Wally Mbhele
The self-confessed perpetrator of the Eikenhof massacre, Phila Dolo, this week spoke out for the first time about his involvement in the shootings, accusing the police of knowing for a long time that he was responsible but deliberately putting the wrong people in jail.
Dolo claims that the former commander of the Brixton murder and robbery unit, Charlie Landman, personally told him when he was arrested for another shooting that Landman knew Dolo was the man responsible for the Eikenhof massacre.
Dolo was a commander of the Azanian People’s Liberation Army (Apla), the armed wing of the Pan Africanist Congress.
This week the Supreme Court of Appeal set aside the convictions and sentences of three African National Congress activists who were jailed for the Eikenhof killings. The court also ordered a retrial – which does not guarantee that the three will be acquitted this time.
The three – Boy Titi Ndweni, Siphiwe James Bholo and Sipho Samuel Gavin – were convicted and sentenced in June 1994 for the murder of Zandra Mitchely (35), her 14- year-old son Shaun and his 13-year-old friend Claire Silberbauer.
The three were sprayed with AK-47 rifle fire on the morning of March 19 1993.
Landman’s investigation resulted in the conviction of the three ANC activists who have become known as the Eikenhof Three.
“The police have been trying all the tricks in the book,” said Dolo this week. “But I’m happy that their trickery has been exposed.”
He says he now fears for his life as he suspects that “they” may be after him because he is going to be a key defence witness in the retrial of the Eikenhof Three.
Dolo is applying for amnesty from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)for the Eikenhof massacre. “I personally ordered that massacre, although the initial target was supposed to be a school bus carrying white children,” he says.
According to Dolo’s lawyer, Lungelo Mbandazayo, the former Apla commander did not participate in the massacre. He only ordered it in his capacity as Apla’s regional commander after receiving authority from the deputy director of operations, Bulelani Xuma, who was also Apla’s director of special operations.
The Eikenhof incident, according to Dolo, fell under special operations and was led by a unit commander known only as “Kenny”.
Police had Apla reports and ballistic test results which linked Dolo conclusively to the Eikenhof massacre, at least 18 months before he applied for amnesty. The AK-47 used at Eikenhof was the same one Dolo used in an attack on a police station in Diepkloof on May 28 1993 in which two policemen were killed.
Dolo was arrested on May 30 1993 following the arrest of three members of his unit the previous night in Yeoville, Johannesburg. They were allegedly on their way to plant a bomb at a restaurant.
One member of Dolo’s unit – apparently a police informer – confessed about Dolo’s whereabouts. A shoot-out between the police and Dolo ensued before he was arrested. He lost his arm as a result.
Asked how he felt about the fact that the Eikenhof Three were serving jail terms for something they did not do, Dolo said he felt sorry for them but could not do anything as he would have had to face the hangman’s noose himself if they were acquitted.
“Had it not been for the opportunity offered by the TRC, I would not have come forward. I can’t be blamed for being quiet for such a long time [four years]. It was not for me to go to the police and confess. I was not doing it to go to jail,” he says.
Mbandazayo says he did not initially believe Dolo when he told him about his involvement in the Eikenhof massacre.
“I was shocked because I knew there were people convicted of the offence, and they had nothing to do with Apla and the PAC.
“He [Dolo] didn’t know whether he should apply [for amnesty] because he never physically participated in the incident. He’d only applied for amnesty in relation to the killing of policemen for which he was serving life sentence,” says Mbandazayo.
“I told him to apply. He referred me to Xuma and Letlapa Mphahlele [Apla’s director of operations] who told me they were equally in a dilemma and were about to discuss it in Apla’s high command structures.”
It was at Mphahlele’s house where documents showing Apla’s responsibility for the Eikenhof massacre were seized during the police raid – long after Bholo and Ndweni were each sentenced to death three times and Gavin was sentenced to an effective 17 years in jail.
The convictions were based on confessions made to Landman by Ndweni and Bholo which they later claimed were extracted under torture.
Landman’s conduct was this week subjected to severe scrutiny at the appeal hearing by the counsel for the three, advocate David Soggot.
Soggot questioned the wisdom of Judge Piet van der Walt’s refusal to grant bail to the three last December while the state was not opposing it. This despite the fact that the judge had consulted former attorney general Jan D’Oliveira, who was the prosecuter in the trial of the Eikenhof three.
In its ruling, the appeal court found among other things that preliminary security reports compiled after the Eikenhof attack concluded that Apla was to blame for the attack. In later reports, however, a different conclusion was reached.
Five prospective witnesses who were in the immediate vicinity of the shooting made statements to the police between one to four days after the event. Three were each individually shown a set of about 300 photographs and each one independently identified Xuma and someone called “Motha” as being among the attackers. Both Xuma and Motha were known to the police as Apla members.
“What is important,” the court found, “is that the facts referred to should have been brought to the attention of the trial court.”
Mbandazayo said Dolo would do everything to assist the Eikenhof Three in their bid for freedom and added that he will press the TRC to speed up his client’s amnesty hearing.