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The Killing Fields of Natal 24 MIR Winter 1988: South Africa base of support by convincing working people throughout Natal that the only solution to their problems lles in join- Ing Congress In a fight to the finish against the bosses and the state. Name a specific flgure for a natlonal minimum wage to rally the widest sections of the working class In action! Extend the struggle against rents to all parts of the country!
* COSATU, the UDF and SAYCO must campalgn In every workplace, school and community to win political and financlal support for comrades fighting agalnst Inkatha. Joint COSATU-UDF- SAYCO meetings should be orga- * COSATU, the UDF and SAYCO must ensure the bullding of locals based in every industrial area of the country, as a powerful Instrument for linking the organised workers and fighting youth carry this campaign forward.
* Every possible Initlative must be taken to procure arms for self-defence. At the same time we call on the ANC leadership to supply arms urgently to the fighting youth and workers of Natal.
Patricia Mkhize is 12 years old. She lives in a hut in her family kraal near Zondi's store in the rural township of Maswazini, in the rolling hills to the north of Pietermaritzburg in Natal. Patricia attends Zweliyazuza primary school and hoped to follow her senior studies at school in Kwamncane which is close to Maswazini. But since the night of October 9th 1987 nothing is sure in Patricia's That was the night the murder squads of Inkatha came to the kraal. And what happened then has left an indelible stain, a blood stain, on Patricia's memory which no passage of time will ever erase. Think now of what children you know of Patricia's 12 years and ponder on the gaping horror of all that follows. Her story is simply told, in a child's words, but it revcals all the gruesome reality of the counter revolution in South Africa. This is the killing fields of Natal where the youth who support Congress and CO- SATU are being hunted down by the gangster butchers of Gatsha Buthelezi's Inkatha.
"On Friday night 9th October 1987 I was awakened by the sound of knocking on the door. My mother got up to open the door and a group of men entered the hut. I recognised most of them. I know one of them very well because he is the induna, the local chief, in our area and I No truce with Inkatha!
For workers and youth armed self-defence!
For joint COSATU-UDF- SAYCO action on social demands!
For workers' power, democracy, and socialism!
16 December 1987.
The current issue of Inqaba Ya important material on the fight against Inkatha and its workplace based thugs of UWUSA. Also available is a back issue, No 18/19, February 1986, with a major eight page article, 'Inkatha-this spear of counter-revolution must be , including an account of the formation of Inkatha and the role of the By David Johnson see him all the time. I also know him to be the leader of Inkatha in our area. He recently started a campaign to get school children to join Inkatha. He does this by holding Inkatha meetings at our school. We have often been told that the school is only for Inkatha supporters." Patricia recognised one of the other men as her local shopkeeper from the store near her kraal and of him she said: "He comes regularly to our school to These lectures with what Inkatha has done for the people and why we should all join Inkatha. He has often said to us, in the standard 5 class, that if we do not like Inkatha we should get out of the school and out of the community or he would burn our homes and will shoot us as the induna will supply him with guns."
Gunned down Patricia recognised the rest of the group, or most of them, as coming from herlocalarea. "The induna demanded to know where the maqabane (comrades) were. When my mother said she did not know what he meant, the induna asked for my brothers Mangethe and Mntu by Read inpaba YA BASEBENZI una of the Marzen Workins Ten of the Aliese Nasonal Coogies AFTER THE MINEWORKERS' STRIKE: where does our revolution go from here? Also: OUR STRUGGLE IS FOR DEMOCRACY AND SOCIALISM page 21 ANC leaders. These are available for from:
£1 each plus 20p postage Inqaba Ya Basebenzi, BM Box 1719, London WC1N 3XX, Britain.
name. They searched the hut but did not find my brothers. The induna demanded that my mother open all the huts in the kraal. As she went out my brother's girlfriend and my sister Petronella followed her. I stayed behind. My mother and the men were gone for a short while. I heard talking and the opening of doors in the other huts. I watched some of what was happening through the window. "My mother returned to our hut and the men seemed to be going to the gate to leave. My mother said she wanted to go outside to relieve herself and then we would all go to sleep. When she went outside the hut she shut the door. I heard the induna say to her that she should not move and lean against the wall. Then I heard gunfire. I heard a body fall and my mother say she was dying. Then they told my mother to open the door because we want the children inside as they will point at us. My mother replied that she could not open the door as they had shot her."
