The Sebokeng Nangalembe Night Vigil Massacre

The Sebokeng Nangalembe Night Vigil Massacre

On the night of 12 January 1991, 45 people were killed while attending an all-night vigil held in a tent at 11427, Zone 7, in Sebokeng, in the Vaal region. Weeping mourners were paying their final respects to their comrade and community leader, Mphekeleli Christopher “Chris” Nangalembe, who was a member of the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) and the Sebokeng (community) Crime Prevention Unit. The news of his murder shocked the Vaal, where he was popular.

Chris Nangalembe died on 5 January 1991 after he was abducted, kidnapped and brutally murdered by gangsters, who had held him captive for five days. His body was later found at a rubbish dump in the nearby township of Boipatong. He was believed to have been strangled with a piece of wire. While attending the vigil, a gang of armed men suddenly invaded the tent where mourners were gathered. A hand grenade was thrown and exploded while the assailants began shooting randomly into the crowd of mourners, leaving 39 people dead and scores injured.

A vigil was held for him at his family home, despite his assailants allegedly sending a warning to the family not to bury him in Sebokeng. A gang of armed men stormed the tent where mourners were gathered, lobbing a number of hand grenades on the property and reportedly spraying it with bullets. When the dust settled, 39 people lay dead and scores more were injured. The killings represented the worst incident of violence in the black townships, in which more than 1,000 people had been killed. It eclipsed an attack on Soweto train commuters in September 1990 in which 26 people were slain.

Survivors of the attack on the funeral vigil said it began shortly after 02:00 in the morning, while about 250 people, among them women and children, were gathered outside Mrs Ncube’s house to pay last respects to Chris Nangalembe, who was her nephew. Nangalembe, who was 29 years old, was due to be buried in the morning of 13 January 1991. Survivors blamed Inkatha supporters for the shootings and accused the police of complicity because they did not provide protection for the vigil, despite requests beforehand, and took, by several accounts, up to 45 minutes to reach the scene.

The crowd was singing revolutionary struggle songs under a blue-and-white tent put up next to the house. Witnesses said one shot sounded and was followed a few minutes later by the attack in which the house and the tent were hit with bullets. All the people who were outside in the tent ran into the house, but many were shot. Some lay on the floor, on the ground and others jumped over the fence, but they were also shot and fell in the neighbour’s yard.

The background to the massacre was that Christopher Nangelembe had been killed by a petty criminal Victor Khetisi Kheswa, whom he had brought before a “people’s court” run by the comrades, which included Nangalembe, at which Kheswa was called to account for the death of a young woman by forcing her to drink acid and other crimes. Chris Nangalembe was a bulwark of his local community. His efforts to eliminate crime in the township, including the local “5-Star” Gang, of which Khetisi Kheswa was a member, ultimately led to his death.

Members of Kheswa’s gang – Kheswa was at that time in hospital with a gunshot wound in the stomach – attacked the gathering of mourners with hand grenades and AK-47s. One witness said, “I heard shooting and big explosions, like a bomb or hand grenade and then sirens”. Eleven gang members, including Khetisi Kheswa, were acquitted of charges relating to the attack, due to lack of evidence. The attack precipitated the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe’s (MK) self-defence units (SDUs) in the Vaal area.

According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Report, “Vaal police officer Masoli Meshack Mahlatsi stated in an affidavitthat Kheswa and his gang were often detained in the police cells but received special food and treatment. He claimed that Kheswa often said that he and his gang were working together with the police. Further evidence of a link is the fact that Kheswa is known to have watched the proceedings of the funeral of ANC leader Ernest Sotsu’s family from a police Casspir, despite the fact that he was widely believed to be the perpetrator of their killing. Kheswa eventually died under uncertain circumstances while under arrest in connection with the killing of nineteen people in Sebokeng in April 1993 and sixteen people in Sebokeng and Evaton in June 1993.”

The indiscriminate nature of this attack underscored the endemic brutality of the interregnum during the negotiations between the ANC leadership and the De Klerk crew of the apartheid regime. The Nangalembe Night Vigil Massacre heralded an undefined and unresolved period of brutal attacks against the Sebokeng community by Inkatha-linked gangs, who were reinforced and safeguarded by the apartheid police. Chris Nangalembe’s brother, Mandla Nangalembe, who was at the vigil, survived the attack that claimed the lives of two other family members.

“I will never forget that day”, Mandla said. “Six hand grenades that were thrown inside our home didn’t explode. I can imagine what damage they could have done. Police were informed about security threats before my brother was buried. Our family didn’t want the night vigil, but comrades decided that they wanted to honour him. Around 2am, lights were off in Sebokeng and that’s when they attacked us. It was a well-orchestrated plan of killing people on that night. We lost 39 innocent souls. I shall never forget them and what they died for. They were there to console us, as the family, not knowing that it was their last day on earth. Their names will always be in our history books.”

In reviewing the evidence presented to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) concerning the Nangalembe Night Vigil Massacre, the Commission found that: the Khetisi Kheswa Gang was responsible for the massacre in Sebokeng on 12 January 1991 and for the killing of Christopher Nangalembe; the South African Police ignored the request that police protection be provided at the night vigil made by Mandla Nangalembe; that the Street Committee in the Sebokeng area was responsible for the attempted killing of Khetisi Kheswa; that there were strong links between the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and the Kheswa Gang and that the IFP was supplying the Kheswa Gang with guns; that thirty people were killed at the night vigil and many others injured; and that the Kheswa Gang, the IFP and the police must accept responsibility for the commission of gross human rights violations.

Sources:
South African History Online (SAHO).
South African History Archives (SAHA).
Christopher S. Wren, “35 Die in South Africa Township Attack”, The New York Times, 13 January 1991.
Sapa, “Vaal Monster Focus of Truth Body Hearing in Sebokeng”, South African Press Association, 6 August 1996.
Sapa, “‘Vaal Monster’ Not the Killer, Victim’s Brother Tells TRC”, South African Press Association, 6 August 1996.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission, “Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report”, Vol. 2, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 29 October 1998.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission, “Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report”, Vol. 3, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 29 October 1998.
Lynne Duke, “After Apartheid, A Need to Heal: Victims Seek More Than ‘Truth’”, The Washington Post, 15 November 1998.
Richard Wilson, “Reconciliation and Revenge in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Rethinking Legal Pluralism and Human Rights”, Current Anthropology, Vol. 41, No. 1, February 2000.
Brandon Hamber and Richard A. Wilson, “Symbolic Closure Through Memory, Reparation and Revenge in Post-Conflict Societies”, Journal of Human Rights, Vol. 1, No. 1, March 2002.
Sedibeng District Municipality, “The 20th Anniversary of the Sebokeng Night Vigil Massacre”, https://www.sedibeng.gov.za/a_readmores/20110131_nangalembe.html, 31 January 2011.
Sedibeng District Municipality, “Sedibeng Commemorates the 22nd Anniversary of Zone 7 Sebokeng Night Vigil Massacre”, External Communications: Media Release, 19 December 2012.
Rudzani Matshili, “25 Years Since Death Stalked Sebokeng”, Independent Online (IOL), 12 January 2016.
Avantika Seeth, “Victims of Sebokeng Massacre Remembered”, City Press, 12 January 2017.
Sowetan Reporter, “Sebokeng Massacre Still Haunts Families”, Sowetan, 13 January 2017.
Sifiso Jimta, “Nangalembe Massacre Revived”, The Citizen, 12 January 2023.

Castro Khwela
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