PROFILE OF A PEACEMAKER

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On Saturday evening 8 February, after a meeting with co-workers and W.F. Kellogg, fellows from the United States of America, our colleague and coworker Sikhumbuzo Mbatha (Ngwenya) left the gathering to return to his home in Imbali. Five minutes later he was dead, shot down in cold blood by two assassins who immediately fled the area. What follows is a brief picture of the ongoing violence in Pietermaritzburg and Sikhumbuzp's role as an activist and peace-maker in this region. History of the conflict in Pietermaritzburg It is difficult to identify the exact date of the beginning of the conflict in the Pietermaritzburg region but a number of incidents occurred in mid-1985 that could be regarded as contributory factors. Between August 1985 and December 1986 there was a series of incidents that resulted in deaths, injuries and destruction of properties. Records of this period were not kept as effectively as the period from January 1987 to date. In this period (January 1987 to September 1993) at least 3,500 people were killed in the greater Pietermaritzburg/Natal Midlands area. The Natal Midlands has the Pietermaritzburg region at its centre. This region, covering about 374 square kilometres, has a population of half a milion or more people. It includes the city of Pietermaritzburg (and the township of Sobantu), the Edendale complex (including the black-owned freehold area of Edendale itself, the adjoining area of Slangspruit (another freehold area), the two townships of Ashdown and Imbali, and the Vulindlela area (previously known as the Zwartkop Location). The Natal Midlands had been relatively peaceful until 1987. In this region, the 1976 Soweto uprising had little impact and the response to the Vaal Triangle revolt of 1984 against rent increases and government-imposed local authorities was also limited. However, with the formation of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in 1983, youth organizations began to develop and affiliate to the UDF. A civic association was formed in Imbali in mid-1985 but was halted by severe intimidation from elements of Inkatha. The local community council in Imbali consisted of predominantly Inkatha-aligned people. In August 1985 Inkatha supporters threatened the Federal Theological Seminary (Fedsem) and demanded that it be vacated. Through a court interdict brought by Fedsem, the Inkatha leaders were prevented from further harassing the seminary. The situation continued to deteriorate over the following years; the violence spread beyond the Natal Midlands into other regions, including Durban and Port Shepstone (lower South Coast). It peaked in the Natal Midlands region in March 1990 with the outbreak of what we in Pietermaritzburg refer to as the seven day After the release of Nelson Mandela on 11 February 1990, there was a massive welcome home for him by thousands (over 100,000) of Natalians at King's Park stadium in Durban on 25 February. It was a fantastic reception for the leader of the people. A month later, on 25 March, Inkatha arranged a meeting to rally support to their cause at the same venue. It failed to match the support of the ANC rally; a crowd of between 5,000 and 10,000 people gathered to hear the Zulu king and Mangosutho Buthelezi. A few days earlier there had been an Imbizo at Ulundi, the capital of KwaZulu, at which the king and the chief minister had chastised the Amakhosi for not being able to control the youth in their areas. From Sunday 25 March there was massive escalation in the violence in the townships around Pietermaritzburg, and by the end of the week at least ninety people had been killed, most of them non-Inkatha people. The darkest days of the war were 28 and 29 March; 194 unsworn statements collected from some of the 14,000 displaced people, who were being accommodated in churches, church halls and schools in the Edendale area, gave testimony to some of the awful incidents that occurred and the role of elements of the security forces during this war. …