Patricia's brother Khatula, who is 13, speaks of what happened then. "After they shot my mother I heard someone tell her to get up and open the door. I did not hear her answer as I hid under my bed. A short while later they entered the room. I saw one of them aim his gun at my sister, Petronella, and fire one shot. She fell to the floor and I heard more shots. I re-
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A clash between the comrades' and 'the witdoeke', backed by the police and army. The use of vigllantes Is an open and consclous part of the policies of the ruling class.
member her crying out, 'Awu we Ma!' She lay bleeding on the floor. She was moaning. I closed my eyes and after a while the men went outside. I heard the induna say that they should burn down the house. One of the men argued against this, saying that they already had two of us. A few minutes later my sister Patricia came into the room. We fled from the hut and ran into the bush far from the house where we spent the night. It was cold and as we were only wearing light clothes we piled grass on top of us and hugged each other to keep warm.
Assailants released
Patricia and Khatula's eldest brother Mandla works at a food factory in Pietermaritzburg. He is a union member. He lives in Pietermaritzburg during the week and returns to the family home at weekends. He came to Maswazini on Saturday 10th October around 10am to find his family and neighbours in a state of hysterical shock. It is impossible to comprehend what he must have felt like when given the news of the deaths of his mother and sister. Mandla has absolutely no doubt as to why these brutal slayings took place. He says "I am a member of the Food and Allied Workers Union which is an affiliate of COSATU. My brother's Mangethe and Mntu are both membersof an informal youth group that allies itself broadly with the UDF. Their youth grouping was formed for the purpose of
addressing community problems and in particular the actions of the induna which have become oppressive and a burden upon our community.
"It is apparent that my membership of a COSATU union and my brothers' membership of a UDF affiliate, precipitated the murders of my mother and sister and explains why these people continue to hound me and my family. The object of the search at my family's kraal on the night of the murders was to find my brothers. The fact that when this purpose was defeated they turned upon my mother and sister illustrates their savagery."
On Saturday 10th October Mandla and his family members went to the police station to lay charges. The accused, as identified, were arrested on that weekend. But on Monday 12th October Mandla was astonished to see the induna standing talking to another man at a road junction he drove past. Subsequently he learned that all the other accused had been released. He went to the police station to protest at this but was told by the investigating police officer that the whole matter had nothing to do with him. The officer concerned then promptly left the charge office.
In a report in the Weekly Mail, Mandia continues: "I spoke to another detective..... He told me that if he were in my position he would immediately move his family to a place where they would be safer. He said that there were some
members of the police force who did not regard the chief as a criminal. He said that, in his experience, when members of Inkatha committed atrocities, they were arrested but subsequently released and almost never charged or prosecuted."
All the family's fears of what would become of them were confirmed on the evening of that day when a schoolboy visited the Mkhize home. Hetold Mandla that he had seen the chief with other men at the local store and that he had heard them planning a raid on the kraal that evening. The family packed their clothes and left to spend the night with a neighbour. They left not a moment too soon. As Mandla says, "while we were on our way to Mncwabe's house we looked back towards our kraal and saw, in the gathering darkness, a number of torches moving around the garden and through the huts."
Inkatha The
Hundreds of
Revolution
Patricia speaks for all the Mkhize family when she says, "I am very frightened and do not feel safe. I am an eyewitness to the murders. The induna knows that my brother and I have given statements to the police and identified him. My life is in danger. He must believe that he can do anything without fear of being arrested because the police are on
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26 MIR Winter 1988: South Africa™ his side. I am currently living in a safe place far from home although I can not continue to live like this. My home, relatives, and friends are in Maswazini and unless these people are stopped I will never be able to resume a normal life." This is the killing fields of Natal where fear stalks the hills carrying guns, knives Inkatha is mainly based on the state apparatus of the KwaZulu homeland and the eroded remnants of Zulu tribal structures in Natal. Gatsha Buthelezi, the leader of Inkatha, claims a membership of one million to one and a half million. But it would be wrong to interpret these figures as depicting massive strength without making important qualifications. majority of these members are forced conscripts, coerced to join Inkatha by the gangsters at the head of the organisation.
