MK Commander Looksmart Ngudle Dies in Detention

MK Commander Looksmart Ngudle Dies in Detention

On 5 September 1963, Looksmart Ngudle became the first person to die in detention in the history of the South African liberation struggle. The Special Branch reported that Ngudle committed suicide and that he had hung himself using his pyjama pants. An inquest was called for when a cellmate, Isaac Tlale, who was handcuffed next to Looksmart during his torture, insisted on reporting details of his treatment in jail. To prevent this, four days after his death, the state banned him, since as a banned person, he could not be quoted. As a result, Ngudle became the first person to be banned after his death.

On 4 September 1963, while apartheid Magistrate J.J. Marais was doing his weekly rounds primarily checking on the conditions of ninety-day-law detainees, he encountered Looksmart Ngudle in the Pretoria Central Police Station, who complained that he had been assaulted to compel him to make a statement. As Ngudle was talking to Marais, he was at the same time coughing up blood. The following morning Ngudle was found dead in his cell, hanging by the cord of his pyjama trousers.

Solwandle Looksmart Khulile Ngudle was born on 22 May 1922 in KwaZali, in a village called Ngcwazi, near a small town called Middledrift (also known as iXesi), in the Eastern Cape. He attended Falconer, the one-roomed local high school, until Standard Six when he left to work on the mines in Johannesburg. Ngudle worked as a “malaisha”, a loader who shovelled gold bearing rock onto “ingolovane” (cocopans), at the Crown Mines goldmine for two years before returning to his home village to take part in the traditional circumcision ceremony.

It was during this time that he met Beauty, who later became his wife. Ngudle went to Cape Town to look for work, where he moved around from job to job until he had enough money to get married. In order to support his family of six children, Ngudle returned to Cape Town.

Sometime during the 1940s or 1950s Ngudle witnessed bulldozers demolish black-owned homes in Kensington to make way for a White suburb. It was at this time, during the 1950s, that Ngudle, through Archie Sibeko (aka “Zola Zembe”), joined the African National Congress (ANC) the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU). Ngudle’s main responsibility was to raise funds when ANC members were jailed or needed a lawyer. To do this he often staged concerts with the choir that he had started in the township where he lived.

During this time, in order to support his family, he sold leftist newspapers such as “Fighting Talk” and “New Age” and repaired shoes. When the ANC was banned in 1960, Ngudle was part of organising the underground, the Regional Executive Committee in the Western Cape. In 1961, Ngudle joined the ANC’s military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), and became part of a regional command that was formed, the leadership of which included Looksmart Ngudle (as Regional Commander), Elijah Losa, Mountain Qumbela and Felinyaniso Njamela. They, in turn, set up 11 units in key places such as Nyanga West, Nyanga East, Langa, Retreat, Maitland, Cape Town central and Kraaifontein.

Early in 1962, the Commander-In-Chief of the newly formed MK, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, paid a visit to Cape Town as part of his countrywide tour to inform the regions of the way forward. Meeting at the Athlone home of traditional healer Gayika Tshawe, members of the regional committee were enthralled as the well-built orator with the deep, authoritative manner informed them of the need to take up arms. This was to be the M-Plan.

Engineer Dennis Goldberg and Ngudle started a training camp in a hired farm just outside Mamre, about 50 kilometres from Cape Town, to conduct military training courses. He was joined by lawyer Albie Sachs, activist Wolfie Kodesh, and Second World War veterans Harold Strachan, Jack Hodgson and Ben Turok. Elias Motsoaledi travelled from Johannesburg to teach the group how to make gunpowder. Some of the knowledge for making homemade bombs came straight from books and involved readily available ingredients and they taught MK recruits how to march, read a compass, perform first aid, and how to make electrical circuits for bombs.

In May 1963, an order banning Ngudle from participating in political activities was issued and he was confined to the Wynberg Magisterial district in Cape Town. When the security police raided Liliesleaf Farm on 11 July 1963, Ngudle went into hiding. In August 1963, Ngudle assisted in arranging the logistics, transports and safe-houses for 20 ANC comrades who were being sent out of the country for military training. Not far from the Botswana border, the group was arrested and under interrogation one of them broke and gave them the last address at which Ngudle had been staying.

While he was operating underground, Ngudle moved around, not staying more than a few days at one address, but on this occasion he had fallen gravely ill and was still at the address provided to the security police. Ngudle was subsequently arrested on 19 August 1963, under the 90-day detention law. While he was detained at the Caledon Square police station, he was badly tortured. Around 23 – 24 August 1963 he driven to the Pretoria Central Prison. On 3 September he was allowed into the exercise yard where he saw Govan Mbeki and dropped him a note stating “I am being tortured. My back is full of weals”.

