[5][7] It had some success in organising the development of the town's infrastructure: in 1982, the Trust Feed population had shared three taps and one school; by late 1988, the roads and water supply had been improved, and a clinic was under construction.

[5][7] Around 3 a.m. on 3 December, a police squad entered house TF83, which officers believed to be the site of a funeral vigil attended by UDF members.

Hundreds of UDF supporters fled Trust Feed, fearing an outbreak of political violence,[5][7] and the town's population is estimated to have dropped by about a third by 1990.

[5][7][8] In court, Mitchell testified that the massacre was part of a larger state effort, supported by the security forces, to empower Inkatha at the expense of the ANC and UDF.

[7][9] Mitchell's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in April 1994 by President F. W de Klerk, and he was released from prison in November 1996 after being granted amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on the grounds that the massacre was politically motivated.