/ 19 February 1999

Enemies who worked together … for the

police

New evidence has emerged that arch-rivals David Ntombela and Sifiso Nkabinde were both security police informers. Mail & Guardian reporters investigate

Two of KwaZulu-Natal’s most notorious warlords – seemingly on opposite sides of the political fence – were agents of the security police and were at one stage handled by the same policeman.

Sifiso Nkabinde, the recently murdered former African National Congress and later United Democratic Movement leader in Richmond, and his Inkatha Freedom Party counterpart, David Ntombela, were in the employ of security police officers in the old KwaZulu.

The policemen appeared to be pursuing political agendas beyond the normal course of their duties. The Natal Midlands was the scene of some of the most violent turmoil when the conflict between the ANC and the IFP was at its height.

The Mail & Guardian has established that Nkabinde maintained contact with his handlers until shortly before his death, and that they visited his house late last year.

Ntombela’s and Nkabinde’s links to the security police are revealed in a report compiled by the Network of Independent Monitors (NIM) and the Human Rights Committee.

A member of the security police (whose name is known to the M&G) says Ntombela’s relationship with the police dates back to the mid-1980s. Ntombela was recruited by Captain Gerry Brookes, who was based in Pietermaritzburg, after he visited chiefs and indunas in the area to secure their co-operation in tracking down ANC and Pan Africanist Congress cadres.

According to the policeman, Brookes showed Ntombela photographs of alleged cadres and the IFP leader agreed to help identify and place them. In exchange for these services, Ntombela was given access to secret police documentation on a regular basis and provided with weapons from the security police farm at Thornville outside Richmond.

The official recruitment of Nkabinde – who was denounced by the ANC as a security police informer and expelled from the party in 1997 – came in 1988, allegedly by another security policeman, Captain JT Pieterse, based at the former Natal Midlands headquarters in Pietermaritzburg.

He is registered as source number SR4252, Bhekimusi Gabriel Nkabinde – his given names – and allocated the cover name Derrick Nene.

Nkabinde is registered as working at a “paramilitary office” in the Pietermaritzburg area. He was handled by a variety of other security policemen, including Brookes and Sergeant Shane Morris in Richmond.

Nkabinde’s brief was to monitor political activists and inform the police about the movements of Umkhonto weSizwe cadres – a job he was uniquely qualified to do as ANC leader in the Richmond area and a confidant of then ANC Midlands kingpin Harry Gwala. Telephone calls made by Nkabinde and transcribed in the Nene file are made from Gwala’s telephone.

It is clear from transcripts in Nkabinde’s informer file that the lines between political parties in KwaZulu-Natal were not clearly drawn – and broader agendas were being pursued.

For instance, in an August 1993 entry Nkabinde informs his handler that an IFP member from the Phateni area of Richmond had approached ANC youth leader Mzwandile Mbongwa with a view to throwing in his lot with the ANC. As a token of good faith, the IFP member offered to steal weapons and hand them over to Mbongwa.

Nkabinde’s handler – at this time it was Morris, then based at the Richmond branch of the security police – then notes: “The relevant IFP Phateni members have been informed concerning this issue. The IFP members were informed not to divulge the source of information.”

It is believed the IFP member was subsequently killed. Mbongwa – Nkabinde’s chief rival as leader of ANC self-defence units (SDUs) in the Richmond area – became the subject of a rumour campaign which culminated in the appearance of an anonymous pamphlet accusing him of working for the security police.

In January 1994 Morris reported that “the raid by this office on 28/01/94 on SDU top structures in Magoda even sparked the suspicion even more. Five top-structure SDUs were arrested with arms.”

The five were later released, swearing vengeance on Mbongwa, who had been identified as the person who had informed on them. The anonymous pamphlet also branded Mbongwa as a spy for the military.

He was killed in March 1994 by members of Nkabinde’s SDU. Nkabinde was acquitted on charges relating to the murder.

Another suspicious set of entries in the Nkabinde informer file were made in July 1993, when Nkabinde informed his handler that a wanted criminal by the name of Vusi Makhabula was planning to move from his hideout in Umlazi to Richmond and that if the police tried to apprehend the suspect, his own operation could be placed in jeopardy.

The handler notes: “Source SR4252 reports that the only problem is if the police know he is hiding in Richmond, there will be lots of raids in Richmond to find him and this will hamper the area activities [SDU movements]. Kapt [Captain], I feel this inquiry should be booked off.”

Both Morris and his alternate handler, Captain Chris Moolman, were transferred from the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands area by Minister of Safety and Security Sydney Mufamadi in April 1998.

Brookes was officially barred from Richmond. All three have resisted their transfers and are still based in Pietermaritzburg pending the outcome of legal cases against the police.

Ntombela has denied that he was on the security police’s payroll. “It’s bullshit. It’s rubbish. I never worked with Brookes. I don’t want to talk about this thing, it makes me mad.”

He said the only thing he did was to telephone the police when people were being necklaced by ANC comrades. “I had no other relationship with the police.”

IFP representative on safety and security Phillip Powell said the timing of the report is questionable as Ntombela has recently laid a murder conspiracy charge against the ANC’s Natal MEC for Health, Zweli Mkhize.

Powell threatened legal action against the authors of the report, saying the NIM was the ANC’s “propaganda machine. This is a clear indication of the NIM’s political agenda,” said Powell. “Jenny [Irish, of NIM] was very quick to whitewash allegations that Excalibur Security company was supplying arms to ANC members to assassinate IFP leaders.”

He called the report a “transparent smear campaign” to shift the focus from the investigation into Mkhize’s involvement in gun- running to Ntombela. He said although Ntombela co-operated with the police as an induna in his area, “that relationship was very different from being a registered government agent”.

The UDM’s acting chair in KwaZulu-Natal and Nkabinde’s right-hand man, Sifiso Bhengu, also denied the report. “It’s just another disinformation campaign,” he said. “I know Nkabinde. I worked with him while we were both in the ANC; he was not a spy.”

He said the ANC failed to prove the allegations while Nkabinde was alive and refused to comment further.

The ANC’s representative on safety and security, Bheki Cele, said he is not surprised by the report. “I have always asked about the relationship between Nkabinde, Ntombela and Powell. Why were they the first ones to welcome him [Nkabinde] after his acquittal and after his expulsion from the party? And why does Ntombela make a lot of noise about Nkabinde’s death when they have drawn guns against one another in Parliament? Maybe this is an answer to my questions.”

Police representative Director Dave Bruce says the police will never confirm whether a person is an informer. “We know that the security branch was not focusing on genuine crime … and the question of informers is a very emotive issue in South Africa because of our past. However, informers shouldn’t be looked down upon because they are important in solving crimes. Due to the threat posed by criminals, the issue of informers is handled with utmost secrecy.”

Responding to questions about Brookes and Morris’s possible involvement in fanning political violence, Director Bala Naidoo, the KwaZulu-Natal police representative, says an investigation would be undertaken if police were provided with information regarding individual officers.

“The South African Police Service is not party to any violence and will not condone any such behaviour from our police officers.”