By Norm Dixon
JOHANNESBURG — The impression created by the media here that on March 28 a "peaceful Zulu march" came under attack by "ANC gunmen", causing as many as 53 deaths, has been proven thoroughly false. The identity of the snipers who killed many of the marchers remains unknown. However, eyewitness accounts suggest that the killers were part of the notorious "Third Force" which has armed and trained Inkatha Freedom Party members and planned, in cooperation with senior leaders of IFP, random killings on trains and taxis and in townships.
The "rally" in Johannesburg's Library Gardens was a show of strength by the IFP. It came as the ANC, COSATU, the Independent Electoral Commission and Transitional Executive Council were applying pressure on the South African government to take action against Buthelezi to allow free and fair elections in KwaZulu/Natal and to stem the growing political violence there.
The clear message the gathering was designed to send was that the IFP was prepared to plunge the PWV region into violence should decisive action be taken against the IFP and KwaZulu administration.
The media happily played along with the IFP by describing the gathering as one of "Zulus" rather than hostel-dwellers mobilised by the IFP's PWV leaders. The media reported they were there to "demonstrate their support for King Goodwill Zwelithini" rather than as pawns in Buthelezi's sordid power play.
The press barely mentioned that these "peaceful Zulu marchers" had been engaged in acts of extreme violence in townships from as early as 4am. Reports focused almost entirely on the ANC's defence of its head office, Shell House.
In Soweto and the east Rand, at least 10 people were killed in attacks by IFP supporters on commuters travelling into town on trains. There were many reports of assaults and of people being thrown from moving trains. Shots were also fired from moving trains. A 10-year-old school girl was wounded in this way.
At least seven other deaths were recorded in townships around Johannesburg. Inkatha supporters blocked roads and harassed anybody they found attempting to go to work.
At 8am armed demonstrators were firing at passers-by near the ANC's provincial office in Jeppe St and Shell House in Plein St. No police had been deployed to guard these obvious targets. ANC security guards fired warning shots to scare off massing IFP supporters. Police arrived later to check the ANC guards' weapon licences, then left. Soon after 9am, Shell House was again attacked and warning shots were again fired. Finally, 10 police were deployed at 10.15am.
At about 11.30am, Shell House came under a full-scale attack. Hundreds of IFP supporters surrounded the building. Warning shots were fired, which frightened those at the main entrance. However, a second group attacked the building's garage, firing AK-47s. After firing two rounds of warning shots, security guards were forced to fire directly at the attackers, killing at least eight.
The 10 police officers, says the ANC, disappeared during the attack. Two firearms were found on the dead attackers; one was a homemade gun like those the Goldstone Commission has accused police of manufacturing in "Third Force" workshops for the IFP. Witnesses saw other IFP attackers gather up several other firearms in full view of the now-returned police. Several witnesses report snipers fired at the crowd from nearby buildings, which may have provoked the marchers to attack.
The ANC said that it had been informed by people in the hostels the day before the march that the ANC offices would come under attack. The ANC asked the police to cordon off the streets around Shell House. The ANC criticised the police for making no effort to disarm the demonstrators.
Throughout the city, pedestrians and hawkers were clubbed and slashed by people armed with "traditional weapons". Large groups of IFP supporters openly displayed pistols and AK-47s while police looked on. Shots were fired into the air. The Johannesburg General Hospital, Hillbrow Hospital and Soweto's Baranganwath Hospital treated hundreds of stab and hack wounds in the course of the day.
The gathering was addressed by IFP leaders. IFP Transvaal chairperson Humphrey Ndlovu held an assegei (a stabbing spear) in the air as he addressed "Zulus": "This is a useful instrument. We are going to use it. I just want to appeal to you, my bothers and sisters, go and sharpen your spears. Go today and sharpen your spears because you are going to use them. They are useful. Mr de Klerk, you must not send your troops to Natal, you will have to send them here. The strong army of KwaZulu is here, we are here."
The rally was also addressed by Themba Khoza, the IFP leader named by the Goldstone Commission as involved in "Third Force" operations. Respected journalist Patrick Laurence was standing next to Khoza on the library steps just before midday. Khoza was reading a message on his pager. Laurence could see what it said: "ANC provocateurs placed among marchers. Instructed to begin random shooting." Minutes later the shooting began. There have been several documented cases in the past when "Third Force" operatives have killed Inkatha members to provoke retaliation against the ANC.
Snipers opened fire on the gathering from at least two high rise buildings, according to witnesses. In the panic that ensued, the heavily armed IFP supporters returned fire. One office worker was killed at his computer. At least five people died in the gardens. Police on the ground also fired at the surrounding buildings. Police traded shots with those in the rally. Several witnesses saw police fire on unarmed demonstrators. The shooting lasted 30 minutes. Throughout the day there were further reports of snipers firing from buildings in several parts of the city.
The ANC said in a statement that "it can be scarcely coincidental that IFP marchers were being coordinated by Themba Khoza ... His spurious claim that the shooting in the streets was done by ANC members who infiltrated Inkatha ranks is a total fabrication. If Khoza knew in advance about the presence of such snipers, as he claims, the real question is whether they did not originate from the Third Force."
Several witnesses saw white men in at least two buildings firing down on the rally. Most identified the shots as coming from the top of Custom House, whose top two floors are empty. A security guard from a building opposite saw flashes from more than one gun being fired.
Office staff in another building saw a white man lean out of a seventh floor window of Custom House and shoot. A security guard at Custom House told the Sunday Times that police had been allowed onto those floors during the rally. Security guards from Custom House later found shells inside the building from AK-47s, 9mm pistols and shotguns.
A witness in Sage Life Towers, another of the buildings that shots were reported from, saw spent shells falling from floors above his head. He later discovered three members of the SAP's notorious Internal Stability Unit in the building, who told him they had been trying "to knock out guys with AK-47s" in the crowd.
On March 29, SAP spokesperson Major Kobus Peche said marchers may have "mistaken for snipers" police in high rise buildings who had been dispatched "to observe the marchers". It was "a possibility that police had fired at other buildings in the area and that officers in the rooftops had returned the fire".