Secondly, in words, Buthelezi has consistently consciously fostered the idea that Inkatha is part of the movement for national liberation, bitterly opposed to apartheid Forexample, Inkatha's flag carries the same green, black and gold colours as that of the ANC. But actions speak louder than words and in practice Inkatha has operated as a reactionary gang, winning a large element of its support because of a chauvinistic appeal based on Zulu tribalism combined with armed intimida- The leaders of the ANC mistakenly conceived of Inkatha as an ally in the liberation struggle and supported its formation. They mistakenly thought that Inkatha could be used as a surrogate leadership because the ANC was banned. They believed that subsequently Inkatha could form an alliance with the ANC in the struggle against apartheid which would force a negotiated settlement of the 'democratic stage', in the so-called two stage revolution. This is a utopian dream. The South African bosses will never concede democracy. Even today there is an ambivalence in the approach to Inkatha amongst the leaders of the movement which gives it a legitimacy it does not deserve. The COSATU leaders, forexampie, still refer to Inkatha's workplace based murder squads in UWUSA as a "tribally based union"
The bosses eagerly supported the early development of Inkatha from its formation in 1975, because so doing conformed to their historical use of tribal-ethnic divide and rule tactics in the class struggle. This liberal bourgeois support for Inkatha was typified by a statement made by Gavin Relly, the head of Anglo American, to Business Day in June 1986: "I've been told that Buthelezi plays a rough game in Natal. But South Africa is not for the fainthearted.... You can't expect us to run away from the one black leader who says exactly what we think." Inkatha is Buthelezi's power base and it has made him an influential figure in the national politics of South Africa. At a local level Inkatha operates as little more than a crude extortion racket run by gangster cliques around many of the local chiets. Mandla Mkhize spoke of some of the 'customs' introduced by Inkatha in his ... if any member of the community who is not a member of Inkatha wants to slaughter a cow, then he or she has to pay a R5.00 Inkatha membership to the induna. If any body should refuse to pay that fee then he or she is taken by the induna to Chief Zondi. Such persons are then fined R150.00 by Chief Zondi. Another custom that the induna has introduced is that if a member of Inkatha has a wedding it is obligatory that the wedding be reported to the induna who then allocates an Inkatha observer to the wedding at a fee. Anybody who is not an Inkatha member and has a wedding, then the wedding proceedings are frequentl Molisi Hadebe Molisi Hadebe is fifteen years old. He joined Inkatha in the Harewood township near Pietermaritzburg in July 1987. He has made a full statement on his involvement in Inkatha which has been carried in parts of the South African press. His statement exposes the forced recruitment used to build Inkatha and the vicious thuggery and brutality of its leaders.
"In or about July or August 1987, 1 became a member of Inkatha. I joined the organisation against my will in the circumstances described below. One morning a group of about 50 Inkatha went through Harewood, from door to door, recruiting members. There were two leaders of this group. Their names were Mlungise Mthembu and Maqhawe Goba, both of whom live in the same house as Christopher Zuma who is the local Inkatha leader. "I was sitting on the verandah of the house when this group arrived. I was told that they were recruiting members for Inkatha and that those who did not join would be assaulted. I was also told that if I did not join my house would be burnt. I was instructed to get R1.00 to pay Inkatha as a joining fee, to arm myself and to accompany the group. I did as I was told, arming myself with a stick... Later that afternoon I took R1.00 and my stick and went to Zuma's house. When I arrived many people had already gathered whilst others were still arriving. The meeting took place in the yard. We were addressed at the meeting and told that where Inkatha operates, there is no crime, that Inkatha would get us jobs and ensure that all of us who wanted to attend school could do so. We were instructed to go home and tell those who had not attended the meeting to join Inkatha. We were also told that if we see a person's house burning we must not lend assistance if the occupants were not members of Inkatha. "On the following day I went to This time Zuma addressed the meeting. He sketched the background to the formation of Inkatha in the area. He said that after he decided to recruit members in Harewood he approached the local indunas who gave their approval. He said that he believed it was sometimes necessary to kill a person to make it clear to people that Inkatha should be obeyed. then said that when we come to meetings at his house, we should be armed because we might be instructed to attack UDF members. He warned that one day we would be put to the test. We would be instructed to bind and stab a captive when he ordered us to do so. This would be a test of loyality "I attended a third meeting the following day. At this meeting Zuma warned us against being seen associating with UDF members, saying that if we did so we faced the prospect of being killed. He also told us that he was on good terms with the police and subsequently, on several occasions, said he would never be arrested as the police knew him."
