclosed evidence of police complicity.
The inquiry’s chief investigator, Superintendent Clifford Marion, said one witness was in hospital after being shot two weeks ago on the South Coast. Umzimkulu public order policing unit head Jeff Cromhout, who faces allegations of ignoring repeated forewarnings of the attack, was promoted three weeks ago to the rank of senior superintendent and area human resources management head.
Such developments are commonplace in KwaZulu-Natal, where some of the most notorious apartheid-era policemen have continued to rise through the ranks since 1994 to occupy many of the province’s strategic posts.
The province has six police areas. At least three are now headed by policemen with dubious backgrounds, as are other top provincial posts.
One example is KwaZulu-Natal’s organised crime unit head, Director Henry Beavon. He headed the Empangeni security branch when a local ANC-aligned doctor, Henry Luthuli, was murdered. A 1996 inquest found the murder had been committed by a Vlakplaas operative who would have been working with Beavon’s unit.
Meanwhile, black officers have continued to struggle at the bottom rung. The stark contrast has sparked racial tensions in several police stations.
Human rights lawyer John Wills says the provincial police force “has not changed one bit since 1994. There has been no transformation.”
Wills often represents the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union, and says demands for change have led to instant dismissals of union members. Last week 29 officers were dismissed the day after they staged a protest at Durban’s CR Swart station, demanding an audience with a management official responsible for transformation.
KwaZulu-Natal violence monitor Mary de Haas, Wills and Network of Independent Monitors director Jenni Irish this week reiterated calls they have made since the new government came to power in May 1994 for a complete audit of the province’s police management.
Minister of Safety and Security Sydney Mufamadi established KwaZulu-Natal’s investigation task unit and its four successor national investigation task units in a bid to circumvent the “old guard” and improve prospects for effective prosecutions.
But, says Irish, the national investigation task units have not been immune to the general policing problems in the province.
North Coast task unit head Captain Mandlenkosi Vilakazi has, for example, been constantly dogged by opposition from white police management.
While violence in Mandini dropped significantly in the months after Vilakazi’s unit was established, he warned this week: “Something is brewing again. I think violence will be very, very rife in this province in the coming months. There are certain elements within the [police] department who are bent on stoking it. Killings are becoming daily bread around here again.”
On the South Coast, the task unit’s early successes have given way to some unexplained reverses. These include the withdrawal of charges against IFP warlord Sqoloza Xolo, who once had a police price on his head for murder but is now free and reportedly mobilising support.
Given the expectations of violence in Richmond in the wake of Nkabinde’s release, the single death in the area last Friday – of United Democratic Movement member Nhlanhla Madondo – is remarkable.
Nkabinde’s standing in the community has been bolstered by his acquittal, as have his claims that he was set up by the ANC as a result of the 1995 Midlands leadership struggle after the death of ANC stalwart Harry Gwala
But, says De Haas, “the fact remains that more than 45 people died in Richmond in the space of a few months and nobody has been convicted for those murders”.
Nkabinde used his incarceration to cement his new-found friendships with the IFP’s Phillip Powell, David Ntombela and Arthur Koningkramer, as well as ousted IFP Lindelani leader Thomas Shabalala.
Nkabinde this week refused to speculate on a possible election alliance between the UDM, which accepted him back with open arms last week, and the IFP. But he said this issue would “certainly” be on the agenda of the UDM’s national conference in June.
“What is clear is that there is a close relationship between the UDM and IFP in the Richmond area,” he said.
The ANC is clearly worried about this, not least because Nkabinde has promised the IFP political access to Richmond, an area where he once helped to drive them out.
Nkabinde is also flogging allegations linking senior ANC leaders to criminal networks. The ANC has consistently denied his claims.
Curiously, the new Richmond friendship circle comprises people alleged to have worked for apartheid-era security forces. Nkabinde and Ntombela were alleged last year to have worked for the same Pietermaritzburg security branch handlers. Powell has admitted he once worked for the security branch. And Koningkramer was recently alleged by a Sunday Tribune report to have worked for various intelligence agencies.
But this is still the least of the ANC’s concerns about the new grouping. As ANC provincial Health MEC Zweli Mkhize put it: “We are already finding some of the leaders who had bound themselves to the peace process are starting to say things bordering on war talk.”
Mkhize, like other provincial ANC leaders, remains eternally optimistic about the peace process launched last year between the ANC and IFP. But the growing involvement of key IFP “warlords” with Nkabinde marks a serious blow for the prospects of an all- inclusive settlement.
When the peace process started in 1996, pundits from both sides argued that the central role of erstwhile warlords in propelling the new detente was the key ingredient distinguishing this latest peace effort from the dozens which failed before. Now the same warlords may be choosing to remain outside the process.
In the meantime the province remains armed to the teeth. Police confiscated 8E000 illegal weapons last year and three truckloads of weapons supplied by mass murderer Eugene de Kock to the IFP’s Powell are still floating around.