Human Rights Violation Hearings — Soweto — 1996-07-23

CHAIRPERSON: I will now ask the next witness to come forward.  That is Isabella Ndibongo.  Isabella Ndibongo.  I would ask Isabella to remain standing so that you can take the oath before the Commission.  I would ask Isabella Ndibongo to stand.  Thank you very much Mrs Ndibongo for coming before us.

ISABELLA NDIBONGO: (Duly sworn in, states).

CHAIRPERSON: I will ask Russell Ally to assist Mrs Ndibongo in giving her testimony.

RUSSELL ALLY: Mrs Ndibonogo, thank you for coming to the Commission.  You are coming to speak about your son, Michael, who died in very unfortunate and mysterious circumstances during the events of June 1976.  Will you please tell us what you know of this incident?

CHAIRPERSON: Can I please ask people at the back to keep quiet so that the witness can, without any interference, be able to tell the Commission what happened to her during the difficult years 1960 to 1993.

ISABELLA NDIBONGO: On the 18th of June 1976, he was coming from work when he was shot while he was in that bridge in Kliptown while he was coming home.  People came to tell us.  On that particular day I was not at home, I was in Transkei.  It was only children at home.  His brother was there. He is the one who was told by the people that he was shot on the
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bridge.  He drove, he went there because by that time is was already announced that in Baragwanath Hospital it is already full.  The people should be taken to Krugersdorp.  It was already in the evening.  They did not even the know the way to Krugersdorp because people were getting lost there and soldiers were on their way, always stopping them until they reached the place.  
 When he was about to be examined by the doctor, while they were still waiting, he was delaying from the other side.  There were other people always coming out.  They decided to go and check what is happening because he is not coming out.  It is when they were told that when they brought him in he was already dead.

RUSSELL ALLY: Mrs Ndibongo, in your statement you say that he was shot by unknown gunmen.  Did you ever manage to find out anything more, whether these were policemen or any information?

ISABELLA NDIBONGO: We never knew because when they arrived he was still talking.  They said their mistake, they did not remember because the other one was also a child.  He could not remember to ask whether he was shot by the police or whatever because he did not know that he was going to die.  He did not ask.  So we do not have any knowledge.  We do not even know whether it was police or somebody else because it were police who were shooting.

RUSSELL ALLY: And you say that he actually, he was alive for quite a while after he was shot.  Do you know how long before he actually died?  The brother who took him to this hospital.

ISABELLA NDIBONGO: He was still alive until they were in Krugersdorp, he was still talking.  When he was about to be
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examined by the doctor that is when he died.

RUSSELL ALLY: And the closest hospital after Baragwanath and Baragwanath Hospital was full was clearly not Krugersdorp Hospital.

ISABELLA NDIBONGO: He was taken to Krugersdorp because it was already announced that Baragwanath is full.  All the people who were injured must be rushed to Krugersdorp.  They rushed him to Krugersdorp, they could not go to Baragwanath.

RUSSELL ALLY: And this was his brother who took him to Krugersdorp Hospital?  It was not an ambulance, it was his brother.

ISABELLA NDIBONGO: He was taken to the hospital with a car, not an ambulance.  They said when they discovered that he was injured, they rushed him with a car to the hospital.

RUSSELL ALLY: Mrs Ndibongo, this is a very difficult incident and it is easy to know how difficult this must be for you, also, to relive this because our investigators have also tried to find out about this event and there is very little new information about who actually did the shooting and it is doubly tragic because from your account, it seems as that he was alive for quite a while after the shooting and if it was possible for him to have gone to one of the local hospitals, and we all know the reasons why they did not happen those days, that he had to go from Baragwanath all the way to Krugersdorp, when we know that there were hospitals closer.  So, it is doubly tragic in that sense that unknown gunmen and the problem of actually getting him to a hospital where if he could have been attended to in time, it was possible that maybe something could have been done to save him.
 I suppose from the Commission, what is important is 
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that, hopefully, by Michael being acknowledged in this way, as one of those victims of that terrible event in 1976, maybe this will help in some way.  The investigations will certainly continue and we hope that the more people who come forward, the more we will find out about what happened, but I know that it may not be much of assistance to you because for you I am sure the important thing is to try and understand and know what happened on that particular day.

ISABELLA NDIBONGO: It is like that.  It is so.

CHAIRPERSON: I will ask Piet Meiring.  Yasmin Sooka, Joyce Seroke, Hugh.  We appreciate that you decided to come here and tell the Commission of what happened to you.  Maybe you know that there is another Committee that we have.  The one that deals with the Human Rights Violations.  We have another one which is called the Amnesty Committee.  The one that is Amnesty Committee we are calling people who did some terrible things in the past to come and talk publicly about the things that they have done.  We hopefully think that people like you will hear the people confessing saying that on a particular day I killed people innocently.  We also hope that you are going to get peace if you know what happened.  Thank you very much.
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