The continuation of the State of Emergency in the second half of 1986 was accompanied by steps to increase the size of state repressive forces in township areas.
The first phase of a programme to deploy 6,000 newly-trained 'special constables' to supplement the existing force of council police was implemented in September. At the same time vigilante activity, which emerged in townships in the Orange Free State and on the East Rand in the second half of 1985, was reported in other areas. According to the UDF there has been an increase in vigilante activity against progressive organisations. In Natal vigilantes linked to the Kwazulu bantustan authorities launched a reign of terror against democratic organisations. Thirty nine people associated with COSATU, alone, were killed during the year. In townships in the Transvaal several activists were abducted and killed, or assassinated by hit squads.
NEW POLICE UNITS
The government announced in August that it would take steps to expand the police force from its present strength of 56,316 to 96,300 in the next few years. As part of the drive R18 million was set aside to train a further 10,000 council policemen to supplement the existing force of 6,000. The council police were created in 1984 to protect institutions and personnel participating in the newly installed town and village councils.
Unarmed police attached to the Development Boards, whose functions were partly taken over by the new councils, have been retained. In one township at least – Tumahole in the Orange Free State – they have actively co-operated with a local vigilante group linked to the new council to violently undermine school and rent boycotts.
The new council police have been deployed in the suppression of all forms of resistance. In townships in the Vaal Triangle they have been responsible for shooting at least 31 people, four of them fatally. In Soweto they killed 27 people during the eviction of rent boycotters.
In Zolani township in the Western Cape members of a local vigilante group were recruited as council police and, according to local residents, were involved in attacks on members of democratic organisations. The police imposed a curfew and on one occasion opened fire on mourners returning from a funeral. They carried out a sweep through the township in which hundreds were arrested. Similar activity was reported in townships around Port Elizabeth.
In addition the government had by July 1986 spent R388,000 since 1984 on arming community councillors themselves in 14 areas of the country. The councillors underwent short SAP training courses.
In September details were revealed of plans to further supplement township police forces by rapidly recruiting and training a new force of 6,000 'special constables' who would be deployed in townships after a six week crash training course. They would work under the supervision of regular members of the SAP and be armed with handguns and sjamboks. The first 320 constables graduated in October with a further 700 still in training. Allegations appeared in the Cape Town press that 'Wit-doeke' – conservatives who banded together to drive out activists and supporters of the UDF in the Crossroads squatter settlement in early 1986 – were being recruited.
VIGILANTES
- Natal: In January 12 people were killed in KwaMakhuta near Durban when a group of armed men burst into a house occupied by the family of a local UDF activist, Victor Ntuli. He was not at home at the time and was reported detained, subsequent to the raid. The murders are the latest in a series of attacks on UDF and COSATU activists by vigilantes linked to the KwaZulu authorities and the Inkatha movement.
In December last year three members of the Metal and Allied Workers Union were abducted and murdered in Mpophomeni township. Two were shop stewards at the BTR-Sarmcol plant in nearby Howick – the site of a long-standing strike. On 5 December busloads of Inkatha supporters were alleged to have entered the township and occupied the local community hall. The murdered shop stewards were taken from their homes, interrogated by those in the hall and then driven to a secluded spot and shot. The following day a youth was killed when the group of intruders, some bearing Inkatha flags, marched through the township allegedly escorted by police.
In the course of the year Natal courts issued several interdicts against a number of KwaZulu Legislative Assembly members, local councillors and Inkatha officials, some of whom were on the movement's central committee. The orders restrained them from attacking or assaulting members of the NECC, COSATU or UDF affiliated organisations.
Others were brought to trial on related charges, including murder and public violence. Some of these trials are still in progress.
Prominent among the former is Mandla SHABALALA, a member of the KwaZulu Legislative Assembly and Inkatha Central Committee. He controls the Lindelani shack settlement near Durban from which he has recruited an army of 208 'protectors'. The creation of such groups arose from a decision by Inkatha branch chairmen and KwaZulu councillors in the Code 26 electoral district of KwaZulu, to 'stamp out UDF-created unrest' in the areas under their control. Applicants in one of the court cases alleged that prisoners were held at Shabalala's home. It was also alleged that vigilantes who attacked and disrupted a conference of the NECC in April were brought in from the Lindelani camp in buses hired by Inkatha.
Attacks on progressive organisations by armed vigilantes have taken place in Clermont, Ntuzuma, KwaMashu, Inanda and Hambanati.
In Chesterville a vigilante group allegedly made up of ex-convicts and teachers, acting in collusion with local police, launched a reign of terror against school pupils, some of whom were severely mutilated and killed in June in an attempt to break a boycott of schools. Conflict between vigilantes and residents continued throughout the year resulting in up to 40 deaths.
- Eastern Cape: In January a crowd of 1,500 people, described in press reports as 'conservative residents', marched through Kwa-nobuhle township near Uitenhage – a UDF stronghold – and attacked the homes of activists of local youth and community organisations. At least two youths were killed. Eyewitnesses alleged that the marchers were escorted by police, that a police helicopter hovered above the township for an hour prior to the attack and that council police arrested people who tried to flee. Those who escaped fled the township, some going as far afield as Port Elizabeth. The attacks parallel the 'witdoeke' phenomenon in Cape Town. Similar attacks took place in townships around Port Elizabeth in January when several youth activists were beaten and stabbed to death.
- Transvaal: Attacks of a similar kind also took place in the Mapetla and Phiri areas of Soweto over the Christmas period. At least ten people were killed. Migrant workers from Lesotho were involved in clashes with local youth activists. The migrants were said to be opposed to the UDF 'Christmas Against the Emergency' Campaign. Vigilantes operating in the townships of Tembisa and Leandra on the East Rand killed two youth activists in January. The townships were also the focus of intensified vigilante activity during the campaign.
'DEATH SQUAD'
The assassination in December of political activists Dr Fabian Ribeiro and his wife Florence, in Mamelodi near Pretoria, has raised fears that a death squad has been formed. Dr Ribeiro was known for his willingness to treat victims of police shootings. He was a former political trialist and was detained for a period during the current State of Emergency. His home was the target of a petrol bomb attack in early 1986.
Police attributed the killing to a rival political group but evidence suggests otherwise. Several events surrounding the shooting on 11 December were witnessed by people attending a party across the road from the Ribeiro house. The registration number of a car which was seen near the house prior to the incident was traced to the commanding officer of a branch of the Pretoria security police. Police admit the car was in the area, but claim it only went there after the shooting. The registration number of the car in which the two assassins escaped was false. According to witnesses who gave chase, they drove out of the township and swopped vehicles with two armed unidentified white men in a Landrover which then sped towards Pretoria. The latter vehicle was traced by a local newspaper to a former member of the Rhodesian Selous Scouts, who is believed to work for the security forces. He disappeared from his home shortly after the press revelations and could not be traced.
In an earlier incident two hooded armed men attempted to force entry into the Mamelodi home of Donsie KHUMALO, the Transvaal regional secretary of COSATU, who was detained and later banned.
At the same time, state agents have intervened in rivalries in the Soweto area between supporters of UDF youth groups and those aligned to AZAPO. Activists on both sides have been abducted and later found dead. In this context false pamphlets bearing the letterhead of the UDF were distributed in the townships. They called on UDF supporters to mark the 25th anniversary of Umkhonto we Sizwe by 'destroying all AZAPO members.' The leadership of both organisations condemned the pamphlets as a government attempt to exacerbate tensions.