On the 15 September 1963, a policeman came to see Looksmart’s mother, Maria Ngudle, who was living with Looksmart’s wife, Beauty and her mother. Maria was told for the first time that her son was arrested and that he had died in detention. She was unsuccessful in requesting the assistance of an African attorney in Middeldrift in Transkei as he was also detained under the ninety-day detention law. Maria proceeded further afield to Alice and it was on 20 September when she received a rail warrant to travel to Pretoria.

After visiting three prisons in Pretoria looking for Looksmart’s clothes and body, Maria was sent to a tall building, the Compol Police Building, in the city centre of Pretoria. It was here where a stranger informed her that people get killed at this building and that she must leave. She immediately returned to the Eastern Cape. Meanwhile, Johannesburg attorney Joel Carlson made telephone calls to the prisons department and police who were both evasive. No one appeared to know where Looksmart was buried. All enquiries were escalated to higher levels. During one telephonic conversation, a senior prisons department spokesman dropped his guard, and said “Do me a favour, go to the Security Branch.”

During the inquest into Ngudle’s death, Advocate George Lowen, who had already been briefed argued that “The deceased in this case was a ninety-day detainee. A man in good health who was found dead in his cell. News of his dead aroused widespread unease because there is a curtain of silence hanging over those people detained…The news was given to his family ten days after his death…The mother was given a rail warrant to attend the funeral of her son in Pretoria…When she got there she was told the body had already been buried.”

According to Lowen, “The burial had taken place on 16 September after the body had been kept for at least ten days…but then was buried suddenly in spite of the of the rail warrant to the mother… Why had the inquest been delayed, then rushed to court? There had been no time to gather witnesses or medical advisers, no time to take proper instructions. We don’t know if this was murder or suicide. It is very strange that so much darkness is hanging over the whole affair.”

Advocate George Lowen entered a plea for a postponement, which was granted, but in the intervening ten days, two things happened: Firstly, the security Branch detectives arrived unannounced at Middeldrift. They put Beauty into the car and drove her towards Pretoria. As they drove, Beauty was given a statement that she had to sign. It stated that Beauty, Looksmart’s wife, had no desire to be legally represented. When the court assembled, the prosecutor queried the locus standi (the right or capacity to bring an action or to appear in a court) of the instructing attorney as he held the statement with Beauty’s signature on it. The attorney held an affidavit in his hands of Looksmart’s brother, Washington, who stated that he did not want to be represented by the attorney. The prosecutor conceded to the request.

Secondly, two days prior to the resumption of the inquest, Johannesburg’s evening newspaper published news that Looksmart Solwandle Ngudle had been banned under the Suppression of the Communism Act. The government gazette announcement was dated 25 October 1963. However, the ban had been served on Looksmart on 19 August 1963, the day he had been detained. This meant that he could be arrested if he participated in any political activities or if he attended any gathering. No statement made by him on any topic could be quoted or published.

In Looksmart’s inquest, Council remarked that anything stated by the deceased or any other individual who was banned could not be quoted. Regrettably, this resulted in them withdrawing from proceedings. The only circumstantial evidence that could be led to Looksmart’s death would be the testimonies of banned persons and fellow prisoners of the deceased. The question that arose then was that how such testimony could be produced in court if there was fear that prosecutions would follow.

The Minister of Justice, Vorster, responded by claiming that the withdrawal of the lawyers had been due to political reasons. After lengthy arguments, Vorster agreed that the publication of statements by banned persons could be used in the inquest proceedings provided that they were not used as a political forum.

One of those who were detained around July or early August 1963, was ANC member Senator Christmas Tinto. Tinto said he last saw Ngudle alive when the MK leader was arrested and detained at Caledon Square police station in Cape Town in August 1963. “I was at Caledon Square and I heard a loud sound. Policemen were celebrating. They were saying ‘We have got Looksmart’.” He saw Ngudle being dragged up a flight of steps by two policemen, while he was in his cell. “They were beating him as he went up the stairs. I noticed that his beard had been pulled out on one side of his face. He was bleeding heavily from his mouth.”

Tinto identified two policemen, Sgt Spyker van Wyk and a Sgt Greef, who came to Ngudle’s cell and threw him inside where they continued beating him. “He was trying to say something and the boers were asking me what he was saying. I said I did not know.” Ngudle was then taken to an adjoining cell and two days later Tinto saw him being escorted by van Wyk, Greef and three other policemen from his cell, with his hands handcuffed behind his back. “That was the last time we saw Looksmart”, he said.

Another detainee by the name of J.T. (probably Zollie Malindi), who was arrested in the same Elsies River house as Looksmart and had also been held in Cape Town, later driven to Pretoria stated that “Looksmart looked all right when I saw him but when he arrived at Laingsburg to get petrol, Looksmart told me his body was sore. He said that he had beaten by the police that morning at Caloden Square police Station.” In Pretoria, they had been separated from Looksmart, but on the following day they had met again to have their fingerprints taken and “Looksmart appeared to be in good health.”

