Siphiwe Mvuyane was a South African police officer involved in political killings in the Bantustan of KwaZulu.
Inevitably this scheme produced unintended consequences in that pure criminals ended up being tipped-off as most of the cases Mvuyane officially investigated were not political.
[4] The nature of this warfare took the form of carefully planned assassinations which involved an element of surprise, setting up and utilising intelligence structures.
[citation needed] Siphiwe Mvuyane was primarily in combat (during a period of low intensity warfare in South Africa) with the armed military wing of the ANC, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK).
Mvuyane was allegedly a policeman by day (investigating normal criminal cases) and a paid assassin by night (killing ANC activists).
In the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) reports, one of the applicants indicated that Mvuyane was a commander of killing squads on the East Coast of South Africa, the KwaZulu-Natal Province.
[citation needed] When political violence reached epic proportions in the early 1990s, international investors and negotiators such as John Aitchison of the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg and Kim Hodgson of the Inkatha Institute in Durban became worried at the pace at which black political leaders were dying that South Africa would be 'leaderless' by the time apartheid came to an end.
[9] On 14 May 1992, he was arrested in connection with an arms cache made by a US gun manufacturer Mossberg and Sons of Connecticut,[10] but the case remained pending up to the point of his demise.
It is believed that the ANC once threatened to withdraw from the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) negotiations if the killers involved in political violence were not arrested.
A Durban multi-millionaire businesswoman, Shauwn Mpisane, lost her father during the period of the low intensity warfare in South Africa.
Sipho Mkhize was shot dead in cold blood (first degree murder) by Siphiwe Mvuyane on 12 June 1991.
It was common cause at the time that S'bu Mkhize was wanted by white policemen from CR Swart Square (now called Durban Central Police Station).
Almost a year later after the death of his father, S'bu Mkhize was killed by the South African apartheid police after a high-speed chase which ended in Isipingo area in July 1992.
[17] On 7 August 1990, Austin Zwane, a school pupil, was shot dead at Lamontville Township in front of his parents by Mvuyane accompanied by a group of four police officers.
Bob Mabena, a popular radio personality in South Africa, was slapped in the face by Mvuyane at a music concert.
It would appear that the killings gradually affected Mvuyane psychologically as he increasingly resorted to torture and irrational behaviour in resolving criminal cases he was investigating.
He left me there, believing that I was dead.In another incident, Mvuyane opened fire on mourners at the funeral of Sifiso Zame on 2 October 1991.
Mvuyane himself survived a bomb attack when he visited one of his many girlfriends at Mable Palmer residence at the then University of Natal in Durban.
The undercover MK operatives began to use explosives against Mvuyane because they had failed dismally to kill him using conventional firearms (e.g. handguns and rifles).
Following the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Western Powers, particularly the US, lost appetite in sustaining the South African apartheid government.
[22] The apartheid government was given an ultimatum to hand over political power to the indigenous people of the land, failing which further sanctions would be imposed.
The ANC was the dominant party at the time from the side of liberation movements and enjoyed the majority of support from the country's populace.
[8] The apartheid government demonstrated its commitment to reform by releasing Nelson Mandela from prison, unbanning liberation movements and allowing exiles to return home.
At the time of his death Siphiwe Muvuyane had been suspended as a police officer and had been served a court indictment with more than 50 charges.
Apparently it was late at night at the then University of Durban-Westville, where Siphiwe Mvuyane was attending a music concert, when he complained to his gang (which de facto served as his bodyguards) about drowsiness and fatigue.
John Woodroof, a journalist for Daily News was attacked at Mvuyane's funeral by mourners who were angry at the media.
John Woodroof had written several newspaper articles that were critical of Siphiwe Mvuyane casting him in a negative light.