MPUMALANGA PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT

DEPARTMENT OF CULTURE, SPORT AND RECREATION

Project Name: Documentation of Sites, Heroes and Heroines of the Liberation Struggle in the Gert Sibande District Municipality

DRAFT SITUATION ANALYSIS REPORT

Prepared by

Sector Based Development Consulting cc

Company Registration Number: 2009/004383/23 662 NDABA DRIVE, PROTEA NORTH, P.O. TSHIAWELO, 1818, SOWETO, GAUTENG PROVINCE, SOUTH AFRICA Tel: +27 11 980 8888, Fax: +27 11 980 8888 Fax to e-mail 0880 11 980 8888 Mobile +27 84 580 7947 E-mail [email protected]

Managing Member: Khensani Maluleke

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The following is a draft Situation Analysis Report on a District Chapter of the National Liberation Heritage Route (NLHR) focusing on the Gert Sibande District Municipality (GSDM) in the Mpumalanga Province. The project is sponsored by the Mpumalanga Provincial Government through the Department of Culture, Sport and Recreation. The project seeks to preserve the memory of the liberation struggle heritage by identifying and documenting sites with liberation heritage significance. The sites will be networked with some nodes having World Heritage status, and others with national, provincial and local significance.

The scope and ownership of the Project reflects its national, regional and international dimensions. The Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) plays the role of national custodian in all matters relating to Culture and Heritage. The National Heritage Council (NHC) as an agency of DAC initiated the National Liberation Heritage Route Project and is the operational vehicle. The South African Heritage Resources Authority (SAHRA) is the statutory body for the implementation of the National Heritage Resource Act (25/1999), the principal law for the management of Heritage Resources in the country. The Project is therefore managed with vertical and lateral processes incumbent with the roles of DAC and the two institutions.

The NHLR seeks recognition as a World Heritage Property in terms of the World Heritage Convention (1972). South Africa has fulfilled the initial requirement, which is to place NHLR on the National Tentative List as required under the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Conventions of 1972

This draft situation analysis report cascades to the local municipalities to reveal in detail the features of the liberation struggle in particular locales. The report lays a good foundation for the Fieldwork Phase which will follow. The following key features emerge from the situation analysis and reveal the heritage potential of the area.

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The following key features emerge from the situation analysis and reveal the heritage potential of the area.

(i) 19th century battle sites (ii) Early black empowerment through land acquisition (iii) Forced removals (iv) Struggle battle sites (e.g. Sasol II attacks) (v) Infiltration/exfiltration corridors (vi) Landmine sites (vii) ANC/MK Safe houses (viii) The Bethal Trials (2 trials) (ix) Sites of pre-election conflict 1990-1994 (e.g. houses attacked) (x) Sites of political murders (xi) Farms associated with inhuman labour practices (Bethal) (xii) Private farm prisons/compounds (Bethal) (xiii) Police stations/torture sites used by the Security Branch/SAP (xiv) Identification of victims (deaths and injuries) (xv) Survivors of Conflict

A number of sites have potential to meet criteria of National and Provincial sites. Grading of sites must be supported by further research and public consultations in accordance with the National Heritage Resources Act. On the basis of this preliminary report the following sites may be designated Grade 1 Sites:

(i) Sasol II Refinery; (ii) Kinross Mine; (iii) Barney Molokoane ambush site; (iv) Seme’s Daggakraal as an early model of black empowerment; (v) Saul Mkhize’s murder site; (vi) Gert Sibande’s family house in Mzinoni; and (vii) Exfiltration/Infiltration corridors may be identified and memorialized.

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As the National Liberation Heritage Route will be anchored on events and the sites at which they occurred, we begin to see areas which must be illuminated by further research: (i) A number of sites have been identified; but the locations of some of the sites need to be confirmed. (ii) The locations of a vast majority of incidents identified in this report are not known, and thus require fieldwork.

Our preliminary recommendations are that (i) This Project must guide Local Municipalities to prepare heritage site registers. A site register is a critical tool in the grading of sites according to criteria set out in the National Heritage Resources Act (No 25, 1999). (ii) Local Municipalities must each have a memorial site to enshrine all events on the struggle some of which may not be recorded. (iii) Exfiltration/infiltration corridors must be identified and memorialized.

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ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

ACC Anti-Crime Committee ANC African National Congress OAU Organization of African Unity AU African Union COIN Counterinsurgency DAC Department of Arts and Culture DCSR Department of Culture, Sports and Recreation IFP Inkatha Freedom Party IDP Integrated Development Plan LHR Liberation Heritage Route MEC Member of Executive Council NHC National Heritage Council NHRA National Heritage Resources Act NLHR National Liberation Heritage Route OUV Outstanding Universal Value PAC Pan-African Congress PHRA Provincial Heritage Resources Authority SADC Southern Africa Development Community SADF South African Defence Forces SAP South African Police SB Security Branch UDF United Democratic Front UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization ICOMOS International Council on Monuments and Sites

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TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...... 1 ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ...... 4 1. INTRODUCTION ...... 7 2. SCOPE OF WORK...... 10 2.1. Terms of Reference ...... 10 3. METHODOLOGY ...... 11 3.1. Situation Analysis and Desktop Research ...... 11 5. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ...... 12 5.1. South African (National) Perspective ...... 12 6. DESCRIPTION OF THE STUDY AREA ...... 24 6.1. Geographical Location of the Mpumalanga Province ...... 24 6.2. Location of the Gert Sibande District Municipality ...... 25 7. MPUMALANGA ON THE EVE OF COLONIAL OCCUPATION ...... 29 7.3. The Swazi ...... 30 7.4. The Zulu ...... 30 8. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT ...... 31 8.1.1. The Great Trek, the Contact Period ...... 31 8.1.4. The Era of Mass Protests and Armed Struggle ...... 40 8.1.6. Forced Removals (1950 – 1980s) ...... 46 8.1.7. Pre-election Conflict 1990-1994 ...... 47 9. SURVEY OF THE LOCAL MUNICIPALITIES ...... 49 9.1. ALBERT LUTHULI LOCAL MUNICIPALITY ...... 49 9.2. GOVAN MBEKI LOCAL MUNICIPALITY...... 50 9.2.1. Labour politics ...... 50 9.2.2. Infiltrations ...... 52 9.2.5. Pre-election conflict 1990-1994 ...... 54 Key features ...... 55 9.3. MSUKALIGWA LOCAL MUNICIPALITY ...... 55 9.3.1. Infiltrations ...... Error! Bookmark not defined. 9.3.2. Police Stations ...... Error! Bookmark not defined. 9.3.3. Landmine sites...... 57 Page 5 of 71

9.3.4. Pre-election violence 1990-1990 ...... 57 Key features ...... 57 9.4. MKHONDO LOCAL MUNICIPALITY ...... 57 9.4.1. Liberation Struggle ...... 59 9.4.2. Landmine sites...... 60 9.4.3. Police stations in Piet Retief ...... 60 9.4.4. Pre-election Violence 1990-1994 ...... 60 Key Features ...... 60 9.5. LEKWA LOCAL MUNICIPALITY ...... 60 9.6. DR PIXLEY KA ISAKA SEME ...... 62 9.6.1. Forced Removals ...... 64 Key features ...... 65 9.7. DIPALESENG ...... 65 10. FINDINGS ...... 66 11. GAP ANALYSIS ...... 67 12. EMERGING RECOMMENDATIONS ...... 67 13. REFERENCES ...... 68

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SECTION I THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO THE NATIONAL LIBERATION HERITAGE ROUTE

1. INTRODUCTION

The following is a draft Situation Analysis Report on a District Chapter of the National Liberation Heritage Route (NLHR) focusing on the Gert Sibande District Municipality (GSDM) in Mpumalanga Province. The project is sponsored by the Mpumalanga Provincial Government through the Department of Culture, Sport and Recreation. The Provincial Government commissioned similar work in the Ehlanzeni District Municipality. The research focuses on places, events and people defining the liberation struggle. The project seeks to preserve the memory of the liberation struggle in its tangible and intangible dimensions by identifying and documenting sites with liberation heritage significance. The sites will be networked into a Cultural Route with some nodes having World Heritage status, and others national and provincial significance.

The project taps into a broader range of insights on the struggle heritage through public participation, from eyewitnesses, participants and victims to build a common narrative, national memory and experience which can be used to profile sites for serial World Heritage Listing. It is the regeneration of liberation stories through a process of re-interpretation and re-signification.

The liberation struggle history in South Africa spans more than 300 years. It is envisaged that all communities across the country can contribute a variety of experiences and episodes to the national narrative of the journey to freedom. Gert Sibande District Municipality opens an insightful window into various expressions of the struggle in the eastern part of the country. Despite the vast reserve of data in South African Archives and Libraries on the subject, there are many voices of ordinary people (civilians, combatants and victims) which have been overlooked and underreported. The project thus involves local communities in decision making connected with the management of heritage in their locales. The project thus favours a grassroots approach to information gathering to unravel rich personal often graphic accounts of the liberation struggle experience. The project engages Page 7 of 71

with silent voices.This grassroots approach underpins the methodology and will to a large extent determine the results of this research.

The District Chapter is a component of Provincial Chapter of the research and documentation programme. The two tiers build up to the third highest tier, the National Liberation Heritage Route. This methodology has been used for mobilization of data and has gathered sufficient momentum to sustain the project. To date the Project has been launched in the Ehlanzeni District Municipality where the approaches and methodology adopted here have been tested. The results of the inaugural phase were pleasing, despite some operational challenges, and are summarised here. Fieldwork demonstrated that there is a lot of information on struggle sites unrecorded at this juncture. Liberation heritage can be identified and celebrated through a democratic process of engaging local communities particularly those in rural areas as this study demonstrates. The project offered local people a rare but valuable opportunity to bring forward their own narratives and values on what constitutes heritage. During this project verification of data was a challenge in view of the fact that some of the documents may still be classified for security reasons. New local government boundaries might impose limitations on the way we look at implications of events which happened before they were drawn. The area was previously part of the Eastern Transvaal and new administrative structures have been put in place. South Africa was divided into 4 provinces namely, Cape, Orange Free State and Transvaal. Transvaal was divided into four areas namely Western Transvaal, Northern Transvaal and Eastern Transvaal and the Witwatersrand Rand Area. Using present administrative boundaries thus creates a “false” historical perspective of place. In order to put the pre-1994 events into proper perspective it is necessary to “deconstruct” present provincial boundaries.

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A value chain analysis showed that the Liberation Heritage Route has potential for downstream benefits particularly in the tourism sector and rural crafts industries. The project must therefore be integrated within township cultural tourism under the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) framework.

Subsequently District Chapters have been launched simultaneously in Nkangala District Municipality and Gert Sibande District Municipality.