A few weeks after this Hadebe was part of an Inkatha raiding party on UDF members in the neighbouring township of Sinathing. He explains how the Inkatha brigade was assembled at the sound of gunshots, was armed with sticks and knives and burned down the house of known UDF members. After this raid Hadebe took part in a number of similar assaults. However, he became disenchanted with Inkatha after one particular assault on a friend of his and left the organisation. He says: 'The reason I have decided to disclose this is that I do not want to participate in the violence which is part of life in Harewood. I was constantly afraid when I lived there that I would fall foul of Inkatha's violence, even when I was a member. I was also shocked by the violence which was directed at innocent people, whether it was aimed at coercing them to join Inkatha or to punish them for their real or imaginary sympathies with the UDF.
Godfrey Madala used to reside in Sinathing township until he was burned out for non membership of Inkatha. His story has the same quality of horror as that of the Mkhize family. When he relates it in a matter of fact way you feel your stomach tighten and you can almost sense the sheer panic which grips people caught in this mayhem. From
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what he says it is clear that it is not necessary to be involved in the UDF or COSATU to provoke Inkatha. Simply not being an Inkatha member can be sufficient to provoke beatings, burnings and murder.
"In or about the first week of September I was at home with my family. There was my wife and three other members of our family who were guests at our house and my brother Ephraim Madala. Late at night I heard a knock at the door. I got out of bed and went to answer. I asked who was there, but there was no reply. Soon after stones began to hit the house. The stone attack was severe and soon most of the windows were broken. I ran back to my bedroom to ensure the safety of my wife and child. My wife and I left the room with our child. We went into the passage which links the rooms in the house. The other people in the house left their rooms at about the same time and were also in the passage. Everyone was terrified. Two of the rooms were set on fire and the blaze was spreading. I went to the kitchen to see if we could escape from the house through the kitchen door. I opened the door and saw four or five men armed with spears and sticks standing outside the doorway. Inkatha's civil war "I slammed the door, locked it and informed my wife that we could not exit the house through the kitchen. The attackers then set fire to the dinning room. At the same time, I heard people trying to force their way through the front door. We had little choice but to go through the kitchen door. I again went to the kitchen door and opened it. I saw a larger group of heavily armed men just outside. I decided it was preferable to leave the house and face our attackers, rather than be burnt to inside. I stepped through the door, closely followed by my wife, child Mphumulelo. One of the and niece, group asked me if I had any weapons in the house. Suddenly a member of the group rushed towards me with a knite. He stabbed me in the right side. I tried to run but as I turned another person stabbed me in the chest. Despite these wounds I carried on running and managed to get away. I ran to the home of an acquaintance who arranged tranme to Edendale "While I was in hospital I was informed that the body of my nephew Mduduzi Madala was found on the day after the attack. He had been stabbed and hacked to death. The attack on my house, my stabbing and the murder of Mduduzi are, to me, inexplicable other than that our family are not members of Inkatha. While my family and I are not members of Inkatha neither are we members of any rival organisation. We are simple people who want to lead peacetul lives."
