OBED BAPELA
Yes, during that period I think it was the strategy of the South African police to identify a group of people that they can infiltrate and use against our own organisations and our own people, our own comrades and Alexandra did not escape that and maybe just to start by
ALEXANDRA HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
19 BAPELA
saying that in April when they could not find anybody or any gangster or any grouping in Alexandra that they can use against ourselves they themselves as the South African Police went into Alexandra and attacked the community under the disguise that they were Amagawas.  At that time in Soweto there was a group called - a gangster called Ama Cabasa and it used to terrorise members of the Cosas, Congress of South African Students and students in general in the schools of Soweto.  It was quite a fearful type of a gangster which used to kill.  And so the police then fashioned themselves along the activities of those Ama Cabasas, pretended to be a Ama Cabasa because they used to wear cloths on their heads when they went on a mission of attacking.  So they put those cloths on their heads, but then they had their uniforms on, the blue shirts and their navy blue trousers, but their blue shirts were not inside their trousers, they just pulled them out so that they pretended to be that group of Ama Cabasas who were on an attack.  And from the direction that they came from is the Wynberg police station and then entered Alexandra, attacked all those targeted areas and they attacked all those areas where it was places of our meetings where in some instances it was our own people, our own leaders who stayed in those places and attacked during that night.  And when they left Alexandra they retreated back to Wynberg police station and I think if the reconciliation has to work in Alexandra that incident really has to be spoken in the Truth Commission and one of them really should come forward and say we did it and we understand why they did it because at that time in Alexandra it was a no go area for police.  All policemen who stayed in Alexandra had fled Alexandra at that time of the
ALEXANDRA HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
20 BAPELA
six days war because they became the targets and Tebi was one who stayed in Alexandra, had to leave Alexandra under escorts and so.  And also there was a campaign you know that was there to isolate the police campaign.  Socially to isolate them, they should not drink in our shebeens, they should not fall in love with our women and no woman should be in love with a police.  This was the serious campaigns that were there and they were rejected completely by then and I think it aggrieved them that they have to flee their own homes, they have been rejected, they can't fall in love with women in Alexandra, they can't drink in Alexandra, they can't buy in any shop in Alexandra because that was how far they went to the extent and hence their attack and I think if they can really come forward and say we did it and we are sorry for what we did I think the community will be very happy.  And just in June before the state of emergency was declared the incident that provoked the Azapo UDF fight was a meeting of the Alexandra Youth Congress in Dagani camp which was held at the church at 9th Avenue between Selbourne and the other street, I just forgot the name, I think it is John Brandt.  So that meeting was there, I think it is number 45 or 41, that church.  The meeting was held there, the church was full and then when a sniper from Azapo came through the window shot and killed Matamola Mbelese and I think that then provoked the incident that it was this group that attacked because some of the people who were outside guarding the meeting, because at that time we used to guard our meetings because police would also come and attack and after having attacked  Alexandra as Ama Cabasa.  So after that incident obviously then it sparked the whole violence between Azapo and (indistinct) and I think as we said that
ALEXANDRA HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
21 BAPELA
they were infiltrated, I would fully agree that yes they were infiltrated because not everybody who was Azapo was in that particular mood of fighting and so forth.