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2. SCOPE OF WORK

2.1. Terms of Reference

We provide here a summary of the Terms of reference:

(i) Profiling and documenting of sites, Heroes and Heroines of the Liberation Struggle in the Gert Sibande District Municipality.  The National Heritage Council has assumed the role of integrative facilitator and project management agency for the NLHR.  The project is implementation of Resolution 33c/29 of the 33rd UNESCO General Conference which adopted “Roads to independence: African Liberation Heritage”. Resolution was an initiative of SADC countries.  The project is about sites, events and people which express the key aspects of the South African liberation experience.  The project will identify and develop precincts on sites with liberation significance. The NLHR will be configured as a network of sites, some nodes with world heritage status, others with national, provincial and local significance.  The project is about the development of sites which present evidence of a common narrative, national memory and experience.  It is about the development of heritage assets into strategic development nodes.  The NLHR is about re-asserting our uniqueness, recognition and re- enforcement of eminent events of the liberation struggle.  The NHLR is the regeneration of the liberation stories through the process of re-interpretation and re-signification.  It is about the interpretation of critical events to serve the needs of the present and the future.

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 The outcomes should include the following:

(ii) Research on each category of Liberation Chapter for 7 municipalities in the Gert Sibande District Municipality.  The Modern Liberation Struggle.  The Mass Democratic Movement.  Massacres and Assassinations.  Sites of Historic Significance.  Wars of Dispossession.  Women, Youth and Student Movement.  Early African Intellectuals.

3. METHODOLOGY

3.1. Situation Analysis and Desktop Research

Desktop studies were undertaken to provide an overview of the struggle sequence in line with the research themes as follows:

 The Modern Liberation Struggle.  The Mass Democratic Movement.  Massacres and Assassinations.  Sites of Historic Significance.  Wars of Dispossession.  Women, Youth and Student Movement.  Early African Intellectuals.

Multifaceted data has been collected with emphasis on understanding the following: (i) Pan African perspectives of the Liberation Heritage concept and its implications thereof on evolving national perspectives in South Africa,

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(ii) the narrative of the Liberation struggle of Gert Sibande District Municipality based on existing and validated literature on wars of resistance through to the modern armed struggle, (iii) the existing legal and protection frameworks for Liberation heritage sites, (iv) contribution of Liberation to socio-economic development in the Province, and, (v) The potential for World heritage listing in view of the approved tentative listing for the South Africa Liberation Heritage Route. Private and public archival sources have been consulted. The internet was an important portal of information.

5. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

5.1 South African (National) Perspective

The National Liberation Heritage Route (NLHR) project has national, regional and international dimensions. To state the scope and ownership of the Project, the National Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) plays the role of national custodian in all matters relating to Culture and Heritage. The National Heritage Council (NHC) initiated the National Liberation Heritage Route and is the operational vehicle. The South African Heritage Resources Authority (SAHRA) is the statutory body whose mandate is the implementation of the National Heritage Resource Act (25/1999), the principal law for the management of Heritage Resources in the country. The Project is therefore managed within the frame of vertical and lateral processes incumbent with the roles of DAC and the two institutions, the NHC and SAHRA.

The NHLR seeks recognition as a World Heritage Property in terms of the World Heritage Convention (1972). South Africa has fulfilled the initial requirement, which is to place NHLR on the national Tentative List as required under the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention.

The NLHR is defined as a network of heritage sites carrying themes depicting the tortuous journey to liberation through struggles from many forms of repression from Page 12 of 71

pre-colonial, to colonialism and apartheid. It is also a development programme for sites into strategic nodes that present evidence of a common narrative, experiences and national memorial of a complete and connected story of the struggle against apartheid. Areas of focus include but are not limited to the following epochs; (i) Wars of Resistance, (ii) Land occupation and forced removals (iii) Early protest movements and (iv) Modern Liberation Struggle.

The South African struggle for liberation starts with wars of dispossession as the early expressions of resistance to colonialism and imperialism. The struggle for liberation evolved giving rise to formation of protest movements such as the South African Native Convention and the Transvaal Native Congress. The formation of the African National Congress in 1912 was born out of the realisation that the fragmented approach of existing political and civic organisations with parochial rather than a national outreach would not match the political challenges emerging especially after the establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910. This settlement was a great conspiracy in which the British and the Afrikaners, erstwhile foes, had buried the hatchet and forged an alliance to govern the country without including the Black majority.

The Modern Liberation Struggle can be traced to a changing ideology in the ANC and the Pan-African Congress from the 1950s. The defiance campaigns, congress alliances, banning of Liberations Movements, imprisonment of leadership, armed struggle, development of external structures, consolidation of underground networks, international solidarity, women and youth movements, trade union movements, student movement, black consciousness movement, the Youth Uprisings, the mass democratic movement, constitutional negotiations and events such as sites of strikes, boycotts and popular campaigns were clear signs of the radicalisation of the political landscape from the 1950s onwards.

The project encourages peoples from all levels of society to contribute their testimonies. This is democratic process of writing and rewriting history, identifying heritage, and selecting themes for memorialisation. This grassroots approach gives

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the public an opportunity to vent emotions and thus bring about healing and closure.

5.2 Provincial Perspective (Mpumalanga)

From the National Level the Project cascades to the level of the Provincial Governments. The Mpumalanga Provincial Chapter of the National Liberation Heritage Route has been endorsed by the Provincial Cabinet following a proposal by the National Heritage Council to identify, document and protect heritage sites linked to the South African Liberation Struggle with a view to submission to UNESCO for listing as part of the African Heritage Liberation Route. The Provincial Department of Culture, Sport and Recreation is the implementing agent of the National Liberation Heritage Route in the Province. The Province has already hosted a National Liberation Heritage Route Summit culminating in the following resolutions:  The establishment of the Provincial Chapter preceded by a broader consultation.  There shall be resource allocation for sustenance of all anchor liberation routes.  There shall be research commissioned to scout all the stories, history, events and sites and integrate them into a Provincial Chapter.  The Liberation Heritage of South Africa shall be nominated under the 1972 World Heritage Convention.  Advocate for proper and sustainable management of the National Liberation Heritage Route.

At the Provincial Summit in 2010 the following Development Framework was endorsed:

 Provincial Heritage institutions must take responsibility to protect and manage the sites in the province through stakeholder driven conservation

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plans and allowing community based management systems to be part of the plans in order to foster high level sense of ownership.  Sufficient funding for the management of the provincial route must be provided by both the national and provincial Governments through fiscal planning. Inclusion of the NLHR in Provincial budgets was highlighted. In addition the Route must become part of municipal IDP’s.  Sites must be made accessible to the local communities.  Negotiate with private owners on whose land some sites fall on and arrange for their management, including accessibility. Where amicable and diplomatic negotiations fail then such sites and the land must be expropriated through existing laws by the Government as national heritage assets.  Undertake capacity building in the provincial heritage sector to build requisite skills and experience in managing heritage places.  If the Route is nominated, compliance with UNESCO guidelines and requirements should be enforced at both national and provincial levels.  Reviewing of current legislations (i.e. the classified Information Act) to ensure increased access to information originally inaccessible.

5.2.1 Project Principles

The following principles of the Provincial Liberation Heritage Project were announced at the Provincial Summit in 2010:

 Formulate a provincial chapter to support the momentum gathered through the NHC initiative.  Raise awareness about the National Liberation Heritage across the stakeholder spectrum.  Recognize the diversity of the National Liberation Heritage and the multiple stakeholders that should be involved in the process.  Highlight the current LHR projects in the province with a bias on the status of development being supported by the Provincial Government.

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5.2.2 Project Objectives

The objectives of the Provincial Liberation Heritage Project are:

 Research at provincial level should feed into the national agenda in order to enable the listing of the route as a world heritage property, and  Develop the route in line with national goals in order to promote socio- economic development.

5.3 The African Union Perspective

The Liberation Struggle in South Africa manifests a Pan-African experience spanning many centuries of contact with Europeans. It is eventful and has evolved from the response of our pre-colonial forebears such as Hints (Xhosa), Cetshwayo (Zulu), Langalibalele (Hlubi), Moshweshwe (Sotho), Ngungunyana (Shangaan), Makgatho (Venda), Menelik (Ethiopia), the Oba of Benin (Nigeria) to name but a few icons who stoically resisted colonialism. As it happened, things fell apart and for some time it appeared that colonialism would prevail. But the Pan-African vision of freedom lived on, eschewed by modernist leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, Haile Selaisse, Julius Nyerere, Augustinho Neto, Kenneth Kaunda and Samora Machel.

The South African struggle was indeed an African struggle which brought several countries in the region into the sphere of military conflict – Botswana, Angola, Zambia, Mozambique, Swaziland, Lesotho and Zimbabwe. Liberation activity in eastern front led the apartheid state to flag Mozambique and Swaziland as serious threats to its existence and to take extraterritorial measures.

The diplomatic and military pressure brought to bear on Mozambique and Swaziland in particular will feature in the District Chapter of the NLHR under study. It impacted on collective decisions of the Frontline States1 and the Organization of

1 The Frontline States were southern African countries bordering on South Africa sharing borders with South Africa and Namibia. These were Angola, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique. Page 16 of 71

African Unity (OAU). The South African Liberation Heritage Route is part of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) common initiative, the “Hashim Mbita” project approved by the SADC summit of Heads of States and Governments held in Botswana in August 2005. This is legacy project, amongst other things is to collect and catalogue memories of the liberation struggle in Southern Africa. The sub-region was the last theatre of a worldwide struggle against imperialism, a struggle which spanned nearly 500 years.

Apartheid was a manifestation of a much larger, more insidious and long-running global hegemonic system with its origins in the slavery crusades and colonialism. The South African Struggle against it reflects a universal human quest to fight injustice and to hold those who are in power to account for governance practices and to refrain from violations of basic human rights and dignities.

5.4 UNESCO Perspective

The World Heritage Convention (1972) and the Operational Guidelines for its implementation set the standards of practice for listing of World Heritage sites. Before a site is selected for Nomination it must be placed on the National Tentative List. This is the responsibility of the State Party to the Convention. The agency of the State Party is the Department of Arts and Culture. As mentioned earlier, the NLHR is on the South African Tentative List for World Heritage Nomination.

The NLHR adds to the growing number of sites of memory potentially eligible for listing as World Heritage. Modern sites of memory are bound by a common thread that they usually represent gross violations of human rights dubbed “crimes against humanity”. Apartheid has been cited as a classic example of a crime against humanity. On a point of comparison, it is alleged that between 2 and 4 million Jewish people perished in the network of concentration camps ran by the Third

They received people leaving South Africa into exile. By virtue of location closest to South Africa and Namibia, they served as springboards and immediate front for guerrilla incursions. Although they did not constitute a formal body within the Organization of African Unity (OAU), they were a strategic operational vehicle of the OAU Liberation Committee. Page 17 of 71

Reich2 between 1939 and 1945, which have been memorialized Poland under the banner of Auschwitz (World Heritage Site No 3, inscribed 1979, Criteria: (vi)). China has labeled Japanese conduct of the second Sino-Japanese War 1937-1945 as a crime against humanity. In the same vein, narratives of the long running Vietnam War 1959-1975 are replete with accusations of gross crimes against humanity, accusations leveled especially against the United States forces. There are obviously no universally agreed criteria on what constitutes a crime against humanity. This is one of the issues daunting the international criminal court at The Hague.

In 2005 UNESCO and the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) launched the Global Strategy to create a credible and balanced World Heritage List. At the present time it is a known fact that the List weighs heavily in favour of Europe and Asia. Africa being the least represented, the situation is seen as untenable, while a number of historical factors explain the skewed statistics of the List. Chief among them is that the Criteria which define Outstanding Universal Value do not include other pertinent factors affecting representativity such as typology, cultural theme and geographical location.

