OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday
THE family of the the first Umkhonto weSizwe cadre to be executed by the apartheid state, Solomon Mahlangu, says a ”very watered down version” of his torture should disqualify a former Security Branch policeman’s amnesty application.
Applicant Andries van Heerden said in his application that he ”hit Mahlangu through the face a couple of times with an open fist”, but former Springs police detective Petrus Mahlangu (no relation) and another man, Absolom Hlatshwayo, testified otherwise.
Counsel for the family, Advocate Tony Richards, told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission amnesty committee that ”the nature and gravity of the act has now been established as different to that admitted to by the applicant. What happened was a gross violation of human rights – the applicant has reduced it to a lesser matter.”
The Mahlangu family still did not know the full extent of what happened to their kin as the applicant had failed to assist to make that possible, he said.
Mahlangu was arrested on June 13, 1977 in Goch Street in Johannesburg after he and fellow cadre Monty Motloung shot at police who were trying to arrest them. They had been suspects in the killing of two men in a warehouse in Goch Street.
Petrus Mahlangu was taken to John Vorster police station shortly after the two cadres were arrested. He said he found Solomon Mahlangu lying on the 10th floor, so badly assaulted that he was unable to talk.
Hlatshwayo told the amnesty committee that at one stage he heard Solomon Mahlangu’s prolonged screaming.
Motloung was beaten so badly that his brain was damaged. He was declared unfit for trial and sent to a mental institution.
Van Heerden’s counsel, advocate Wim Cornelius, defended his claim of full disclosure, saying there was no reason for him to lie.
Solomon Mahlangu left Mamelodi High School to go into exile in 1976 and he was then trained by MK in Angola.
The 21-year-old Mahlangu was tried for high treason and after a court case lasting three weeks, he was sentenced to death. He was hanged in Pretoria Central prison on April 6 1979.