Issued by: Truth and Reconciliation Commission
June 10, 1998
Former Vlakplaas commander Eugene De Kock is to appear before the Amnesty Committee in Umtata next week with two other applicants applying for amnesty for their role in the killing of a former University of Transkei student activist in 1985.
De Kock is currently serving more than 200 years' imprisonment for murders and other crimes. The other applicants are Mbuso Enock Shabalala, an askari who operated from Vlakplaas, and Gcinisiko Lamont Dandala, now a member of the South African Police Services. They are applying for amnesty for the killing of Batandwa Ndondo at Cala, Transkei on September 24, 1985.
Dandala and Shabalala, accompanied by askaris Silulami Gladstone Mose and Xolelwa Virginia Shosha - who are believed to have since died - accosted Mr Ndondo at the Cala home of Mr Dumisa Ntsebeza, now a Commissioner at the TRC, and asked him to accompany them.
According to the amnesty applications, while the men were travelling in a minibus with tinted windows Dandala introduced himself to Mr Ndondo as a policeman and informed him he was under arrest. The applicants say Mr Ndondo managed to escape through the window while the vehicle was still in motion and ran away. They claim they gave chase and fired several shots, killing him.
Shabalala and Dandala were later arrested and charged with murder. However, the case did not go any further after Shabalala was reported dead. In fact, he had, at the behest of De Kock, changed his identity and operated as an askari under a new name.
Former Transkei president Chief Kaiser Matanzima later claimed Mr Ndondo had been killed because of his involvement in the bombing of a government installation in Umtata.
The Committee will also hear amnesty applications from two members of the former Transkei Security Police relating to the killing of a former Umkhonto we Sizwe cadre at, Ngqamakwe, Transkei in 1988.
Pumelele Gumengu and Aron Tyani allegedly arrested Mr Sithembele Zokwe in Butterworth. Mr Zokwe was shot dead after the two men had driven him to his home at Mkiva village in Ngqamakwe, ostensibly to search for weapons on January 11 1988.
The applications will be heard at the same hearing at the Civic Centre, Umtata from June 17 to 19.
Inquiries: Vuyani Green on 082 459 5464 or Phila Ngqumba on 082 458 8463