5.5 The NLHR Project as a Memorial Project

Memorials have evolved a long way. Prototype genres of memorials celebrated military victories with an exclusive tone which tended to alienate the vanquished. Modern memorial sites have taken a conciliatory tone. They are sites of reflection and introspection; they are intended to heal trauma and provide lessons for both victor and vanquished, victim and perpetrator. The cliché, that South Africa is a rainbow nation defines the spirit in which most post-apartheid monuments and memorials have been themed as sites of reconciliation and nation building. They heal the wounds of civil strife and mend fractures of racialized socio-economic development programmes of the past. They are created through a consultative approach in which the views of key stakeholder are respected.

2 Germany under Adolf Hitler, 1933-1945. Page 18 of 71

A memorial takes many physical forms; they can be an entire building, often containing a museum or just a simple plaque. Many memorials take the form of a monument or statue, and serve as a meeting place for Memorial Day services. As such, they are often found near the centre of town, or contained in a park or plaza to allow easy public access. South Africa has a number of memorials conceived pre- and post-1994 which include the Women Monument (Bloemfontein), Voortrekker Monument and Freedom Park (both in Tshwane)

The NLHR is an educational programme through which to interpret critical events to serve the needs of the present and the future. Heritage sites are networked into a Cultural Route and become strategic nodes of development on which we can anchor pilgrimages and tourism. Some of the nodes which have been identified and developed are Robben Island, Vilakazi Street/Hector Pieterson Museum (Soweto) and Constitutional Hill (Johannesburg).

Data collected from fieldwork will be examined in terms of the following themes:

 The Modern Liberation Struggle.  The Mass Democratic Movement.  Massacres and Assassinations.  Sites of Historic Significance.  Wars of Dispossession.  Women, Youth and Student Movement.  Early African Intellectuals.

5.6 The NLHR as a Cultural Route

The National Liberation Heritage Route resonates with ICOMOS’s definition of Cultural Routes. The concept Cultural Routes or Cultural Itineraries was defined in the meeting of experts in Madrid, Spain in 1994. It is defined as: a land, water, mixed or other type of route, which is physically determined and characterized by having its own specific and historic dynamics and functionality; Page 19 of 71

showing interactive movements of people as well as multi-dimensional, continuous and reciprocal exchanges of goods, ideas, knowledge and values within or between countries and regions over significant periods of time; and thereby generating a cross-fertilization of the cultures in space and time, which is reflected both in its tangible and intangible heritage.

Cultural Routes are now recognised as an important international heritage theme for which principles for their management have been developed. Some Cultural Routes have been inscribed on the World Heritage List:

Santiago de Compostela (World Heritage Site No 347, inscribed 1985, Criteria: (i) (ii) (vi)) was proclaimed the first European Cultural Route by the Council of Europe in 1987. This route from the French-Spanish border was – and still is – taken by pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela. Some 1,800 buildings along the route, both religious and secular, are of great historic interest. The route played a fundamental role in encouraging cultural exchanges between the Iberian Peninsula and the rest of Europe during the Middle Ages. It remains a testimony to the power of the Christian faith among people of all social classes and from all over Europe.3

The Silk Route is a cultural corridor that is stretched mainly east to west and has connected Asian and European civilizations to each other. A section of the Route in Iran is nominated for inscription in the World Heritage List. The Silk Route, along with the neighbouring immovable cultural properties as well as its natural and cultural landscapes, is the longest route in the world. It is a unique cultural property that extends over the territory of two civilizations. It has been created by different societies adjacent to this route through time for economic and commercial purposes. It is the heritage of mankind as no single country can claim ownership to it. Iran is located at the crossroad of the Silk Route.4

3 http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/669 4 http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5268/ Page 20 of 71

The Slave Route Project was launched Ouidah, Benin in 1994. It can contribute to a better understanding of the causes, modus operandi, and effects of Slavery in Africa, the Caribbean, America, Europe and Asia. It can highlight the global intercourse and socio-political transformations that have from the Slave Trade.

It helps to raise awareness about crimes against humanity such as racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia. It can promote peace intercultural dialogue and the construction of new identities and citizenships.5

Convictism

Up until the 16th century, prisons were relatively rare in Europe, and criminals were usually disciplined with corporal punishment, fines and forced labour, or slavery. In the wake of the agrarian and industrial revolutions population increased dramatically with a corresponding growth in crimes. The need to deal with increasing crime coincided with the discovery of new lands. European countries saw the opportunity of sending criminals to new lands such as the Americas, Australia and New Zealand.

After the American Revolution in 1776-1783, Britain could no longer send convicts to America. They were sent to Australia. There the Governors of Australia also set up special penal settlements for re-offenders such as Norfolk Islands and Port Arthur. The penal sites connect with a Convict Route from Britain. The Convict Route is therefore a reminder of the country’s inherited psyche. The Australian convict system is important in the context of world penal history.6

5.7 Comparative Analysis and Benchmarking in the Regional Context

Liberation heritage is a shared value in Africa which suffered the depredations of colonialism. In line with African Liberation Heritage Project countries such as

5 http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/dialogue/the-slave-route/ 6 Godden Mackay. 2000. Port Arthur Historic Site Conservation Plan. Page 21 of 71

Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Kenya, Botswana and Angola, to name but a few, have started recognizing this heritage typology.

The government of Zimbabwe, through the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe, has embarked on the (i) identification and documentation of liberation narratives, under the project “Capturing the fading memory”, (ii) trans-boundary projects with Mozambique and Zambia on protecting heritage sites connected with the struggle for Zimbabwe, (iii) memorialisation, through establishing national and provincial heroes acres with elaborate interpretative centres, (iv) developing a national museum to present the liberation narrative, and (v) building internal capacity for the proper management of this heritage. Tanzania having offered rear bases to several Southern African liberation movements has advanced in identifying the Liberation Heritage of South Africa using baseline documentation systems and producing public friendly publications.

South Africa is currently working with Mozambique, Botswana and Lesotho to identify and safeguard sites connected with struggle in South Africa.

The Matola Raid Memorial in Maputo, Mozambique, is one such example worth describing here in detail. It illustrates the international character of liberation heritage in Mpumalanga Province, for what prompted the SADF to attack Matola was MK’s simultaneous attack on the oil installations at Sasolburg and Secunda (Govan Mbeki Local Municipality) – respectively Sasol I and Sasol II – on 1 June 1980, which were planned from Maputo. The SASOL installations were premier targets and major operations orchestrated from Maputo with groundwork by Motso Mokgabudi, nom de guerre Obadi Khazaramnyanga, Rashid (Abookbaker Ismael) and the legendary fighter, Richard “Barney” Molokoane. The timing of the operation was to deliver maximum impact, close to the regime’s Republic Day, 31 May.7

Also significant, the Eastern Transvaal Police were given the task to plan the reprisals. They attacked two transit houses in Manzini on 4 June in which MK

7 Stiff, P. 2001; www.disa.ukzn.ac.za. Page 22 of 71

operative, Patrick Makau, was killed and a child of an ANC member Patrick Nkosi was also killed. A third house belonging to a Swazi, Mrs. Hlubi was extensively damaged but there were no casualties.8

The Matola operation, codenamed “Operation Beanbag”, was carried out six months afterwards on 31 January 1981 after a first abortive attempt in November 1980. At least thirteen (13) cadres and a Portuguese national were killed in the attack. Vuyani Mavuso was captured and subsequently executed as he refused to cooperate with interrogations.

Double storey house situated on Rua Fernando Fig. 2a. House used by MK’s Police Machinery after attack (Courtesy of Tempo) at Avenida Almoxarifado and Avenida Seine Saint Denis and Avenida Seine Saint Denis and Rua de Namibia after Matola attack. (Courtesy: Tempo)

Dhlangeni Cemetery, graves of ANC cadres killed in the SADF Matola raid in 1981

8 www.justice.gov.za/decisions/ Page 23 of 71

The North West Province has been working with the War Veterans Associations to facilitate cross border programmes with Botswana to map the Gateway to Africa Project. The North West, Eastern Cape and Western Cape Provinces have made much progress in this area compared to other provinces. These parallel initiatives need to be coordinated so that they merge into a balanced national narrative. From both a national and regional perspective (Africa), Liberation Heritage reflects a rich and diverse history characterised by supreme sacrifice for freedom from all forms of colonialism including apartheid.

6 DESCRIPTION OF THE STUDY AREA

6.1 Geographical Location of the Mpumalanga Province

Mpumalanga Province formerly Eastern Transvaal lies in eastern South Africa and comprises 80 000km2, of the national land encompassing highly diverse landscapes.9 It has international borders with Swaziland and Mozambique, while in the north it borders on Limpopo Province, to the west Gauteng Province, to the southwest the Free State Province and to the south KwaZulu-Natal Province. The capital is Mbombela. The name Mpumalanga means east or "the place where the sun rises". Mpumalanga’s international borders assume importance in this project as the scene of cross-border activities which has made the South African Liberation struggle a truly Pan-African struggle.

The population of Mpumalanga Province consists predominantly of Africans who account for about 92% of its total population. IsiSwati has the largest spoken base of 31%, followed by isiZulu (26%) and isiNdebele (12%). Gert Sibande which is situated in the south of Province is mainly Zulu speaking. Mpumalanga is divided into three Municipal Districts namely; Gert Sibande, Nkangala and Ehlanzeni. Each of these districts is further subdivided into Local Municipalities.

9 Esterhuysen, A. 2007. Page 24 of 71

6.2 Location of the Gert Sibande District Municipality

The Gert Sibande District Municipality is located in the southern part of the Province and comprises seven Local Municipalities, namely Albert Luthuli, Msukaligwa, Govan Mbeki, Depaseleng, Lekwa, Pixley ka Seme and Mkhondo. The Gert Sibande District Municipality is bordered by Free State Province to the west, Nkangala to the northwest and Ehlanzeni to the north both in Mpumalanga and the east and KwaZulu Natal Province to the south. It shares an international border with the Kingdom State of Swaziland. Here we can see the international dimensions of the Liberation Heritage Route. It is the largest of the three districts in Mpumalanga province.

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The district’s capital is Ermelo. Other towns are Amersfoort, Amsterdam, Balfour, Bethal, Breyten, Carolina, Charl Cilliers, Chrissiesmeer, Davel, Ekulindeni, Embalenhle, Empuluzi, Evander, Greylingstad, Grootvlei, Kinross, Leandra, Lothair, Morgenzon, Perdekop, Piet Retief, Secunda, Standerton, Trichardt, Volksrust, Wakkerstroom, eManzana (Badplaas). IsiZulu has the largest spoken base followed by isiSwati. 10 The districts have deep rural pockets.

Free State

10 http://www.localgovernment.co.za/districts/view/32/gert-sibande-district-municipality Page 26 of 71

6.3 Gert Sibande: What’s in a name?

Gert Sibande

The name is a symbolic inscription of the human rights work and political career of Gert Sibande. Sibande was a trade unionist and conscience politician in the Eastern Transvaal during the 1940- 50s. At great personal risk, he exposed routine torture and murder of workers and unilateral trials and punishments meted out by white farm owners in the Bethal area. Through political activism and using investigative journalism skills he awakened world conscience about the crimes of racism and capital. In this risky work he collaborated with Ruth First and Henry Nxumalo both of whom were eventually assassinated by agents of the apartheid government.

