The Gunning Down of the Notorious Sergeant Hlubi

The Gunning Down of the Notorious Sergeant Hlubi

On Sunday, 25 June 1978, at about 01:30 in the morning, Detective Sergeant Orphan “Hlubi” Chapi arrived at his home in Rockville, which was near Moroka Police Station in Soweto, driving a brown Ford Granada. As Sergeant Chapi stopped the car and walked to the gate of his home, he noticed someone emerging from the nearby Ndondo School, coming towards him staggering as if he was drunk. Chapi, who had pulled his revolver from the holster, after seeing someone coming towards him, returned the revolver back into the holster.

He then asked the person if he was alright, who responded that he was fine. While Chapi was still pondering what was going on, the person pulled out a Tokarev 7.62-calibre pistol, shot Chapi, hitting his right arm, and when he tried to fire a second shot, the gun jammed. Chapi however collapsed, tried to retrieve his revolver and shoot back. Before he could fire any shots, the attacker jumped to the other side of the Granada while attempting to fix his Tokarev, and after failing to fix it, he fled the scene. During that moment Chapi fired approximately eight shots, but none affected the well-trained assassin, as he moved by bounds to avoid offering a stable target.

When Sergeant Chapi’s neighbour, Mr Tshabalala, heard the shots, he looked outside the window and saw Chapi staggering from his house to the gate. Tshabalala then went to assist him. He took the revolver and drove Chapi to Baragwanath Hospital, in Chapi’s Ford Granada. However, at 20:00 that evening, Sergeant Orphan “Hlubi” Chapi lost his life.

The operation to assassinate Detective Sergeant was orchestrated mid-June 1978 following the successful assassination of Abel Mthembu on 14 April 1978, who was one of the first six Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) combatants to receive training in China, under Mao Tse Tung, with Raymond Mhlaba, Joe Gqabi and Andrew Mlangeni, among others. He then became a prolific state witness against the members of the MK High Command during the Rivonia Trial.

The plan was devised by the MK Transvaal Urban Machinery Chief of Operations, David Simelane, who arrived with his Commander Selaelo Ramusi at Ezulwini Hotel, in Swaziland, which consisted of traditional Zulu huts, where they found Jabu Obed Masina, who was part of the Transvaal Assassination Unit (sometimes referred to as the “Icing Unit”), in one of them. Simelane asked how Masina was managing, and after receiving a positive answer, Simelane asked if Masina wanted to return to South Africa. Masina responded that he would like to go back if possible. He was then asked if he would be able to find Sergeant “Hlubi”, who was a Soweto-based apartheid policeman.

Some policemen were black and were agents of the apartheid state (informants and operatives) they were referred to as “Uncle Tom”, these were black people who were friends with Afrikaner police officials, they ate together, laughed together and hunted freedom fighters together; it was a friendship that betrayed the struggle movements for the liberation of black people. Among the “Uncle Toms”, the specific name of Detective-Sergeant Orphan “Hlubi” Chapi came up a lot. Hlubi was described by newspapers at the time as being hated by the youth for his role in the 1976 uprising. He has been described as the most vicious “black-hating” and disgusting black human being to ever walk SA soil.

For example, at the funeral of the 16-year-old Dumisani Mbatha, on 17 October 1976, at the Avalon Cemetery in Soweto, who had been killed on 25 September 1976, two days after he was arrested by the apartheid security forces, one of the leaders of the Soweto Students’ Representative Committee (SSRC), went about informing every mourner who attended the funeral that “tea” would be served in Rockville. The “tea” was to be served at the house of one of the most hated apartheid police, Detective-Sergeant Orphan “Hlubi” Chapi. The term “tea” meant the attacking of the house of Hlubi. When the mourners arrived at Hlubi’s house, they were confronted by the police and Hlubi himself, who arrived after the first batch of mourners managed to attack the house without causing major damage.

Hlubi had killed many who fought for freedom and was unapologetic about it. He was hated so much that when he was brought to hospital, the nurses ignored him, left him on the bench to die. The gunning down of Detective Sergeant “Hlubi” Chapi, a notorious officer working for the Soweto contingent of the apartheid Security Branch, marked the start of an escalation of MK episodes into South Africa.

In the ANC’s and Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) combatants’ definition of justified targets, it was clear that action against the machinery of repression, including members and informers of the apartheid South African Police and the South African Defence Force (SADF), were considered legitimate. These people had chosen to act in the front-line of repression in defence of the apartheid regime. In most cases those who were attacked by MK were notorious members of the Security Branch, or those involving themselves in a particularly direct manner in acts of violence against communities.

Thandi Zulu correctly sang the following regarding Detective Sergeant “Hlubi” Chapi in the late Mbongeni Ngema’s famous Sarafina 1987 musical theatre song “Sabela”:

“Uhlala ngabantu emaBhunwini, (You gossip about people to the Boers)
Uyaziqeketh’ izindaba zabantu! (You talk about people’s businesses)
Uhola ngegazi labantu, (You gain when human blood is shed)
U hundred rand’igazi lendoda, (100 rands for a man’s blood)
Baphelil’ ubaqedile (You have finished them)
Laf’ elikaMjokwane kaNdaba!” (Woe to the land of Mjokwane kaNdaba!)

Sources:
Wikipedia.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission, “Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report”, Vol. 6, 21 March 2003.
Thula Simpson, “Umkhonto we Sizwe: The ANC’s Armed Struggle”, Penguin, 2016.
Stanley Manong, “If We Must Die: An Autobiography of a Former Commander of Umkhonto we Sizwe”, Nkululeko, 2015.

Castro Khwela
Good evening fellow Compatriots!