Bill Mentoor: 15

Not one of the cases that the
Truth Commission listened to in
Queenstown gave any indication of the
unusual extent of the horror in the town.
Queenstown
is unique. It is known
as the Necklace Capital of the World. In
August 1985 the first person to be necklaced,
Bill Mentoor, was killed because
he ignored a consumer boycott instigated
by the ANC Youth League. It is
thought that 39 necklace murders took
place here over the next four years —
more than nine a year, almost one a
month…while in the great majority of
South African towns such a thing never
happened.
Nozibele Madubedube testifies on two
murders in her family. Later I run into
her in one of the side rooms of the
Q u e e n s t o w n
City Hall, crying.
‘The Truth
C o m m i s s i o n
treated me like
dirt.
Commissioner
Bongani Finca
kept on asking:
“But didn’t you
know that the people
were against
councillors?” So? Is he
saying we deserved to be
necklaced?
The big woman in the navy
cardigan then tells me her story:
‘My sister Lungelwa came home specially
from Johannesburg for her birthday.
She would have turned eighteen.
‘That morning the comrades surrounded
the house. They were singing:
“Let the impimpi die”…They shouted:
“If Lungelwa does not come out, the
house will burn”…I went out with
Lungelwa…they grabbed her…I cried
out, but they immediately closed
around her. I could not see her…I
could only hear her cries…
‘I ran to the police…They told me
afterwards…Lungelwa burnt in a different
way to anyone else…they poured
petrol over her, they put a tyre around
her neck… “We will make you pretty,”
they said, “necklace upon necklace…And
perfume?” And they poured petrol on the
tyre. They also told her to drink the
petrol, for the flames to have a shiny
path…Then they called: “Time for
sparks!” Then they threw matches…
‘They say Lungelwa, whose hands
and feet were still tied with wire, kept
lying down until she caught fire and
everybody had to stand away from the
roaring flames.
They say Lungelwa suddenly became
stronger than a man…stronger than an
animal — and she was young! — she
sat up on the ground…her arms and
legs broke loose from the wire…the
tyre around her chest she pulled off
with a powerful gesture and hurled it
into the crowd. “Never, never again will
you burn anyone like this!” she
screamed and ran to a sand gully
where she rolled and rolled until the
flames on her body were extinguished…
‘She died the next day in the hospital
in Queenstown.’