Sibande was born near Ermelo in 1901 where his father was a labour tenant. Although he never attended school he taught himself to read and write. He formed the Farm Workers Association to articulate grievance on the farms. He was elected President of the Transvaal branch of the ANC. Sibande was a powerful personality which earned him the nickname, Lion of the East.

His political career reached a tipping point with allegations that some murdered black farm workers had been buried in furrows in potato fields. A myth circulated that the large variety of potatoes from Bethal were “human beings”. This precipitated a boycott of potatoes from Bethal by African consumers in Page 27 of 71

Johannesburg in what became known as the Potato Boycott or Potato Revolution (1958-1959).

Sibande, having been in the forefront of the human rights and labour campaigns, was harassed by the government as the source of the story and the worldwide concern it raised. Sibande was one of the treason trialists in 1956. To remove him from the political scene, the government banished him to Evaton in present day Gauteng Province. Upon his return, he was stalked by the police, arrested again and restricted to Mbuzini in the now Ehlazeni District Municipality. After warning of a possible assassination plot, he skipped the border into Swaziland. In Swaziland he facilitated transit of and provided safe houses for MK cadres. Sibande never had the chance to return home; he died there in 1987.

In April 2007, Gert Sibande was posthumously awarded the order of Luthuli in Gold by President Thabo Mbeki for his exceptional contribution to the struggle for the improvement of farm workers’ working conditions and for a non-racial, just and democratic South Africa. (Learning Together, Vol 1, Issue 1, 2007:28-30).

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SECTION II HISTORICAL SETTING AND IDENTIFICATION OF HERITAGE THEMES

7 MPUMALANGA ON THE EVE OF COLONIAL OCCUPATION

7.1 The Eastern Sotho

There were various groups settled in the Gert Sibande District prior to the Mfecane which have been loosely termed the eastern Sotho. These are the Kutswe, Pai, Pulana and Ngomane. These groups did not form a single political entity and appeared to be of disparate historical origin. These groups were later to be displaced or absorbed by the intruding Swazi in the wake of the Mfecane.

7.2 The Southern Ndebele

The south Ndebele were Nguni-speaking group who possibly settled in the Transvaal as early as the sixteenth century under the leadership of King Musi, the son of King Mhlanga. King Musi who had seven sons, among them, Manala, Ndzundza, Mhwaduba, Dlomo, Mthombeni (Kekana), Skosana, and Sibasa. As a result of succession disputes between Manala and Ndzundza, the kingdom was divided among the two sons.

The Ndzundza under chief Mapoch, eventually settled east of the Steelpoort River. Regardless of their strength they remained in the shadow of the paramount Pedi chief. The defeat of the Pedi in 1879 meant trouble for the Ndzundza as they were vulnerable to Boer rule. Under Chief Nyabela, the Ndzundza refused Boer demands for them to cede land to the settlers, provide labour and pay rent as well as taxes. They also refused to hand over Mampuru, a contender to the Pedi throne. Subsequently Sekhukhune and the Boers lodged an offensive attack on them for eight months until starvation forced the Ndzundza to surrender and hence their subjugation under white rule.

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By 1883 the ZAR plotted to disperse the Ndebele throughout the Republic to prevent future resistance. Most of them were distributed among the Boer farmers mostly as indentured labour for a period of five years. It became difficult even after the abolition of indenture in 1887 for the Ndebele to regroup as a united chiefdom except for attempts by Chief Mayisha Cornelius Mahlangu years later in 1923 to compose the Ndebele chiefdom on a farm he had purchased, Weltevreden, northeast of Pretoria in the Globlersdal district.

7.3 The Swazi

The expansion west of Swazi chiefdoms westward into the study area began during the time of the founder figure King Sobhuza 1815-1836 and continued during his successor, Mswati. Sobhuza’s Ngwane nucleus had consolidated his foothold north of the Phongolo in the aftermath of the Mfecane fomented to the south in Zululand.

The southern side of the Pongola River was a particularly difficult area due the conflict between the Ndwandwe and the Mthethwa which continued to develop there. Thus the west appears appeared to offer a safety value – present day Piet Retief, Wakkerstrom, Ermelo, and Carolina. The westward movement caused disturbance among pre-existing clanships such as the Bakone Ngomane, eastern Sotho (the Kutswe, Pulana and Pai), and the southern Ndebele (Ndzundza). The trend continued with the reign of Mswati (1845-1868). The Swazi king Mswati continued to hold sway, if tenuously, over the dispersed Swati chiefs under a system of patronage which he used to broker successions.

7.4 The Zulu

The southern part of the area under study lay within the sphere of the Zulu kingdom founded by Shaka. Although a border was not clearly demarcated or shifted from time to time, the Zulu kings generally claimed to rule to the headwaters of the Buffalo and Ncome (Blood River) and line eastward along the Pongola River.

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The unification process called Mfecane, which had been started by Dingiswayo of the Mthethwa and Zwide of the Ndwandwe was completed by Shaka under the Zulu flagship. It was characterised by violent contests. The causes of the Mfecane are still a subject of unsettled debate. But the idea of war to unify was, paradoxically, to improve security; and it is believed that the security situation on the Natal seaboard had deteriorated partly as a result of the entry in the area of the British through Port Natal and Boers from the cape Colony. After the unification wars, Shaka appeared to have deliberately avoided confrontation with the whites.

This was to change after the accession of Dingaan to the throne in 1828. Faced with unreasonable demands for land from Boers, Dingane annihilated a Boer party led by Piet Ritief. The fallout which culminated in the battle of Blood River in 1838 led to eventual demise of Dingane. The Boers actively supported Mpande’s claim to the Zulu throne which he succeeded to wrest in 1840. Mpande’s policy of “peaceful coexistence” with the Boers does not seem to have paid off, as it ushered in an insidious process of land appropriation by the Boers, which culminated in the Anglo- Zulu War. Thus Mpande appeared to have won peace and stability, which Zululand enjoyed between 1840 and 1872, but the downside was that the Whites took advantage of Mpande’s peaceful character to grab thousands of hectares of land.

8 HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT

The contact experience is generally seen as starting with the movement of Afrikaner populations from the south part of the country into the northern and eastern areas of the country, an event which has been lauded as the Great Trek, but was in fact occupation.

8.1.1 The Great Trek, the Contact Period

The struggle in Mpumalanga Province started with those who resisted the invaders at the first contact. The primary cause of the Great Trek is cited as disillusionment among the Afrikaner population with British style of administration which imposed inhibitions on their life ways. However running deep in the cause of the mass Page 31 of 71

exodus was the quest of land to graze and to hunt.11 Predictably the reaction of the Indigenous Swati, Shangaan, Pedi and Zulu inhabitants to the trekking of Louis Trichardt and Hans Van Rensburg, Piet Rietief was initially one of alarm and inevitably followed by resistance. That the latter two trekked to the east coast foreshadowed one of the preoccupations of the Boers, to find a passage to the sea uncontrolled by the British.

Furthermore that Afrikaners thought that they could make good their freedom from British control by gaining alternative access directly eastward to the sea, and thus avoid British ports in the Natal and Cape colonies. These prospects gradually fizzled out, thwarted first by the Shangaani and secondly by the Portuguese hold on Delagoa Bay. 12

Dynamics of shifting relations between African polities and the Trekkers first centred on land rights. The Boers negotiated land rights on private ownership basis in order to create farms for their citizens. The African worldview on this matter was completely diffierent. Land was held by the rulers in trust for the whole community as a collective. No wonder that agreements on land rights negotiated by the Boers with the Zulu, Pedi and Swazi kings, Mpande, Sekwati and Mswati respectively were understood differently by the parties and therefore hotly contested. This inevitably led to the conflict and the bloody confrontations that characterised the contact between Africans and Europeans.

As the Trekkers consolidated their settlement, an acute demand for labour emerged, which brought in a second point of conflict betweeen the Africans and the Trekkers. Africans were lured to the farms in anticipation payment in exotic goods including firearms. As it turned out adults were less willing to work on farms. The Trekkers resorted to forced labour and the employment of indentured children (inboekelinge) who were recruited using various methods including the employment of force. There was a general feeling especially in British official circles that inboekelinge was a disguised form of slavery.

11 P148 12 P260 Page 32 of 71

8.1.2 Land Dispossession and Resistance to Occupation

As we have seen a number of small clanships lived in the area under study under the shadows of the much powerful Swati Kingdom under King Mswati to the east and the Zulu under King Mpande to the south. The situation here was more fluid as these clans recognized the supremacy of the two kingdoms or claimed independence depending on the circumstances. The first dimension of the conflict

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was the rivalry between the two African super powers in which the small groups could be sacrificed. Whereas in African tradition the chief owned the land in trust for the community, the European tenure system of individual title stoked land grabs and precipitated a “land shortage” which was the root cause of conflict. Whether they took sides or they were invited to prop a party to a local conflict, the Boers sought to advance their stake on the land.

In 1846 King Mswati granted generous “paper concessions” of land to the Boers. Subsequently in 1855 King Mswati gave another land concession on the southern flank of his kingdom, along the northern bank of the Phongolo River, the purpose of which was to create a buffer between him and the rival Zulu state. The occasion was allegedly the elimination of a rival claimant to the Swazi throne, Somcuba, for which the Boers had aided Mswati. Although Mswati and Boers understanding of this concession was diametrically different, he needed it for political expediency.

On the southern front the limits of Boer settlement was the Utrecht District between the Mzinyathi (buffalo) and Ncome (Blood River). A series of events was to make this border area volatile. First was the fallout between the Hlubi and Ngwe inhabitants with Mpande. In 1848 the Hlubi and Ngwe clans deserted and settled in Natal. Boer farmers came in to fill the vacuum. Although Mpande received payment of 100 head of cattle, he did not construe that to mean cession of land in the sense in which the Boers understood it. Despite Mpande’s protests farms were parcelled to Boers farmers and it eventually the Zulu king let it go.

In 1861 the Boers were meddling in another succession struggle in the Zulu Kingdom. They allegedly obtained a land concession from Zulu king Cetshwayo between the Buffalo River and the Phongolo River running deep into Zulu territory in return for handing over a fugitive claimant to the Zulu throne. However Cetshwayo denied ever making such a land concession. In 1875 the Boers did it again, unilaterally claiming land south of the Phongolo River. Further to that and to make good their claim they imposed a tax on the Zulu people lived in the area. Cetshwayo responded with force. Zulu soldiers burned and plundered farms which forced the ZAR to drop the tax. Page 34 of 71

A fuzzy border between the two drawn along the Phongolo River did not recognise the independence of the various clans living there. The second dimension was the encroachment of the Boers from the north and their quest to gain access to the sea and the British imperial presence the south in Natal. As regards the border disputes, it was the intention of the Boers to take a strip of land in northern Zululand about four farms deep, along the whole length of the reserve border down to the sea. This belt of land was ten miles wide and the Boers intended when this belt had been granted, to acquire another similar belt of farms alongside the first, and so on. The British administration in Natal favoured the Zulus against the Boers. The occupation by the Boers of the Zulu country from the Transvaal border to the sea was undesirable as it would effectively close the outlet hitherto existing between Natal, Zululand and Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique).

