Undeniable by Philippa Garson

Author:Philippa Garson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781431430161
Publisher: Jacana Media
Published: 2019-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

A few months after my first trip to Wesselton, when a local vigilante group called the Black Cats – so named because of the black whips they brandished – began harassing the local township residents, John Mndebele had called me and I went to cover the story.54

It was 1990, not long after Inkatha had launched itself as a political party around the country. According to the civic councillors I was in touch with, vicious fighting had broken out between the vigilantes and comrades after a recent Inkatha rally in Wesselton. Typically, the Black Cats had the backing of the police and Inkatha, they alleged. I tracked John down in hospital. He’d been on his way to visit friends injured in the battle and had been waylaid by a group of youths “who stopped me and spoke to me in a nice way,” he said. “When I got out of the car they began to attack me with pangas and knives ... the next thing I knew I was in hospital.”

I spoke to some youths, who said they’d seen the vigilantes sitting on police Casspirs and mingling with cops outside the police station in the nearby white town of Ermelo. Of course both the police and the Inkatha Youth Brigade leader, Themba Khoza, denied all allegations of collusion and aggression by the vigilantes.

It was just another of those dynamics playing out in just as many townships around the country, but what was different about this one was that, according to Eddie’s source, Khumalo, there were clear links between the Black Cats and the Inkatha hit-squad men trained at Caprivi.

Now, more than a year later, Eddie’s revelations brought Wesselton back into view. What had happened in the meantime to the Black Cats? How could we confirm Khumalo’s story?

I wasted no time in getting on the phone to my trusted contact in Wesselton, John Mndebele. Things moved fast. Two members of the Black Cats, threatened by the rest of the gang for voicing their opposition to its antics, had fled from the township and – with John’s encouragement – agreed to talk to us. Eddie and I drove off to meet them.

For the next few days the two of us worked tirelessly together, interviewing the Black Cats, corroborating their story with Khumalo, driving out to Wesselton to speak to residents for further confirmation. We were able to confirm what we had long since suspected: some of the Caprivi-trained KwaZulu policemen had come to Wesselton and recruited about thirty young people from the Black Cats, taking them to Ulundi and Mkuze.

“Themba”, one of the Black Cats, had been part of the group. He told us they’d hung around the old police barracks in Ulundi where they had received political education and been shown a video of the TV series Shaka Zulu by a Peter Msane, who we’d confirmed was one of the Caprivi trainees. Then they’d been taken to barracks at Mkuze.

“The blankets on the bed were like those used in prison. There were RSA stamps on the beds,” Themba told us.

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