The statements of Patricia Mkhize, her brother, of Molisi Hadebe and Godfrey Madala paint a vivid picture of what is happening in the Pietermaritzburg area of Natal. Unfortunately their stories are only a very small part of the carnage of Inkatha's forced recruitment drive which began in July/August 1987. Since then almost 200 people have been killed in the Pietermaritzburg area, the vast majority of them non members of Inkatha. In the last eight weeks alone 80 people have perished. To date there have been no police prosecutions for murder taken to court for any of the deaths of non Inkatha members. It is estimated that nearly 300 people have died in Natal in this civil war in It is clear that Inkatha sees its influence in Natal being seriously undermined by the growth of the UDF and COSATU and this explains the forced recruitment drive. Inkatha is being built through a reign of terror based on search and destroy missions. The response of the leaders of Inkatha to the charges laid against it of murder and mayhem, incredibly, is to insist that Inkatha is a non violent organisation. Oscar Dhlomo, the general secretary of Inkatha, said recently in an interview with the New Nation newspaper that there were no genuine political differences between the ANC and Inkatha! He added, "However, there are clear differences in strategy between the two movements... The ANC has chosen violence as a strategy whereas Inkatha has chosen non-violence. Inkatha's uncompromising stand on non-violence is a source of great political frustration for Buthelezi issues similar routine denials of Alice in Wonderland quality when confronted with accusations of Inkatha's murder and pillage. When questioned at a recent press conference he replied: "The kind of coercion alleged here is strictly contrary to the dictates of the movement. Inkatha's leadership would not tolerate such behaviour. The allegations are typical of the propaganda aimed at Inkatha. Inkatha is a voluntary organisation. It is well disciplined and disciplinary procedures exist and are used against members when warranted."
However, Velaphi Ndlovu, the regional chairman of Inkatha in the Pietermaritzburg area, believes that if an Inkatha member is killed by a member of the UDF it is acceptable to take revenge by killing relatives of the UDF member. He told the Weekly Mail 27 recently, "It's defence, because if there attacker there would be no was no revenge. Revenge killing is not acceptable in policy, but what can you do if your house is burnt down and the law won't do anything about that? You revenge yourself so that he won't come back.
Inkatha members are on the defending side. " This is a camouflage of The truth is that Inkatha is about as non violent as the hoodlums of Al Capone's organisation in Chicago in the 1930s. Whenever questioned about violence in public Capone asserted that he was opposed to violence and no member of his organisation could be accused of such conduct, in much the same way as Buthelezi and company do now. In this respect, Gatsha is the Al Capone of Natal. The township youth know the facts in any case. "Theleweni' is the township The response of the leaders of the UDF to this savagery has been to give priority to attempting to negotiate a truce with the leaders of Inkatha. Of course, ordinary people want to live in peace but can an end to the conflict with Inkatha be reached at the negotiating table? It is simply not possible. Marxism teaches that where there are two rignts, force decides and this is the case in No truce with Inkatha!
Archie Gumede, one of the leaders of the UDF in Natal, actually signed a truce agreement with Inkatha early in October. He is dealing with leaders who speak fine words, dress in fine suits like gentlemen, and sing lullabies of compromise at the same time as the goon squads under their command are extorting, burning, and killing in the townships. People have to be judged by their deeds not by their words. The leaders of Inkatha play a clever game on occasion. By being seen as willing and even keen to negotiate an end to the conflict they provide a smokescreen of respectability behind which dirty deeds are planned and carried out on a day to day basis. A genuine truce with these thugs is about as likely as being able to nail a raindrop to the wall. This is war and there will be a victor and the vanquished as in all wars.
The call for defence committees spoken about by the leaders of COSATU and the UDF on countless occasions actually has to be made a reality. Every township, every village throughout the province should have its own defence committee, organised by its own marshalls and properly armed to do battle
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It is true that this is not easily achieved in the prevailing circumstances but the glorious revolutionary youth in some of the townships have shown what can be done without the leaders of the UDF and COSATU seriously mobilising for battle. The truth is that we are many and they are few but the many have to be organised and welded together to feel their own power.