British annexation of the Transvaal in 1877 appeared to bring a resolution in the developing conflict. But the British came with their own agenda. Lord Carnarvon, the British Secretary for the Colonies harboured a scheme to forge a federation of all the white territories in Southern Africa in a bid to consolidate imperial power in Southern Africa. For this scheme, he had the support of Theophilus Shepstone, Secretary for Native Affairs in Natal, who had been special commissioner of the Transvaal. Shepstone orchestrated the annexation of the Transvaal on the pretext that the ZAR had failed to rein in on troublesome blacks; the annexation was in the interests of peace and stability in the region. In 1877 Cetshwayo issued an ultimatum ordering all Boers in the disputed area to leave. The British took advantage of rumours of mobilisation by Cetshwayo and military activity in the border area by the ZAR to annex the Transvaal.

The annexation was classic act of diplomatic treachery. The British gave the impression that they were moving in to protect to the interest of the Africans. In fact this was a ploy to bring the Boer Republics under British control. Soon after the fact Shepstone turned against the Zulu kingdom. The annexation of Zululand was advocated from April to July 1877 by both the press in Natal and the missionaries. These third forces were calling for the destruction of King Cetshwayo kaMpande. Page 35 of 71

He demanded a meeting to settle the border dispute between the ZAR and Zululand. The Zulu drew a borderline north of the Phongolo River. This was rejected outright. Cetshwayo had mobilised 2000 men to build a military base north of the Pongola. A Border Commission was set up in 1878 which ruled in favour of the Zulu. Shepstone demanded that the Zulu disband the camp Ikhanda in the Pongola. The Zulu ignored the ultimatum. The highlight of the war which ensued was initial British setback at Isandlwana on 22 January 1879 in which they lost 1250 men in a surprise Zulu attack. The Zulu were defeated at Ulundi on 4 July 1879.

After the Anglo- Zulu war of January 1879 and the civil war from 1880 – 1888, a Demarcation Commission was appointed to survey and demarcate the boundary between the Boer and Zulu territories. The Commission awarded 65 farms to the Boers. The mission of the Demarcation Commission at many points was designed to provide for exchange and interchange and passage between the ZAR Republic and Natal. The demarcation process benefitted the farmers to whom the land was allocated, and in a way also benefitted the missionaries in that some of the mission stations which had originally been annexed were returned to them.

8.1.3 Labour Politics

The regulation of labour in South Africa had a long history of both government leverage and extrajudicial measures including slavery. Competition for labour from the diamond and gold mining industries induced government to intervene with coercive measures.

The Government was directly involved in the schemes to make labour available to the two streams of the economy, mining and agriculture. Behind the political façade was church, the Dutch Reformed Church, the custodian of government conscience, who used religious creed to justify a system which only be described as peonage. Peonage is a disguised form of slavery in which various terms and conditions are prescribed in such a way that a worker had limited choices but to serve a master. The terms and conditions were supported by an array of measures including pass

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laws. The government operates a vast labour bureau for farmers. Through this Africans arrested on petty charges, were not sent for trial but instead “induced to volunteer” (in official parlance) to work on the farms. Africans who were arrested under the pass law system which criminalized unauthorised movement were sent to the farms to work for a token allowance. Private labour recruiting agency had been operating for a long time profiteering from selling people for labourers like a commodity.13

The pass system was introduced to regulate African entry into new urban areas and cities, squatters’ laws were passed to limit a number of squatters per farm and thus redistribute the labour supply. Poll taxes and labour taxes were enforced to Africans to force them to work for cash. A Native Commission of 1903-1905 calculated a shortfall of 400, 000 African on the land, but concluded almost without argument that any recommendation as to higher wages is quite out of place.

During the 1950s and 60s the rural economy remained labour intensive, keeping African living standards artificially low, alongside a capital-intensive industrial economy prevented by legislation from openly competing for labour on the basis of better wage conditions. The demands for cheap labour was met by the traditional two-pronged policy of (a) denying Africans land right through the 1913 Land Act whereby 13% of the total land area in South Africa was reserved for Africans, who constituted 70% of the population, thus forcing them to work in the white economy.

The Native (Urban Areas) Acts of 1924 and 1930 banned African men from entering any urban area without a pass. By the beginning of the 2nd World War, which was to be followed by a period of phenomenal growth in the South African manufacturing industry, a network of laws and regulations already existed to force Africans into the white economy, to regulate their access to the better paid work in the towns, divert them into agricultural labour, and tie them to white farms under conditions over which they had little control. Farms workers were recruited under various terms and descriptions as Labour tenants (with certain material benefits; squatters (without rights with permitted

13 Drum, Feb 1959: 33. Page 37 of 71

residence paid with labour) indentured (registered) labourers employed by contract, either directly by farmer or through a recruiting agents, and Casual labourers (itinerant, seasonal workers).

In 1946, there were some 40,000 foreign labourers contracted to farms in the Bethal district, the majority from Nyasaland (present day Malawi) and the Rhodesia’s (Zambia and Zimbabwe). Bethal's Arbeidsvereeniging existed largely to recruit labour for its members. Illegal immigrants from across the Limpopo were screened at Musina and then again at Bethal and given the choice between signing on for work on a farm or mine or being deported back across the border. Thousands signed contracts for farm work, hoping that Bethal would be a stepping stone to work in industry and commerce on the Reef.

In the late 1940’s this source of labour was beginning to dry up. In 1948, of the thousands of Africans crossing into the Union, only one in seven accepted work on farms, the rest preferring to be sent home, and year by year the regulations for the recruitment and employment of African labour from outside the Union were tightened up, and the foreigners were sent packing. The round-up of "foreign Natives" in the towns and their transfer to farm work did not help either; these men soon left the Union altogether rather than remain farm labourers

In the same year a clergyman, Michael Scott, detailed the gruesome farm assaults and described the compounds surrounded by high stone walls: watchmen and watchdogs on guard outside; the barn-like buildings often without windows or chimney and only a hole in the roof through which the smoke from the braziers could escape; cement blocks doing service as beds. Men whose clothes had been taken from them lest they should try to run away; the rows of labourers strung out in long lines across the fields, backs bent, clawing out potatoes with their nails; cut and calloused hands and scars across backs subjected to the sjambok.

The critical shortage of farm labour was met by use of prison (convict) labour. By 1957-1958, a total of 199, 312 convicts were hired out to farmers annually as a wage of 9d per day. Since 1947, long term prisoners were integrated into the farm Page 38 of 71

labour scheme. The government needed the system as a revenue generating scheme. According to Drum (Feb 1959: 34), the Government was receiving £400 000 a year in hire fees).

Through meticulous investigative journalism the Drum Magazine issued a special report on the appalling working and living conditions on the farms in Bethal in March 1952. The report stirred world conscience. Reports of gross human violations fed in African superstition, as it was accepted like unspeakable fact that potatoes from Bethal grew on the remains of murdered farms workers. Key to these revelations was the political and civic work of Gert Sibande, Ruth First and Henry Nxumalo.

The Government set up a commission of inquiry. But Hendrik Verwoerd, then Minister of Home Affairs dismissed the report as media generalisation. But although there were calls from civic organisations inside and outside the country the conditions on the farms changed little. Six years later Africans staged a boycott of Potatoes from Bethal to protest the inhuman conditions under which they had been produced. The boycott extended to other consumer good. By the time the boycott was called in 1959 farmers and traders had been affected considerably.

An article by human rights activist and politician, Ruth First, published in the 1950s explains why there was an acute and perpetual shortage of labour in Bethal. While the area is one of intensive cultivation, its location in the centre of the Transvaal farming area furthest from any of the African Reserves meant that farmers had difficulties in trying to reach out to the sources of labour. The Free State drew seasonal labour from Lesotho, and from an extensive the squatter system is; Natal's wattle and sugar plantations had a close supply from to Zululand; the Transvaal citrus areas in the north of the province obtained labour from the great trust areas in that vicinity (i.e. Venda, Pedi and Ndebele); the Western Transvaal bordered on Botswana. Bethal\s maize, wheat and potato lands hemmed in the centre had no ready-to-hand source of labour. “The east side of Bethal is farmed chiefly by

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squatter families, but the west side, where the farming is even more intensive, is ever panting for labour and is forced to recruit it from further and further afield”.14

Labourers in the potato fields of Bethal

8.1.4 The Era of Mass Protests and Armed Struggle

The formation of the South African Native National Congress in 1912 later ANC marks the beginning of systematic attempts to articulate political grievances through party politics. This happened in the wake of their exclusion from government of the Union of South Africa established two years back. The growing unilateral appropriation of resources of the country by one group, a minority segment of the population – whites presented new political realities which triggered such appropriate responses

The founding culture of the African National Congress was to engage with the authorities in peaceful articulation of grievances. Such methods sometimes described as “civil disobedience”. Even after 1948 when the National Party government of the minority whites started to make good their political and economic

14 Ruth First. “The Bethal Casebook.” p. 18. Page 40 of 71

gains by legislating for separate development – apartheid -, the African National Congress continued to pursue a civil struggle. The Freedom Charter, launched in 1955, which became the pillar of the ANC’s vision of a free South Africa based on social equality and multiracial integration was authored in this spirit.

The Defiance Campaign of 1952 and Women’s peaceful march to the Union Buildings in 1956 bear testimony to the organisation’s modus operandi of peaceful methods in the face of increasing white radicalism. In the decade after 1948 the Government passed the Suppression of Communism Act (1950) and the Public Safety Act (1953).

These laws justified violent crackdown on black opposition, for instance the shooting at peaceful marchers in Sharpeville in March 1960 during which 59 people were killed. In the immediate aftermath of Sharpeville a State of Emergency was proclaimed under the Public Safety Act, banning the ANC and PAC thereby making them unlawful organisations, and granting sweeping powers to security forces to maintain law and order. As government continued to restrict the political space of Africans, disillusionment set in. The ANC and other organizations resorted armed struggle as a means of bringing an end to white minority rule.

Following Sharpeville a large number of their members and supporters left South Africa to get military training in friendly African states and overseas. In 1961 the ANC launched its military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), to start war against the apartheid government. With that development the most of ANC and PAC leadership was rounded up and jailed, while others went into hiding and escaped into exile.

The ANC established offices and rear training bases in Tanzania and Zambia and later, after 1975, in Angola. The Maputo office was opened in 1975 soon after the country gained independence from Portugal. The veteran nationalist Lennox Lagu was ANC’s first representative to Mozambique and the current state President, Jacob Zuma, was his deputy. In 1976 the ANC office in Maputo began to receive an increasing number of young recruits who were leaving South Africa in the wake of the Soweto uprising. The routes inside South Africa traversed Eastern Transvaal Page 41 of 71

(Mpumalanga), and Mozambique and Swaziland became transit hubs and critical portals for MK personnel returning to carry out operations in South Africa. These two countries served the Eastern Front of the infiltration routes.

The ANC established a network of cells in the Eastern Transvaal now Mpumalanga Province. The operators (recruiters and couriers) worked secretly to avoid detection.

