Teargas at my wedding
A key figure in fighting corruption in SA, former national director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka recalls a story of love and tragedy in this edited extract from The Sting in the Tale, Marion Sparg’s biography of him
Bulelani had been arrested in November 1981. After spending nearly a year in detention, he and his co-accused Mbulelo Hongo were sentenced to three years for refusing to give evidence against their comrade Ntobeko Patrick Maqubela [a senior commander in the ANC’s armed wing Umkhonto we Sizwe].
Luyanda Mpahlwa and Litha Jolobe got four years on the same charge and Mpilo Taho was sentenced to five years. Their sentencing was closely followed by that of Patrick, and others in his unit were convicted of treason and sentenced to 20 years each.
It was now the end of May 1985 ... and Bulelani and Mbulelo were suddenly moved to Point Prison in Durban to prepare for their release.
Bulelani had much to look forward to, not least getting married, practising law again and being part of the political environment, which had taken new shape with the formation of structures like the United Democratic Front, a body that incorporated many anti-apartheid organisations.
Midwife, lawyer and anti-apartheid activist Victoria Mxenge was handling the arrangements for Bulelani’s release. She visited him on Wednesday July 31, with his wife-tobe, Phumzile Mlambo, posing as her legal clerk. It was Bulelani’s first physical contact with Phumzile in four years.
Victoria told Bulelani she needed a rest. “Griffiths died on 19 November four years ago. You were arrested on the 30th. I’ve been alone in the office since then. I’m waiting for your wedding next Thursday, then I’m going on a long holiday,” she said.
On Friday 2 August 1985 Bulelani was awake early, excited about his release the following day. A warder approached his cell and spoke to him through the window. “Hey Ngcuka lamfazi ebezo kubona ufile.” (Hey, Ngcuka, that woman who came to see you is dead.)
Bulelani’s blood ran cold. Bulelani was still not allowed to receive newspapers, so the warden said he would go and fetch one for him. Bulelani wasn’t sure whether the officer was talking about Phumzile or Victoria.
Victoria’s picture was on the front page.
Who would have done this? Why would they want her killed? I had no answers to these questions. That probably was the longest day of my life. There is a Xhosa term that describes how I felt, ngqondo ithatha ibekwa, which translated literally means “your brain is wandering about”.
Victoria had been murdered when she returned home after addressing the funeral of the “Cradock Four”, Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkonto and Sicelo Mhlauli, who had been abducted and murdered by the security police in June 1985.
She had been killed in a similar savage manner as her husband, shot and hacked to death at her front door.
In 1987 a Durban magistrate refused a formal inquest into her killing and ruled that she had died of head injuries inflicted by persons unknown. Ten years later, in May 1997, the ANC told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that they had identified one Marvin Sefako as being responsible for Victoria’s murder. Sefako, who had been recruited by the security branch, had allegedly confessed to the ANC that he had killed at least five people, including Victoria.
Bulelani was released at 7am on 3 August 1985.
I had spent three years and eight months locked up, thinking about what I would do the day I got out of prison. Never in my wildest imagination did I think I would go into a committee planning the funeral of one of the people I loved.
I sat in the meeting still in a state of shock. I had no contribution to make. From there, we went to the mortuary to see uSisi Victoria with Griffiths Mxenge’s brother, Fumbatha. It was terrible.
Victoria’s funeral took place on 11 August 1985 in Rayi outside King William’s Town. It was attended by over 10,000 people.
Violence broke out when Ciskei soldiers drove into a group of mourners, and the angry crowd pulled a soldier from the van and killed him. His two colleagues managed to drive to safety.
Messages of support from Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo were read out but it was Steve Tshwete’s speech that captured the mood of the moment. Tshwete, who had been released from Robben Island in 1978 after serving a 14-year sentence, was the regional president of the UDF at the time. “Now we are going to fight,” he said. “We are going to use everything we can lay our hands on, even if it is gunpowder. If we have to shoot to get our liberation, then we are going to shoot. If we have to liberate ourselves with the barrel of a gun, then this is the moment.”
Other speakers at the funeral included leading figures in the anti-apartheid movement, such as Zac Yacoob, a lawyer and senior member of the Natal Indian Congress; Sister Bernard Ncube, president of the Federation of Transvaal Women; Helen Joseph, a former 1956 Treason trialist who had been under house arrest for years; and Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, secretary of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference. All made it clear that the apartheid regime was responsible for Victoria’s death and that, in Tshwete’s words, they were going to fight for their liberation using everything they could lay their hands on.
I’m waiting for your wedding next Thursday, then I’m going on a long holiday
Victoria Mxenge to Bulelani Ngcuka
I was eager to get back into the struggle. I felt I had been deprived of participating and wanted to roll up my sleeves and get on with it ...
The country was so different. People had been mobilised like never before. The level of political consciousness was so high. As prisoners we thought we knew so much, and then when you come out you find that you have been left behind. That was an eye-opener for us.
Although Bulelani and Phumzile had planned to get married as soon as he left prison, they felt that it would be inappropriate to proceed so soon after Victoria’s funeral.
But we were told a wedding never gets postponed — it must go on. But we would have to trim it down, which suited us because we had never wanted a lavish affair.
Victoria had been meant to facilitate the couple’s wedding. Instead, as Phumzile recalls, “Here we were after Bulelani’s release, organising a wedding and a funeral. It was crazy.”
So, in the midst of this personal pain, and the rising militancy and violence in the country, Bulelani and Phumzile were married in Durban on Thursday 15 August 1985.
The wedding took place in Clermont, in Phumzile’s church. It all went well until, as we were leaving, police arrived and threw teargas into the hall. So instead of the usual confetti, I had teargas at my wedding, thanks to the security police.