For it would be wrong to give the impression, despite its savagery, that Inkatha is sweeping all before it in its forced recruitment drive.
around Pietermaritzburg youth, many of them 12 and 13 years of age, have organised defence of their own areas. Inkatha has been on the rampage but in many areas the tide has been turned. There are now several places where defence committees organised by the youth have created 'no go' areas for Inkatha murder squads. In Kwadambuza township, dently has been renamed Angola, the youth have organised and repulsed the assault of Inkatha. In Kwasange, in early October, the forces of the UDF waged battle with those of Inkatha after which Inkatha was left to bury thirteen of its number and retreat in defeat. On 1 November, the Johannesburg Sunday Star gave a glimpse of the combative spirit with which the youth of Natal organise self defence in an article which can be quoted directly: ''They (ie Inkatha thugs) usually attack in the morning when we start to feel drowsy and sleepy when we have been up on ready. I'm not scared. It is my duty... The speaker is a 15 year old boy. Should he and his ten battle ready colleagues hear a secret alarm call they will spring into action. In an instant they will be "These are a new breed of soldier children. They are members of 'defence units'-armed guard groups, born of a necessity to survive as the township war in Maritzburg continues... Scores of these cell- like structures have sprung up in recent weeks... The group sat in a small stuffy room... They meet at dusk the form below.
Name Address .....
Britain.
Vigllante-In-chief, Gatsha Buthelezl. and stay awake until sun rise every day. Should one of the 50-odd houses under their jurisdiction sound the alarm they will react instantly... 'I do this so my parents and older brothers who have to work do not have to stay up all night... No, we are not scared. We are ready. These examples are typical of many strongholds of the UDF where ordinary people have come together to say that enough is enough. In some cases local policemen have fought on the side of the UDF youth because they have become so disgusted by the brutality of Inkatha. With resolute leadership, the UDF and COSATU could mobilise tens of thousands against Inkatha into properly organised defence committees, democratically controlled by local people.
A socialist vision Whilst the vast majority of those killed have been non Inkatha members, this should not create the impression that sets of armed hoodlums constitute an invincible army. Ndlovu, the renonal chairman of Inkatha, claims S: unctioning branches of Inkatha in the Pietermaritzburg area. With 40 to 100 people in each that would give Inkatha 5,000 members, many of whom were forced to join, in an area where half a million live. The potential for ordinary workers and youth to unite and drive back Inkatha is clearly evident. In fact, the tremendous retailiation that there has been against Inkatha to date shows that it is not wishful thinking to suggest that proper organisation, clear strategy However, a strategy to defeat Inkatha has to link the necessity of organisational measures to defend communities to a political campaign. There is no material base in South Africa to support black reaction. Inkatha cannot promise a vision of the future where there are democratic rights, houses, jobs and an end to poverty for all. Only a socialist vision of society can promise that and so the battle against Inkatha has to be politically linked to the need to build the ANC as a movement to bring about a socialist South Africa.
The march of the vigilantes of reaction has taken a terrible toll in the lives of those fighting for a new society in the townships of South Africa. It began in June 1986 with the use of the witdoeke in Crossroads. Since then almost every township has been engulfed in a tide of vigilante reaction, aided and abetted by the forces of the state. The march of Inkatha in Natal is probably the highpoint of this tide of reaction. It may seem daunting to contemplate struggle against the butchers of Inkatha but things are never what they seem. The processes leading to socialist revolution are not straightforward. Rather there is always the dialectical interplay of revolution and counter-revolution. The victorious revolution in Russia in October 1917 could never have taken place without the bloody defeat of 1905, nor indeed the July days of reaction and counter revolution in 1917. Defeat hardens the proletariat and burns away all illusions in capitalism and in an easy victory. In this context, the march of Buthelezi's butchers in Natal is actually forcing workers and youth to come together to build the organisations necessary to develop the against Inkatha which in turn will lay the basis for an enormous growth in the forces of the revolution in Natal. Today Gatsha should take the opportunity to ring his bells for tomorrow he will be wringing his hands. The warlords, the squads, the whole reactionary crew of Inkatha, represent the past. The revolutionary workers, who in the fullness of time will vanquish them, represent the future. To use the words of the Irish poet Yeats, from all of this 'a terrible beauty will be
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