The MK forces which carried out a double attack on the oil installations at Secunda and in the Vaal in June 1980 had infiltrated through Mozambique and the Eastern Transvaal.

The following structures were under the Maputo Political Committee (1980 - 1983)

Transvaal Urban Led by Graham Morodi ("Tati Mashego"), Oupa Mashinini, and "Cde Musa." Transvaal Rural Led by John Nkadimeng, Chief Mampuru, and Billy Whitehead as secretary Natal Urban: Led by Judson Khuzwayo, with Ivan Pillay and Terence Tryon Natal Rural Led by Shadrack Maphumulo and Jabulani Nxumalo ("Mzala")

MK Military Machineries

Machineries may be described as military command system which orchestrated special guerrilla operations inside South Africa. They had a tendency to operate geographically. There was a “Machinery” dedicated to the Transvaal, hence assigned to the area under study:

MAPUTO SO: MILITARY COMMAND, 1980 - 1983

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Joe Slovo Chair Sello Motau ("Paul Dikeledi") Secretary

Other members were Julius Maliba ("Manchecker"), Siphiwe Nyanda, Edwin Dlamini ("Chris")

The following machineries / military structures operated below the Maputo SO Military Command (Eastern Front encompassing Swaziland):

“MACHINERIES” TRANSVAAL URBAN Siphiwe Nyanda & Ntsie Manye Commanders Selaelo Ramusi Ntsie Manye Solly Shoke

EASTERN TRANSVAAL RURAL Gilbert Ramano ("Robert Moema") & Commanders later Julius Maliba ("Manchecker"), and Glory Sedibe ("September") Thabo Gwamanda ("Thabo Mosquito"), Zaba Nkondo Commissar

On the other hand we note in the same area the rise of counterinsurgency activities by the Government and its various agencies. Ermelo for instance was a springboard for a number of cross-border raids carried out in Swaziland. Many police stations were turned into torture/interrogation and holding cells from abductees and those arrested on suspicion of anti-government activities.

While this was happening in the external front, in 1983 the United Democratic Front (UDF) was launched in Cape Town with the goal to oppose the introduction of the Tricameral Parliament and black municipal councils. During 1982–83 the

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government introduced new constitutional proposals which sought to incorporate Indian and coloured people as junior partners in political decision-making. In addition, two bills were introduced which proposed new measures to regulate the presence of Africans in cities. The Black Local Authorities Act of 1982 gave a range of new powers and responsibilities to the highly unpopular and frequently corrupt township governments. The UDF stepped up the internal campaign of defiance.

In 1976 students launched countrywide protests against the Government which drew international attention. The year 1985 was turning point for the anti-apartheid movement to make the country ungovernable. At its Kabwe Conference in 1985, the ANC formulated a strategic response which it hoped would enable it to capitalise on the ‘popular revolt’ and turn it into a people’s war, possibly even an insurrection.

8.1.5 Exfiltration and Infiltration Routes

This study may break new ground with respect to the identification and mapping of exfiltration and infiltration routes. There are several challenges which limit the availability of information. These include the fact that such information would have been classified from the positions of both parties in the conflict, i.e. the liberation organisations and the apartheid security forces. One wonders, therefore, how much of this information has found its way to the archives, or is still classified, or how much is in the memories of surviving veterans and participants in the struggle, and can be retrieved.

Examining literature in the public domain, the following is a reconstruction and remains a hypothetical framework which will need to be verified by further ground work:

From the mid-1970s the ANC and its armed wing, Mkhonto weSiswe began to receive through Mozambique and Swaziland a growing number of people, predominantly youths, forced by the political situation to leave the country, or were responding to the call to train abroad as freedom fighters. At the time Mozambique had just gained independence from Portugal; from the 1960s Swaziland had Page 44 of 71

established a tradition of offering safe passage to South Africans leaving the country for political reasons. So at the general level we start to see an eastern exit corridor to Mozambique and Swaziland.

From the late 1970s into the 1980s the ANC opened infiltration/exfiltration routes for guerrilla operations in South Africa through the same corridors. As a general rule operators would have avoided the official immigration points and used secretive routes. Scanning available literature there were three possible corridors.

(i) A northern corridor through Mbuzini into Swaziland. (ii) A western corridor into Swaziland across the Mahamba Mountains. (iii) A southern corridor from KwaZulu-Natal into southern Swaziland.

One of the key issues is to define the attributes of a corridor. To our knowledge there is no literature to hand about the nature of these corridors. But we may reasonably hypothesize that a corridor may have been a one-way or two-way passage. Maybe an operator may never have used the same way again for security reasons. However, because we know that cadres crossed to and from Swaziland, broadly a corridor may be defined as a geographical area without a single but multiple possible routes. There could have been a network of safe houses and “middlemen”, cache sites, unmanned post-offices, postmen and couriers.

From available literature, we note that the apartheid government noticed the growing strategic importance of the eastern corridors to the liberation struggle and responded with various counterinsurgency measures. The Security Branch (SB) was a unit of the South African Police (SAP) which played began to play an increasingly crucial role in counterinsurgency (COIN) operations. In the 1980s the Vlakplaas a military institution for dirty tactics established outside Pretoria in 1979 was merging with the Security Branch ‘special forces’ of the Security Branch. They had adopted the modus operandi of the Rhodesian Selous Scouts. As we see from the inventories, units of the Security Branch and Vlakplaas members operated from Ermelo [Msukwaligwa] and Piet Retief [Mkhondo] in a bid to neutralise the threat of

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infiltrations through the eastern corridor. These units were responsible for many skirmishes with guerrillas, “hot pursuits”, abductions and other COIN operations.

8.1.6 Forced Removals (1950 – 1980s)

In line with apartheid policy, from the 1950s the Native Affairs Department (NAD) went on a crusade to “sanitize” the white areas by removing what they called “black spots”, the apartheid term for pockets of black settlement in white areas. These actions were legalised by the 1913 Land Act and the amendments which followed it. Blacks found themselves with no option but to resist the orders, while the Government found it necessary to resort to force to effect removals. In the Eastern Transvaal there were a number of Black Spots of which Driefontein and Daggakraal are in the study area. As we will see, Driefontein was a typical case of both successful and failed resistance to forced removals.

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8.1.7 Pre-election Conflict 1990-1994

The violence witnessed in South Africa between 1990 and 1993 was symptom of the difficult transition from apartheid to democracy. A charged mood infected the country, and with varying intensity it appeared that black people were pitted against black people an internecine struggle. Largely, the reasons for political violence among black people themselves are still at best theory, notwithstanding the abundance of contemporary records. The timing of the onset of clashes, happening after the unbanning of political parties and the free participation ANC in electioneering activities inside the country is telling evidence of turf war with other political entities. Inkatha, which became the ANC’s principal opponent in the arena of black politics, was at the time a civic and cultural organization claiming to be custodian of Zulu traditions, launched in 1975. In order to win a stake in the unfolding political scenario, it transformed into a political party, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), and started to compete for political ground. This is believed to have set the collision course, a contest which was in theory psychological, but on the ground quite violent.

The malicious hand of “third forces” and poisonous media hype to excite violent ethnic tensions and hatred has also been alleged. Furthermore criminal activity by those who sought to gain materially or to settle personal scores has not been ruled out. As often happens in such a melee, boundaries between the criminal and the political often become blurred. Political violence as a prelude to freedom made an indelible mark and has many “battle sites”. This layer has important heritage significance.

The Eastern Transvaal was the scene of many violent episodes with both bona fide political groups and paramilitary organisations at play (ANC, SDU, Black Cats, KZP and SAPS)

Violence became endemic and claimed many lives and its nature changed dramatically. Indiscriminate massacres were common in which gunmen opened fire on train commuters, people drinking in shebeens or sleeping. Wesselton and Ermelo

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became violent hot spots. The anti-crime committee (ACC) formed in 1989 as an initiative of the SAP evolved into a vicious outfit, the Black Cats” unleashed an orgy of violence and terrorised the Wesselton community. Apparently aligned to the IFP it attacked ANC members and destroyed property, principally in Wesselton and Ermelo from 1990 to 1992. The gang received military training from Inkatha at the Mkuze camp in KwaZulu Natal in the early1990s; it was supported by certain community councillors, Caprivi trainees and members of the SAP. The group had an wide reach stretching from Piet Retief to Davel and Ermelo.15

15 TRC amnesty hearing, 20 July 1998 Page 48 of 71

SECTION III HERITAGE SCOPING SURVEY

9 SURVEY OF THE LOCAL MUNICIPALITIES

The following is an overview and heritage sensitivity assessment of the Gert Sibande District Municipality. For a better resolution on the heritage issues which must be spotlighted, we cascade to each of the 7 local municipalities in a thematic exposition of the main heritage issues.

9.1 ALBERT LUTHULI LOCAL MUNICIPALITY

Albert Luthuli Local Municipality

Chief Albert Luthuli Local Municipality is situated in the northeast end of the Gert Sibande District Municipality, bordering on Nkangala District Municipality to the north and Ehlanzeni District Municipality to the northeast. To the east it shares an international border with Swaziland. It shares border with all the other local municipalities except Depaseleng. It was named after Chief Albert Luthuli, President of the ANC 1952 -1967 and the first African to have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1961. Carolina is the seat of the municipality. Other towns are Ekulindeni, Empuluzi and eManzana (Badplaas).

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9.2 GOVAN MBEKI LOCAL MUNICIPALITY

Govan Mbeki Local Municipality

Govan Mbeki Local Municipality occupies a western position in the in the Gert Sibande District Municipality sharing a border with the Free State Province. From east to west clockwise it shares border with Msukaligwa, Lekwa and Dipaseleng. It was named after the anti-apartheid stalwart, Govan Mbeki, a Robben Island Prisoner. Secunda is the seat of the municipality. Other towns are Bethal, Charl- Cilliers, Embalenhle, Evander, Kinross, Leandra, and Trichardt. The area is mostly agricultural with 3 urban conglomerations situated within it, namely Leandra/Lebohang on the western edge, the Greater Secunda (Trichardt, Evander, Kinross and Secunda/eMbalenhle) conurbation in the central part, and Bethal/eMzinoni on its eastern edge.

9.2.1 Labour politics

Govani Mbeki was the epicentre of horrendous labour practices committed by commercial farmers in the 1940s and 1950s. The human crimes ranged from unethical methods of labour procurement to the cruel treatment of the farm workers. The name Bethal became synonymous with this scandal, although the crime itself

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was committed in a much wider geographical area including farms in Leslie, Evander, Trichardt and Kinross.

Selected farmers were permitted to build jails on their land, to discipline workers. By 1963 there were ten in the Transvaal. The right to employ prison labour became a saleable asset to the farmer.

These farm prisons were a crude imitation of the compound system described by one judge as “something quite new in the agricultural economy”. This phenomenon is closely associated with the beginning of large scale mining in Kimberley in the 1870s. While compound started off as “quarantine” to allow thorough searches for illicit goods, the system soon was to serve as holding sites and ready sources of black labour and symbols of power over black labour. They took on many elements what were called “convict stations”16 in Australia and the Cape.

Bethal was particularly revealing as a criminal act against humanity. Firstly some farm workers were recruited under false pretence signing bogus contracts not informed correctly about wages and destinations. The inhuman treatment of labourers ranged from torture, beatings resulting in deaths and grievous bodily injuries (Drum March 1952 page 4, 8-10).

