Churches were used as instruments of oppression by the white minority, one of four men seeking amnesty for the 1993 St James Church massacre told the Truth Commission's amnesty committee on Wednesday.
Bassie Mkhumbuzi was a member of the Azanian People's Liberation Army unit that killed 11 people and wounded 58 others in a automatic rifle and handgrenade attack on the church's congregants in Cape Town on July 25, 1993. "Whites used churches to oppress blacks. They took our country using churches and bibles. We know and we have read from books they are the ones who have taken the land from us," Mkhumbuzi said. Truth Commission lawyer Robin Brink said Mkumbuzi and his comrades perpetrated a "mindless barbarity" on defenceless people praying in a house of worship. Was it a revenge attack?" he asked Mkhumbuzi. "No," Mkhumbuzi replied, "we just wanted our land to be brought back to us, not because we were revenging the actions of the church."
Mkhumbuzi, who was 17 years old at the time of the incident, said he had not been told beforehand by unit leader Sichumiso Nonxuba that a church was the target. Nevertheless, "I felt that whites were using churches to oppress blacks". There was confusion at the start of Wednesday's amnesty hearing in Cape Town when it emerged that one of the amnesty applicants - former Apla operations director Letlapa Mphahele - had failed to turn up. The whereabouts of Mphahlele were not known, lawyer Norman Arendse told the amnesty committee chaired by Judge Hassen Mall. Arendse said he represented Mphahlele's co-applicants Mkhumbuzi, Thobela Mlambisa and Gcinikhaya Makoma. Makoma was found guilty on 11 counts of murder and 58 counts of attempted murder in March 1995 and sentenced to 23 years' imprisonment.
Mkhumbuzi, a member of the SA National Defence Force, and Mlambisa are on trial facing similar charges relating to the attack. "We don't know where he (Mphahlele) is," Arendse said. "He has not given us any instructions. We can't understand and we don't have any reasons why he is not here. We ask that his application be withdrawn at this stage." Ian Bremridge, the lawyer for two of the victims opposing the amnesty applications, said Mphahlele's absence could be problematic as the other applicants intended testifying that he ordered the attack. The applications are being opposed by Dawie Ackermann, whose wife was killed, Lorenzo Smith and Ukranian sailor Dmitry Makogon, who lost both legs and an arm in the incident. Mkhumbuzi said while he sought forgiveness from the victims, "we could not stop what was happening at the time". "We were fighting for our country and for democracy. It was difficult at the time to stop such incidents. The purpose of Apla at that time was to fight until the land was brought back to its owners." Bremridge: "Do you thing the attack achieved anything?" Mkhumbusi: "Yes. Today We are in this country. We are living together. We are not fighting together."
On the day of the attack he had remained in the getaway vehicle while Nonxuba - who was killed in a car accident last Novemmber - and Makoma entered the church armed with R4 rifles and M26 handgrenades, which he had fetched earlier from Apla high command in Umtata. "I was told that I would be the security, Mlambisa the driver. Nonxuba and Makoma were going inside. After they came out of the building, I was to use the petrol bombs to throw them inside. "I heard a grenade and gunshots and then saw a red car stopping in front of us, apparently to block us. "I got out of the car and threw a petrol bomb at the car and Mlambisa shot at the car causing it to speed away." He said it was only later that night, while watching a television broadcast by CNN, that he saw for the first time what had happened inside the church. Mlambisa testified later that he was an Apla unit commissar based in Transkei when he was ordered to travel to Cape Town to take part in the operation. He only realised the target was a church when the team drove up to the target in Kenilworth, Cape Town. "I deeply regret the loss of lives and causing so many people to be injured," he said.
Source: South African Press Association
Showing posts with label APLA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label APLA. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 9, 1997
Wednesday, December 2, 1992
Guerrilla Group Vows More Attacks on South Africa Whites
A small black guerrilla faction warned today that its attack on a golf club on Saturday night marked the beginning of a new campaign against white civilian targets, evidently aimed at disrupting a compromise on South Africa's political future. But the Government and the leading black organization, Nelson Mandela's African National Congress, fiercely condemned the attack in King William's Town, which left two couples dead and 17 people wounded at a wine tasting where much of the town's white gentry had gathered.
