Jeremy Gordin's column, "The Justice Malala Question" (Politicsweb, 27 October), creates more confusion than clarity in relation to the death of the Umkhonto we Sizwe commander, Thami Zulu (real name, Muziwakhe Ngwenya, also known as TZ), in Lusaka on 16 November 1989, three months before the unbanning of the ANC.
Gordin states "it was unknown who actually administered poison to TZ (if it was poison that killed him)".
The first half of this sentence is true. The second half is false.
Gordin mentions two articles on the subject from my book, Inside Quatro: Uncovering the Exile History of the ANC and SWAPO (Jacana, 2009), but he appears not to have read them properly.
There is no dispute that Thami Zulu was detained in Lusaka by the ANC security department, known as iMbokodo (the grindstone), for 17 months. He was released by iMbokodo, of which President Zuma was then one of the leaders, on 11 November 1989, five days before he died.
My book is clear that the ANC appointed a commission of inquiry into the death of TZ which included the subsequent Constitutional Court Judge Albie Sachs as its most eminent legal personage. The commission report states that TZ had entered detention as a 'large, well-built, slightly overweight person, and came out gaunt, frail and almost unrecognisable.' (quoted in Inside Quatro, p.103)