Five days later, J.T was taken into a room for questioning. He adds, “I saw Looksmart leaning against the wall next to the door that I went through. We did not speak to one another. Looksmart did not seem himself. He looked paralysed. His head was bent forward and his hands clasped together. I did not notice any bruises on his faces. I did not notice whether his clothes were bloodstained. He looked worried. When I came out of the room after approximately one and half-hours, Looksmart was no longer there. I never saw Looksmart again.”

Another detainee who had seen Looksmart was L.M who stated, “I saw Looksmart with six Security Branch officers, five White and one African. They were standing next to me. I could see and hear it all. One Security Branch Officer was from Cape Town. The first thing I heard him saying was: “If you talk you will be allowed to go.” He, Looksmart, was looking down. He looked as if he did not know which one to answer. They were all asking him questions. The Security Branch officer from Cape Town one said, “You must tell us the truth or else tomorrow you will be here again and if you don’t tell us the truth we will kill you.” He was speaking in English.

Looksmart did not answer. He never said a word. The Security Branch officer from Cape Town pulled his beard and said, “You must tell the truth.” They pulled his head up and down. Looksmart had been looking down. When his beard was pulled he moved back a bit but said nothing. Then the Cape Town one said, “Go and think it over and we see you tomorrow.” We were taken out together and I asked Looksmart in Xhosa what was wrong. He said, “These people say they will kill me tomorrow “…in the car I made a sign to him saying, “Did you make a statement?” He shook his head indicating “no.” I gave Looksmart cigarettes without the Security Branch man seeing. He said, “Man I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.” He seemed very worried about tomorrow.

The day before Looksmart’s death, Detective Strumpher had handed the prisoner over to Detective Sergeant Ferreira. It was Ferreira who had originally arrested Looksmart and had seized from his hide out an African National Congress booklet, a typewriter, rubber gloves, chemicals and plastic bags. It was established that detainees were generally taken for questioning to Pretoria Central Police Station by Detective Sergeant Ferreira, Detective Strumpher and Major Frederick van Niekerk. There were fourteen members of the Security Branch who were working on the questioning of suspects.

An anonymous author in the Sunday Times, 27 April 2020, penned the following: “On March 1 2007 Looksmart’s body was exhumed by the National Prosecuting Authority’s missing person’s task team. I found out after the fact. Only ‘The Star’ newspaper covered the occasion. I don’t remember there being a ceremony. Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note was issued, no distant and random gun was fired, no talk of the gallant spirit that was gone. My soul was tortured. It was full of weals. … However, as the songwriter of old reminded us, ‘kwasho uMandela kubalandeli bakhe: Inde lendlela esiyihambayo’ (‘Mandela told his followers: No easy walk to freedom’).”

Sources:
Wikipedia.
South African History Online (SAHO).
Louise Flanagan, “Searching for Looksmart”, Mail & Guardian, 2 March 2007.
Anonymous, “Freedom Day: Paying Tribute to the Lesser Known Foot Soldiers”, TimesLive, 27 April 2020.
Sapa, “Senator Tells Commission of Police Beating MK Leader”, South African Press Association, 22 April 1996.
Thembile Ndabeni, “We Have Erred by Failing to Remember Looksmart Ngudle”, Cape Times, 24 October 2023.
Govan Mbeki, “Dictabelt: Supreme Court of South Africa, Transvaal Provincial Division”, Handwritten notes from the prosecution for 8th May, 1964, 1 January 1964 to 31 December 1964.
Beauty Ngudle, Siyanda Ngudle and Senator Tinto, “Truth and Reconciliation Commission Hearings: Looksmart Khulile Ngudle”, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 22 April 1996.
Ahmed Timol Truth Prevails, “Looksmart Khulile Ngudle”, Ahmed Timol Truth Prevails, 1971 – 2021: 50 Years: Cover-ups, Lies and Secrets, 07 April 2020.
Archie Sibeko and Joyce Leeson “Roll of Honour: Western Cape ANC Comrades 1953-1963”, University of the Western Cape in association with Diana Ferrus, 2008.
Thula Simpson, “Umkhonto we Sizwe: The ANC’s Armed Struggle”, Penguin, 2016.
Janet Smith and Beauregard Tromp, “Hani: A Life Too Short”, Jonathan Ball, 2009.
Stephen Davis, “The ANC’s War Against Apartheid: Umkhonto we Sizwe and the Liberation of South Africa”, Indiana University, 2018.
Sandi Sijake, “Fighting for My Country: The Testimony of a Freedom Fighter”, Jacana, 2024.

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