This crisis became a human rights issue when the Drum magazine published an exposé after investigative reports by Gert Sibande, Ruth First and Henry Nxumalo. And to add further distaste and controversy, rumour circulated that the bountiful potato harvest which the farmers received in 1958 was because some white farmers had murdered some black farm workers and buried them in furrows in potato fields. A myth thus circulated that the large variety of potatoes from Bethal were “human beings”. The myth caused a scare causing African consumers in Johannesburg to boycott potatoes from Bethal in what became known as the Potato Boycott or Potato Revolution.

16 Wentsel, M. Historical origins of hostels in South Africa: Migrant Labour and Compounds. In Minaar. 1993. Communities in Isolation: Perspectives on Hostels in South Africa. Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Centre (HRSC).

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9.2.2 Infiltrations

A three pronged attack launched by the MK, the armed wing of the ANC on the night of 31 May/1 June at Sasol I and NATREF in Sasolburg and Sasol II in Secunda made international headlines. It coincided with Republic Day a public holiday celebrated by the minority white community at the time. Reconnaissance for the attacks was made in June 1979 by MK operatives in two groups trained infiltrated from Angola. The operators against Secunda exfiltrated through Swaziland reached rear base in Mozambique. David Motshwane Moisi and Sipho Matthews Thobela were among the cadres who attacked the Secunda installation and later survived the Matola revenge attacks by the SADF.

The ‘landmine campaign’ of 1985–86 was launched by the ANC in the northern and eastern Transvaal targeting especially commercial farming districts. The reasoning behind this campaign was that these areas were defined by the South African security forces as being part of a ‘military zone’, and the white farmers were conscripted into commandos. The United Nations have classified landmines as unconventional weapons, the laying of them of which is considered a crime under international law. In fact the ANC having observed that most victims were civilians rather than combatants halted the campaign.17

9.2.3 Bethal 18 (Secret Trial of PAC members)

The trial of eighteen Pan African Congress (PAC) members accused of treason, began in December 1977 in Bethal. The defendants faced two main charges under the Terrorism Act of 1967, and a number of alternative counts under other legislation. Among the trialists was Zephania Mothopeng, the President of the PAC then a banned organisation. He was tried along with the seventeen other suspects in the infamous Bethal 18 secret trial. They were convicted and jailed for allegedly inciting revolution and for being behind the Soweto uprising. Other members of the

17 Truth and Reconciliation Commission Vol 2: p35).

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defence were Masina, Ganya and Zulu. Tragically, during the course of the 1979 trial four of those awaiting prosecution died in police custody. These are Naboath Ntshuntsha, Samuel Malinga, Aaron Khoza and Sipho Bonaventura Malaza. Vusumzi Johnson Nyathi survived after he was thrown out of the window during an interrogation session. Nyathi suffered spinal injuries, was later charged and found guilty of trying to escape from custody.18

9.2.4 Bethal Secret Trial of Kagiso Students

Five school representative council students and activists from Kagiso, Templeton Mageza; Themba Raymond Hlatshwayo; Rodney Tsholetsane; Molathegi Thlale and Lawrence Ntlokoa were recruited to join the liberation movement by Mike Matsobane, a popular activist at the time. Influenced by the writings of Steve Biko, leader of the Black Consciousness Movement, the students became the target of the apartheid government’s security police and were often threatened and intimidated.

In the aftermath of the Soweto Uprising, Hlatshwayo, Thlale, Tsholestane, along with Mike Matsobane, were arrested and detained until January 1977. The students and Matsobane endured severe torture from state police, which they testified to during their trial. The trial took place in Bethal on the contravention of the old Terrorism Act of 1967. The appointment of Judge D J Curlewis, a well-known apartheid sympathised tipped the scales against the students “Curlewis has always had a dubious reputation for heavy-handedness and his adverse comments in … political trials he presided over are the stuff of legend. His handling of the Bethal trial was arguably the most controversial performance of any by the select group of apartheid judges.” Most worrying to the accused was Curlewis’s reputation of handing down death sentences to those who had previously faced similar charges. Curlewis ordered that the trial be held in-camera, and banned the public and the press from covering it. During the 18-month trial, 168 state witnesses were brought to testify against the students.

18 http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/bethal-treason-trial- resumes;https://www.facebook.com/metrofmsa/posts/10151647361040842

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The Kagiso group were found guilty and served their respective sentences at various prisons across the country.19

9.2.5 Pre-election conflict 1990-1994

The violence witnessed in South Africa between 1990 and 1993 a painful symptom of transition from apartheid to democracy. A charged mood spread throughout the country, and with varying intensity it appeared black people were pitted against black people. Largely, the reasons for political violence among black people themselves are still at best theory, notwithstanding the abundance of contemporary records.20 The timing of the onset of clashes, happening after the unbanning of political parties and the escalation of ANC activities inside the country is telling evidence of turf war. Inkatha, which became the ANC’s principal opponent in the arena of black politics, was at the time a civic and cultural organization claiming to be custodian of Zulu traditions, launched in 1975.21 In order to win a stake in the unfolding political scenario, it transformed into a political party, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), and started to compete for political ground. This is believed to have set the collision course, a contest which was in theory psychological, but on the ground quite violent.

The malicious hand of “third forces” and poisonous media hype to excite violent ethnic tension and hatred has also been alleged. Furthermore criminal activity those who sought to gain materially or to settle personal scores cannot be ruled out and often in the melee, and boundaries between the criminal and the political often became blurred. Political violence as a prelude to freedom made an indelible mark and has many “battle sites”. This layer has important heritage significance.

19 http://www.popsmageza.co.za/the-bethal-trial-story/ 20 Sitas, A. 2003. pp. 240-247, Minaar, A. 1993. Op cit. pp. 11-19. 21 Xeketwane, B. M. 1995. The Relationship between hostels and the political violence on the Reef from July 1990 to Dec 1993. Unpublished MA Thesis. University of Witwatersrand. p. 26.

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Key features

 Sasol II attack site;  Other attack sites;  Sites of conflicts 1960-1989;  Sites of pre-election conflict 1990 – 1994;  The Bethal PAC trialists;  The Bethal secret trials of Kagiso group;  Houses that were attacked;  Sites of political murders;  Safe houses;  Identification of farms associated with inhuman labour practices;  Identification of private farm prisons/compounds;  Identification of victims (deaths and injuries);  Identification of personalities associated with the crisis;  Deceased Victims; and  Survivors of Conflict.

9.3 MSUKALIGWA LOCAL MUNICIPALITY

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Msukaligwa Local Municipality has a central location sharing border with KwaZulu- Natal and the Free State Provinces to the south and south east respectively. To the north it shares border with Nkangala District Municipality and Chief Albert Luthuli Local Municipality. Ermelo is the seat of the municipality. Other towns are Breyten, Chrissiesmeer, Davel and Lothair.

9.3.1 Counterinsurgency Operations

South African Defence Forces drew up a plan for the elimination and destruction of ANC activists, their allies and supporting structures. The then SADF chief General Jannie Geldenhuys had instructed General Joep Joubert to draw up a plan to enable Special Forces to assist the SAP in countering the revolutionary onslaught. The proposal called for the use of both clandestine and counter-revolutionary methods against the liberation movements. At the same time Eastern Transvaal Security Branch was established. The branch was based at Middleburg, with branches in Ermelo (with a sub-branch in Piet Retief), Witbank, Nelspruit, Secunda, Lebombo and Burgersfort. Detention, torture and killings increases at eastern Transvaal, which some of them happened within the boundaries of the Msukaligwa borders.

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9.3.2 Landmine sites

Landmines were laid especially in farming districts near international borders. The laying of anti-personnel and vehicle is condemned by the United Nations as more often their victims are unsuspecting civilians rather than armed combatants. Nevertheless mines are used in warfare to create a general sense of insecurity. Reports of landmine explosions in the areas bordering on Swaziland were received by the TRC.

9.3.3 Pre-election violence 1990-1990

The Black Cats which was alleged to be a paramilitary and criminal gang of the IFP left a strong footprint of violence in in Wesselton near Ermelo

Key features

 Battle sites;  Police stations/torture sites used by SADF;  Landmine sites;  Guerrilla infiltration routes;  Counterinsurgency routes;  Sites of pre-election conflict 1990 – 1994;  Safe houses;  Deceased victims;  Survivors.

9.4 MKHONDO LOCAL MUNICIPALITY

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Mkhondo Local Municipality is a gateway to the province of Mpumalanga from KwaZulu-Natal and Swaziland. It is situated halfway between the Gauteng metropolis (Johannesburg and Tshwane) and the seaports of Richards Bay and Durban. It is bordered by Dr Pixley Ka Isaka Seme to the west, KwaZulu-Natal Province to the south, and Msukaligwa and Chief Albert Luthuli to the north, and shares an international border with Swaziland. Piet Retief (now called Mkhondo) and Amsterdam are historic towns in the local municipality.

A number of South African Heritage Sites are found within the municipality. These include the Entombe Battlefield, Rooikraal, Confidence, Kalkoenvlakte and Heyshope Dam. Morgestond and Athole Nature Reserves and Amsterdam Conservation are two sites managed by the Mpumalanga Parks Board.

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9.4.1 Liberation Struggle

Infiltration Routes from Swaziland and connections with KwaZulu Natal Richard Barney Lekgotla Molokoane was born on 27 August 1957 in Tladi, Soweto. Molokoane became politically active during the student uprising of 1976, and like many of his contemporaries he went into exile. In exile, he joined the ANC and the June 16 Detachment of of MK. Proud of his role as a fighter for freedom, Molokoane was scrupulously faithful to the ideals of the ANC and MK. Although he was gifted in many fields, he was always eager to learn through listening and debating. He was a disciplined soldier, concerned with maintaining good health and peak physical condition. He was particularly fond of the rigours of survival courses, which he believed prepared him for any contingency. As a commander he was exceptional, taking particular care with the safety and well-being of those under his command. Immediately after completing his course of training outside the country in 1978, he was selected for a reconnaissance mission. When his unit came into contact with enemy forces in Zeerust, Molokoane was shot in the leg but he managed to outmanoeuvre his opposition and complete the 200km retreat to base. His tactical ingenuity and leadership were recognised, and he was soon promoted to commander.

From 1978 till 1985 when he was killed, Molokoane led repeated missions into the country, undertaking a number of dangerous missions, including the sabotage of the SASOL plant and the shelling of the headquarters of the South African Defence Force in Voortrekkerhoogte. After sabotaging the industrial complex at Secunda, his unit was intercepted by enemy forces. From a reconstruction of events based on local eye-witness accounts, the battle which ensued lasted four hours in which the three members of the unit fought courageously until the end, when their opponents dropped a napalm bomb, incinerating the comrades instantly.

As a soldier in MK, “Buda” as his closest friends affectionately called him, was effective in both underground and public work. He will forever be remembered for his exceptional bravery, his total dedication to the cause of freedom, and for his rousing leadership which inspired the loyalty and trust of those he commanded. For Page 59 of 71

his inspiring leadership, his exceptional bravery and readiness to risk his life fighting for liberation, the South African Government bestowed Richard Barney Lekgotla Molokoane with the order of Mendi for Bravery in Gold at the National Orders awards on 19 October 2004.

