Almost unknown until the violence began on the Reef in August 1990, coinciding with Inkatha's launch as a national party, Khoza has repeatedly been seen by reporters at hostels during or immediately after clashes in Soweto, Tokoza, Kagiso, and other areas. He has been present at virtually every trouble spot where Inkatha has attacked people.
November 1990: eyewitnesses reported he led the attack on Sebokeng hostel; 30 residents, most of them members of Cosatu, were killed. Police found four AK47's and R4 rifle, and explosive device in Khoza's car, plus a pistol. He was acquitted after saying in court that he had given the keys of his car to someone else - he did now know who - who must have put the arms in his car.
According to Mbongeni Khumalo, the former senior official who broke ranks in January 1992 and made a series of damaging revolations about Inkatha, Khoza and twenty selected activits went on a DMI training course in Pretoria shortly before the 1990 township violence began. Khumalo also stated that there was gun-running from Renamo to sustain Inkatha's offensive beginning in August 1990.
In August 1994, giving evidence during Eugene de Kock's bail hearing in the Pretoria Regional Court, W/O Ernest Holmes said that De Kock had arranged bail for Khoza after his arrest and arranged for the weapons to be tampered with in order to make ballistic tests difficult. The car in which Khoza had been travelling was registered in his name after he was taken into custody, and everything that had to do with the case was either stolen or interfered with. Holmes said De Kock got Khoza out of trouble to prevent him explaining where the arms came from.
March 1991: in court papers (presented in April 1994) Realty Homes director Conrad Niehaus described a meeting he attended in March 1991, also attended by Khoza, Ndlovu and a Lt. Van der Merwe of the security police. He was told a decision had been taken not to demolish a Kagiso hostel as they wanted to accommodate as many men as possible.
Rally at Wembezi on 28/12/91: nine people were killed at a rally addressed by Khoza, mostly ANC members, who were fetched from their homes and execin the stadium.
Progress Employment Agency: it is stcted that this agency, run by Khruit unemployed people from areas such as Nongoma, Msinga, etc on the pretext that they would be given jobs in Johannesburg, only to find their "job" was to participate in the fighting.
May 1992: a witness told the Goldstone commission that Khoza and Ndlovu had instigated Nancefield hostel residents to attack ANC members. (In the same month he sped away from a roadblock but hit a sandbank; police say they found nothing in his car but he was charged with defeating the ends of justice and reckless driving.)
31/10/1992: Bruce Anderson claims that arms and ammunition were channelled from Mozambique to Inkatha with the assistance of elements within the DMI. In an affidavit he stated that he had arranged for arms to be sent to Inkatha after a meeting with Musa Myeni, and that the SADF's Department of Military Intelligence (DMI) "facilitated" a salary for Themba Khoza from funds set aside to implement anti-ANC operations. Anderson stated that the organised arms to be delivered to Inkatha hostels in Alexandra, and that 50 KZP members arrived in February 1992 to assist Inkatha in the area.. Themba Khoza, he said, collect weapons from the military and police sources periodically.
Anderson was a senior Inkatha official at the time: he had represented Inkatha at Codesa, was chair of the Inkatha Hillbrow branch, and was on the Alexander Dispute Resolutin Committe. He was deported from SA in July 1992 under circumstances which remain unclear. Recently Anderson denied his earlier allegations; however, these are remarkably similar to claims made by a number of other people, including former Inkatha officials and members of the security forces.
November 1992 Nqutu massacre. The home of ANC-supporting Chief Alpheus Molefe was attacked by men wearing balacalvas; eleven ANC youths dead, seven injured including a woman and three-year-old child.) The attack occured on the day an ANC rally was to have taken place, but was cancelled a few days previously after the ANC had received information that there were plans to attack the rally.
In the 1993 trial connected with the Boipatong massacre, a former KwaMadala hostel dweller told the court that Khoza had told the residents to remove all traces of blood and burn their clothes after the massacre had taken place. He warned them of an impending police raid on the hostel and warned them to get rid of goods they had looted.
18/03/94: The Goldstone Commission report on "third force: violence was published. Khoza was named as a paid police agent and central cog in the so-called "third force" violence (a "horrible network of criminal activity"), which included the planning of massacres on trains and in townships.
General Basie Smit; Lt-General Johan le Roux (CID chief) and Maj-General Krappies Engelbrecht were, along with other SAP officers (Including Vlakplaas) and Inkatha officials, were named as being involved. Weapons captured by Koevoet had been taken to Vlakplaas and distributed to Inkatha members; others were received via Mozambique. The report states that according to their sources, Khoza and Victor Ndlovu were paid police agents.
March 28th 1994 violence in the Johannesburg CBD
Khoza was one of the main organisers of the "march" in the Johannesburg CBD in which a total of 75 people were killed and nearly 200 injured in violence directly connected with Inkatha's "march" in and around the city.
Themba Khoza has made a number of claims with regard to warnings he says he received about violence being planned for March 28th:
Prepared by: ANC Information Services
Dept Information & Publicity
PO Box 16469, Vlaeberg 8018
Cape Town, South Africa.
Tel: (+27 21) 262740
Fax: (+27 21) 262774
Internet: admin@ancdip.wn.apc.org
CompuServe: 100014,344