Lusikisiki massacre accused Bonga Hintsa has described alleged mastermind Mzukisi Ndamase as a heartless killer who was passionate about killing people, including defenceless women and children.
Hintsa, who admitted to being a criminal involved in various crimes, including murder, told the court that while he loved money, he hated killing people.
The claim came during a heated exchange in which Ndamase accused Hintsa of being a master storyteller capable of making lies sound like the truth.
“You say I know how to fabricate a story until it sounds like the real thing,” Hintsa replied.
“That means we are alike. We are a jackal and a wolf.”
Hintsa said the difference between the two was that Ndamase had no heart, while he considered himself someone who cared about others.
Ndamase, who the state alleges was the mastermind behind the Ngobozana massacre, has been conducting his own cross-examination of Hintsa, who previously gave statements implicating him before disowning them in court and claiming he had been coached by Ndamase.
Hintsa told the court he had deliberately joined Ndamase’s group after deciding to follow the saying: “If you can’t beat them, join them.”
He claimed he wanted to study Ndamase’s strategies and methods so he could eventually take him down.
That opportunity never came, Hintsa said, but he instead got close to people Ndamase disliked, believing they could help him when the time came to act against him.
Ndamase then accused Hintsa of fabricating his version of events.
“Mr Hintsa, you are a man who knows how to build something until it sounds like something real,” Ndamase said.
Hintsa again embraced the comparison.
“On this one where you say I know how to build a story, this means we are alike, we are jackal and wolf.
“The difference is small. One has no heart, one has a heart and can think of another person,” he said.
The exchange resurfaced when the two men disputed claims about prison records.
Hintsa alleged that Ndamase had coached him to lie in his statements by denying that he knew him or had ever visited him at Wellington Prison.
According to Hintsa, Ndamase told him prison visitor records were destroyed after two years and would therefore not be available to prove their meetings.
Ndamase rejected this, arguing that correctional services records were stored electronically.
“Correctional services records are kept on computers. How can things on a computer be thrown away?” he asked.
Hintsa said he was merely repeating what Ndamase had told him.
“I have no knowledge of that because I never worked in a prison,” he said.
“I was repeating what you told me, Mr Ndamase, as a Wellington inmate who appeared to know what happens in that prison.”
Hintsa further accused Ndamase of misleading him about the intended targets of an operation that ended with the killing of 18 people, mostly women and children, at the Sinqina and Mhatu homesteads.
He claimed Ndamase told them they were going to look for the “Gqubeni Boys”, while allegedly knowing they were being sent to Sinqina and Mhatu.
“Songezo [Vuma] was only taking your order, we were doing what you wanted to be done,” Hintsa said.
“If you had made it clear from the beginning that you were sending us to Sinqina and Mhatu to kill women who cannot defend themselves, I would have run away in another direction.”
Ndamase denied ordering the killings and sought to shift responsibility to Vuma and Lonwabo “Shakes” Abi, who has since turned state witness.
Ndamase maintains that all the accused were Abi’s soldiers and that he knew them through Abi.
He also said Abi found the house in KwaBhaca where the accused were allegedly based.
Hintsa rejected this version.
“You are hiding behind something that does not exist. I was never Abi’s soldier. I never even had his cellphone number.
“The person who had Abi’s cell number is Mzukisi Ndamase who was in jail, and that person is you in front of me now,” he said.
Hintsa also told the court that he feared he and Abi could be poisoned while being held at Lusikisiki prison.
“We trusted nobody in the cells,” he said.
He previously claimed Vuma, whom he described as Ndamase’s right-hand man, had distanced himself from Ndamase after receiving psychological counselling in prison.
Ndamase has been cross-examining Hintsa for two weeks and had not finished by the time the matter was postponed.
The trial has been postponed to January 18 and is expected to run until March 12 2027.