Issued by: Truth and Reconciliation Commission
August 13, 1998
The Amnesty Committee of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has granted amnesty to four ANC members who attacked a police station near Kokstad in retaliation for the former South African government's Umtata raid in 1993.
Mlungisi Nyembezi, Luzuko Sydney Mpiyakhe, Solomzi Theo Nomashizolo and Luyanda Lizwi Ntikinca attacked the Bhongolethu Police Station and kidnapped, then murdered, two policemen, a Sergeant Mbhele and a Sergeant Ngubo in October 1993. The carried out their attack after attending the funeral of the youths killed in the September raid on Northcrest, Umtata.
The Committee said that the amnesty applicants' motive had been "to make the point that the government could not simply act against the African people at any time without expecting some form of retaliation."
The Committee noted that the applicants said the policemen had been killed in a shootout after the kidnapping, when the policemen had managed to seize firearms, but that the victims' widows disputed this and submitted that the applicants had not made a full disclosure of the facts.
The Committee found that the applicants were pursuing their political party's objectives, that they had made a full disclosure and that there was no evidence they had acted on personal agendas, for personal gain or out of personal malice.
It formally declared the widows of the policemen to be victims as envisaged in the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act and referred them to the Reparation and Rehabilitation Committee.
Note: The full text of the Amnesty decision is available on request from the Media Department of the TRC at 021-24-5161.