The Government and the congress planned to meet on Wednesday for a new round of talks to fix a target date for elections. But some South Africans fear that a sustained campaign of terrorism against whites, if it materializes, could weaken the Government's ability to surrender power. "There will be more attacks of this nature with more frequency, especially in white areas," Johnny Majozi, information officer of the Azanian Peoples Liberation Army, told the South African Press Association from Harare, Zimbabwe. "We would like to remind white South Africans that there is a war going on inside the country and they should not be surprised."
The attack, believed to be the worst political violence against white civilians since President F. W. de Klerk took office in 1989, has horrified and alarmed whites. It was the kind of indiscriminate violence that has become commonplace in black communities, but has left whites untouched. The Conservative Party, which opposes Mr. de Klerk's dealings with the black majority, called for a police crackdown and said the attack was the work of "terrorists permitted to operate freely in South Africa by a Government that has lost the will to govern." So far, the theme has not been picked up by more mainstream whites. "My guess is that this poses no short-term threat to the transition," said John Kane-Berman, director of the South African Institute of Race Relations. "But if attacks like this continue and the Government is unable to stop them, it helps to erode the Government's support base and its room for maneuver."
The Azanian Peoples Liberation Army is the guerrilla wing of the Pan Africanist Congress, which broke away from the African National Congress in 1959 to pursue a more militant ideology rooted in black consciousness. In contrast to the African National Congress, the Pan Africanist Congress has insisted on keeping an active military wing. Until recently, it refused to negotiate with the white Government. In the 1970's and 1980's the guerrilla wing of the African National Congress waged a sporadic underground war, briefly including attacks on sporting events and shopping malls. The congress suspended its guerrilla war after Mr. de Klerk legalized it in 1990. Although small in numbers, the Pan Africanist Congress has attracted considerable support among disaffected young people in the black townships with its militant stance. Recently leaders of the militant group have met with Government officials and said they were willing to join the multiparty negotiations on a new political order. It was not clear why the organization's armed wing would simultaneously try to undermine the talks, but it has a history of bitter internal divisions.
Benny Alexander, the secretary-general of the Pan Africanist Congress, issued a statement after the King William's Town killings, declining to comment on the origins of the assault but protesting the "international hullabaloo around the attack purely because white people have died."
Source: New York Times
The Government and the congress planned to meet on Wednesday for a new round of talks to fix a target date for elections. But some South Africans fear that a sustained campaign of terrorism against whites, if it materializes, could weaken the Government's ability to surrender power. "There will be more attacks of this nature with more frequency, especially in white areas," Johnny Majozi, information officer of the Azanian Peoples Liberation Army, told the South African Press Association from Harare, Zimbabwe. "We would like to remind white South Africans that there is a war going on inside the country and they should not be surprised."
The attack, believed to be the worst political violence against white civilians since President F. W. de Klerk took office in 1989, has horrified and alarmed whites. It was the kind of indiscriminate violence that has become commonplace in black communities, but has left whites untouched. The Conservative Party, which opposes Mr. de Klerk's dealings with the black majority, called for a police crackdown and said the attack was the work of "terrorists permitted to operate freely in South Africa by a Government that has lost the will to govern." So far, the theme has not been picked up by more mainstream whites. "My guess is that this poses no short-term threat to the transition," said John Kane-Berman, director of the South African Institute of Race Relations. "But if attacks like this continue and the Government is unable to stop them, it helps to erode the Government's support base and its room for maneuver."
The Azanian Peoples Liberation Army is the guerrilla wing of the Pan Africanist Congress, which broke away from the African National Congress in 1959 to pursue a more militant ideology rooted in black consciousness. In contrast to the African National Congress, the Pan Africanist Congress has insisted on keeping an active military wing. Until recently, it refused to negotiate with the white Government. In the 1970's and 1980's the guerrilla wing of the African National Congress waged a sporadic underground war, briefly including attacks on sporting events and shopping malls. The congress suspended its guerrilla war after Mr. de Klerk legalized it in 1990. Although small in numbers, the Pan Africanist Congress has attracted considerable support among disaffected young people in the black townships with its militant stance. Recently leaders of the militant group have met with Government officials and said they were willing to join the multiparty negotiations on a new political order. It was not clear why the organization's armed wing would simultaneously try to undermine the talks, but it has a history of bitter internal divisions.
Benny Alexander, the secretary-general of the Pan Africanist Congress, issued a statement after the King William's Town killings, declining to comment on the origins of the assault but protesting the "international hullabaloo around the attack purely because white people have died."
Source: New York Times
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