9.4.2 Landmine sites

9.4.3 Police stations in Piet Retief

9.4.4 Pre-election Violence 1990-1994

Key Features

 Battle sites;  Police stations/torture sites used by SADF;  Landmine sites;  Guerrilla infiltration routes;  Counterinsurgency routes;  Sites of pre-election conflict 1990 – 1994;  Safe houses;  Deceased victims; and  Survivors.

9.5 LEKWA LOCAL MUNICIPALITY

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Lekwa Local Municipality

Lekwa Local Municipality is located in the south of the Gert Sibande District Municipality, with immediate entrances to KwaZulu-Natal. Within the southern area it has a central location south of Msukaligwa, west of Mkhondo and east of Depaseleng. The Lekwa Municipality lies on the large open plains of the Highveld region, which is characterised by tall grass, and it is traversed by the Vaal River on its long journey west to the Atlantic Ocean. The municipality is named after the Vaal River, which is known as Lekwa in Sesotho. The seat of the Municipality is Standerton; Morgenzon is a satellite town.

9.5.1 Liberation struggle This section will be covered during fieldwork

9.5.2 Pre-election Violence This section will be covered during fieldwork

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9.6 DR PIXLEY KA ISAKA SEME

Map of Dr Pixley Ka Seme Local Municipality

Dr Pixley Ka Isaka Seme Local Municipality is situated within the Gert Sibande District Municipality in Mpumalanga province. Volksrust is the seat of the municipality. Othe towns are Amersfoort, Perdekop and Wakkerstroom. The municipality is named after Pixley ka Isaka Seme, a founder and President of the African National Congress (1930 -1937).

9.6.1 Land as basis for Economic Empowerment

Dr Seme was one of the first ANC politicians advance the philosophy that land was the basis of wealth. In 1912 the Native Affairs Association of Africa Ltd (NFAA) was

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registered as the first company to empower black people through the acquisition of land. Its mission was “to acquire by purchase, lease concessions, amalgamation or otherwise, land in the Transvaal Province or elsewhere in Africa with the view of subdividing such into farms, plots, even or into stand”. Dr Seme and Mr Alexander Dhamini were appointed Director and Secretary respectively. The company acquired Driefontein for the purpose.

Seme established a model farm called Daggakraal on Driefontein. Later the land holders were to resist orders by the apartheid regime to Qwaqwa after Daggakraal had been tagged as a “black spot”. The ruins of Daggakraal are heritage sites and testimony of this political and economic initiative.

Daggakraal, Remains of Dr Seme’s house (Mashamaite 2011: 192)

Daggakraal, remains of Alexander Daggakraal, remains of Alexander Dhlamini’s first house (Mashamaite 2011: Dhlamini’s second house 185)

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Remains of Pixley Seme High School Pixley Seme High School (Back view) Daggakraal

9.6.2 Forced Removals

One of the highlights of Pixley ka Seme Local Municipality is the attempted forced removals from Driefontein. Land acquired through purchase by Pxley ka Seme acquired 3 farms Driefontein, Daggakraal and Driepan for the purpose of settling Africans on a freehold basis. In the 1960s however, the area was declared a “black spot” meaning that it was a black area in a predominantly white area. In 1975 the government made a decision to move people.

In 1982 the Swazi speaking and Zulu landoweners were moved to KaNgwane and KwaZulu respectively. But the Driefontein people resisted the removals. It appeared however that Steven Msibi, the chairman of the Driefontein Community Board was buckling and giving in. He was deposed by a popular motion and Saul Mkhize was elected to replace him. Mkhize and his family members were harassed by the police for standing up against the authorities. On 2 April 1983 Mkhize was shot dead by a policeman.

The people of Daggakraal under Chief Popo Moloi also resisted removal to Qwaqwa

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Key features

 Land acquisition by blacks;  Forced removals;  Police stations/torture sites used by SADF;  Sites of pre-election conflict 1990 – 1994;  Safe houses;  Deceased victims;  Survivors.

9.7 DIPALESENG

Map of Dipaseleng Local Municipailty

Depaleseng Local Municipality located in the southwest of the Gert Sibande District Municipality. It borders on the Free State and Gauteng Provinces on the south and north respectively. On the northeast and east it shares borders with Govan Mbeki and Lekwa Local Municipalities respectively. Balfour is the seat of the municipality, Page 65 of 71

which lies 80km south-east of Johannesburg. The three major urban centres are Balfour (Siyathemba), Greylingstad (Nthorwane) and Grootvlei.

9.7.1 Heritage Issues To be covered during fieldwork 10 FINDINGS

The following key features emerge from the situation analysis and reveal the heritage potential of the area.

(xvi) 19th century battle sites; (xvii) Early black empowerment through land acquisition; (xviii) Forced removals; (xix) Struggle battle sites (e.g. Sasol II attacks); (xx) Infiltration/exfiltration corridors; (xxi) Landmine sites; (xxii) ANC/MK Safe houses; (xxiii) The Bethal Trials (2 trials); (xxiv) Sites of pre-election conflict 1990-1994 (e.g. houses attacked); (xxv) Sites of political murders; (xxvi) Farms associated with inhuman labour practices (Bethal); (xxvii) Private farm prisons/compounds (Bethal); (xxviii) Police stations/torture sites used by the Security Branch/SAP; (xxix) Identification of victims (deaths and injuries); (xxx) Survivors of Conflict;

A number of sites have potential to meet criteria of National and Provincial sites. Grading of sites must be supported by further research and public consultations in accordance with the National Heritage Resources Act. On the basis of this preliminary report the following sites may be designated Grade 1 Sites:

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(viii) Sasol II Refinery; (ix) Kinross Mine; (x) Barney Molokoane ambush site; (xi) Seme’s Daggakraal as an early model of black empowerment ; (xii) Saul Mkhize’s murder site; (xiii) Gert Sibande’s family house in Mzinoni; (xiv) Exfiltration/Infiltration corridors may be identified and memorialized; (xv) Robert Sobukwe, house in Standerton and various sites in Bethal.

11. GAP ANALYSIS

The National Liberation Heritage Route will be anchored on events and the sites at which they occurred.

(i) A number of sites have been identified in the Situation Analysis Report. Some sites however need their locations to be confirmed. (ii) The locations of a vast majority of incidents identified in this report are not known, and thus require fieldwork.

12. EMERGING RECOMMENDATIONS

(i) This Project must guide Local Municipalities to prepare heritage site registers. A site register is a critical tool in the grading of sites according to criteria set out in the National Heritage Resources Act (No 25, 1999).

(ii) Local Municipalities must each have a memorial site to enshrine all events on the struggle some of which may not be recorded.

(iii) Exfiltration/infiltration corridors must be identified and memorialized.

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13. REFERENCES

ANC. 1996. African National Congress Statement to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, August 1996.

Cameron, T. and S.B. Spies, 1986. An Illustrated History in South Africa. Cape Town: Jonathan Ball.

Delius, P. & R. Cope. Hard-fought frontiers: 1845-1883, in Peter Delius (Eds), Mpumalanga History and Heritage, University of KwaZulu Natal Press, 2007: 137-199.

Drum Magazine, March 1952.

Esterhuysen A. & J. Smith. 2007. Stories in stone, in Peter Delius (Eds), Mpumalanga History and Heritage, University of KwaZulu Natal Press, 2007: 41-68.

First, R. 1949. “The Bethal Case Book”.

Godden Mackay. 2000. Port Arthur Historic Site Conservation Plan

Holden, P. and S. Mathabatha. 2007. The Politics of resistance: 1948-1990, in Peter Delius (Eds), Mpumalanga History and Heritage, University of KwaZulu Natal Press, 2007: 393- 461.

Houston, G. & B. Magubane. 2004. “The ANC Political Underground in the 1970s”. In Ndlovu, S. (Ed). The Road to Democracy in South Africa Vol. 1 (1960-1970). Pretoria: South African Democracy Education Trust.

Human Sciences Research Council. 1913. Unsung Heroes and Heroines of the Liberation Struggle. Draft Report on the liberation struggle and liberation heritage sites, June 2013

Kros, C. 2007. Mpumalanga’s heritage, in Peter Delius (Eds), Mpumalanga History and Heritage, University of KwaZulu Natal Press, 2007: 463-501.

Makhura, T. 2007. Early Inhabitants, in Peter Delius (Eds), Mpumalanga History and Heritage, University of KwaZulu Natal Press, 2007: 93-135.

Mashamaite, M. 2011. The Second Coming: The Life and Times of Pixley Isaka Seme, the Founder of the ANC. Johannesburg: Chartworld Publishers.

Minaar, A. 1993. “Hostels and Violent Conflict on the Reef”. In A. Minaar. Communities in Isolation: Perspectives on Hostels in South Africa. Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Centre (HRSC).

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Muller, C. F. J. Muller. (Ed). 1986. 500 Years: A History of South Africa. Cape Town: Academica. Sitas, A. 1996. The new tribalism: Hostels and Violence. Journal of Southern African Studies Vol. 22, No 2. June 1996: Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 1996. Vols. 1, 2, and 3 Wentsel, M. 1993. Historical origins of hostels in South Africa: Migrant Labour and Compounds. In Minaar. 1993. Communities in Isolation: Perspectives on Hostels in South Africa. Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Centre (HRSC). Wilson, M. & L. Thompson. 1982. A History of South Africa to 1870. Cape Town: David Philip. Xeketwane, B. M. 1995. The Relationship between Hostels and the Political Violence on the Reef from July 1990 to Dec 1993. Unpublished MA Thesis. University of Witwatersrand.

LEGISLATION AND INTERNATIONAL POLICY DOCUMENTS

National Heritage Resources Act of 1999, SAHRA

ICOMOS. 2005. Global Strategy for Creating a Balanced World Heritage List.

UNESCO 1972. The 1972 World Heritage Convention, UNESCO, Paris.

UNESCO 2008. Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention (2005), Paris: UNESCO.

UNPUBLISHED PAPERS AND REPORTS

Dr. Ndlovu, Conceptual document, unpublished paper, 2011, Pretoria, South Africa.

National Liberation Heritage Business Flow and Plan, prepared for National Heritage Council of South Africa by Ashira Legal, 2012, Pretoria, South Africa.

Prof Ngala, African Liberation Heritage Programme (ALHP), presentation made during the SADC workshop on Liberation Heritage, 16-18 August 2011, Pretoria, South Africa (National Heritage Council of South Africa).

Report on the Mpumalanga Provincial Summit, National Heritage Council of South Africa, Mpumalanga, 2010.

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Regional workshop on the African liberation heritage, 16-18 August 2011, Pretoria, South Africa (National Heritage Council of South Africa)

Webber Ndoro, A speech at the occasion of the SADC workshop on Liberation Heritage, Pretoria, 2012, South Africa 16-18 August 2011, Pretoria, South Africa (National Heritage Council of South Africa).

WEBSITES www.anc.org.za www.popsmageza.co.za/the-bethal-trial-story/ www.sahistory.org.za www.sahistory.org.za/pages/chronology www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/bethal-treason-trial-resumes www.facebook.com/metrofmsa/posts/10151647361040842

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