Themba Khoza; Leader of S. Africa’s Inkatha Party

Themba Khoza. 41, a leader of South Africa’s Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party who in the early 1990s allegedly organized deadly attacks against members of the opposition African National Congress. Born in Eshowe in Kwazulu-Natal, Khoza joined the Inkatha Youth Brigade in 1975. He became a full-time party organizer in the 1980s, resigning his job at a bank in Johannesburg. Khoza had represented his party in parliament since 1994 but was relieved of his duties before the Easter recess because of ill health. At the time of his death, Khoza faced 19 criminal charges, including two of attempted murder and 16 relating to the alleged possession and distribution of weapons, ammunition and explosives. In 1998, the country’s truth commission heard testimony that Khoza had ordered his supporters to destroy evidence linking them to the Boipatong massacre in 1992. On May 28 in Johannesburg of what South African media said were complications from AIDS.