Bisho | Thursday
FORMER Ciskei military commander Colonel Vakele Mkosana’s instruction to soldiers to arm themselves with hand grenades during a march by the African National Congress in 1992 was ”unusual” as the weapons were not often used in densely populated areas, the Bisho High Court heard on Wednesday.
Mkosana and Mzamile Gonya are facing murder charges relating to the September 7 1992 Bisho shooting, which left 30 dead and scores others injured when Ciskei soldiers opened fire on ANC supporters.
Thousands of ANC members, including the party’s key negotiators at the multiparty talks towards South Africa’s democracy, were demonstrating against the then Ciskei homeland government’s refusal to be part of the new dispensation.
Former Ciskei army commander Mackson Ntantiso told the court that he was instructed by Mkosana to draw R4 rifles and grenades from stores for his C-company soldiers.
He said the grenades were to be used by the section commanders.
Ntantiso said the issuing of grenades to soldiers was unusual because Bisho was an urban area.
He said Mkosana had instructed the soldiers to be on the lookout for any untoward incidents during the march.
The fence around the Bisho stadium had been flattened and it was possible for the marchers to run out of the stadium.
”When a breakaway group of marchers ran out of the stadium Mkosana shouted over the radio ‘fire’. Mkosana had not specified to which company the order referred to,” Ntantiso said.
He said when he heard the order he looked at Mkosana who called him out and ordered him to open fire.
Ntantiso said he ordered Section One of Platoon One to fire a single shot in the air.
”When the section fired, firing erupted from all around Bisho stadium”.
He subsequently shouted ”cease fire”.
Ntantiso said all company commanders would have heard Mkosana’s unqualified order to shoot and should have asked him which company the order was referred to.
Ntantiso said the crowd turned back towards the stadium when the soldiers started shooting and he later heard an explosion in front of the marchers, which he thought was from a grenade launcher.
Ntantiso said if he had been in charge, he would not have ordered soldiers to open fire on the marchers because they posed no danger to the army.
He would have used ordered them to use minimum force first.
During cross examination by defence advocate Phillip Zilwa, Ntantiso said the soldiers had been instructed before the march to ”shoot and kill” marchers if they tried to get to government complex.
The soldiers were told that among the crowd would be armed Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) cadres.
Ntantiso said he was shocked when he heard gunfire from other army units because his group was the only one given such an instruction.
Pressed further, Ntantiso said if a show of force had been used, the crowd would not have forced its way towards the soldiers.
”I did not perceive the crowd to be any threat to the soldiers,” he said.
The trial continues on Thursday. – Sapa