Human Rights Violation Hearings — Newcastle — 1996-09-10

WITNESS:   They were killed.  On the 20th of April in 1986 my eldest son he was working at Carbo Chem.  He was a member of NACTU.  When they went to work they were retrenched.  I thought he must go to college because I was scared that if he loses his job I'll also lose my job and no one will take care of us.  On the 20th they were supposed to meet in a hotel at Madadeni.  IFP was at committee wall, and IFP went to a hotel to attack them.  And then they left the hotel because they were scared that they were going to die.  They went back home.  When I came home after church I found a lot of people at home.  I asked them what was going on, so they told me that IFP wanted to kill them so they didn't continue with the meeting.  So they re-arranged the meeting for the 27th.  They went to St Louis to ask for venue.  That Sunday morning when they were getting ready to go I went to Mahlaba because my aunt was sick.  I stayed there until I was supposed to go to church.  When I went back home I saw IFP.  They had stones inside boxes.  The IFP youths had carried those boxes, and when I went home I found my children were not there, and I told my wife that, "I am not feeling all right, I feel like going to that meeting."  And my wife told me that I mustn't go there because she is scared that I might get hurt.  So I made a call to section 4 and I found that there was no one.  I also made another call to another family and there was no one as well.  In the afternoon after church, I think was half past two after church, when I was approaching my house I saw my son, and when I tried to stop him he didn't want to stop.  So I told my son why is he carrying ... (inaudible) ... and I heard that cars were stoned by IFP, and I went to the police station.  When I arrived at the police station I found that cars were stoned outside the police station, and the station commander didn't allow those cars to be parked inside.  And I realised that there was a problem.  And one policeman came out and shouted at the IFP members, and I went inside the court.  And when I arrived there I found the commissioner fighting with them, and when I asked them, "What's going on?" so they explained to me that cars are finished, people were stoning cars.  So I told my sons that day they must come back home.  After they finished giving their statements they came back home.  When they arrived at home we talked about this.  My wife prepared a meal for me, I ate, and then I went outside, I sat under a tree.  And  my children brought cool drink for us.  At about half past five we saw a group of IFP members approaching to our house.  They went into Xulu's house.  Xulu is my neighbour.  We sat there because we wanted to see what was going on, and then late in the evening we went inside the house.  After supper we sat for a while.  My wife went in the bedroom to sort out her laundry.  I was sitting in my sitting-room, facing in the direction as I am sitting today.  I only saw fire coming from my bedroom to the sitting-room, and my children stood up and went outside.  My elder son, Dumisani, went outside first, and then my other son followed him.  The curtains were burning in my bedroom.  When I went there with my wife, trying to - when we tried to put out the fire we couldn't because the whole house was now alight, and we heard gunfire.  My house had 13 windows.  All 12 had broken and my house was on fire, the ceiling.  At that time my wife was also burning.  We made one mistake.  We were supposed to take her into hospital, but we were dumb, we took her to another place.  That's where she died.  When my son came back there was no policemen even though we called the police.  Inkatha came.  One station commander by the name of Mthethwa came and said to me, "I am here to take you to go and make a statement," so I told him, "No, I don't want to because you have arrested these people and how come now they are here?"  So he insisted.  I refused.  My son pursued me to go with him, so I went with him.  And Mr Mthethwa said, "It's so bad because she is already dead now."  When we arrived at the police station when I was supposed to give the statement gunfires were all over the place.  My house is nearer the police station.  We went by three vans.  We found Inkatha members in my house, and they were firing guns.  They took a bag which was on top of my headboard.  They took that bag.  Up until today from 1986 - I reported this case to the Zulu Police.  No one was arrested up until today.  Mthethwa came, and Inkatha members saluted at him and told him that we are the ones.  Then they were scattered thereafter, and the police also went away.  We were left in the house.  The house had no windows.  The curtains were burnt together with the house, but at that time we were there at night we just couldn't sleep because the house was open.  The car was also burnt.  There is a certain policeman who took a statement from a certain male.  He said that in the statement we were asleep, but it was half past eight when the house was burnt and at nine we went to the police station.  But he insisted that we were sleeping at that time.  I found that to be gross corruption because he was not telling the truth.  The case of the car never got any further, and they came back the very same night, and I realised that there was no way out, I had to phone the police, and when they came back I phoned a certain nephew of mine.  I told him that my house had been burnt, as well as my car, and he asked me as to when this happened.  He helped me out because he took a certain white person.  They went into the police statio, and as they were coming they started shooting.  That's when the Inkatha people ran way, and they didn't come back thereafter.  But we never slept on that day, because at about 3 o'clock Chris Mkhize passed by, and my children were very angry at that time, they wanted to go and attack, but I restrained them.  Then there is Mdlalose.  Mdlalose also came.  He came to check as to what was done by his members, that is the members of the Inkatha.  Because at that time he was a Minister of Health, and he was not a minister of people who were not members of the IFP.  Then in the morning of the following day I went to the police station to report about the damage.  We submitted statements, but we did not submit full statements because we did not trust them.  My wife was admitted to the hospital, then on the 4th of May, which was a Saturday - I went on the 3rd of May, that was on a Friday afternoon.  Then she took me halfway to the gate.  She was having drips.  And then on the 4th, that's on a Saturday, I went to see her after dinner, and her condition had deteriorated and I asked as to what had happened.  The nurses also said they did not know, because the following day when they came they discovered that her condition had worsened.  She said to me I must look after her kids.  I looked at her and I kept quiet.  I could feel tears streaming down my face, and I went out.  It was at night.  I went back the following day, we were from church, and she was very serious, her condition was quite serious.  And at that time she once said again that I should look after her children.  I went away that Sunday.  Then the following day on Monday at seven I received a telephone call that I should go to the hospital, and I knew that by then she was dead.  When I arrived I was told that she had died that morning.  I took her clothes and I came back to prepare for the funeral.  But the most disturbing thing is that on the Monday morning when I received this telephone call there came certain people who were supposed to take fingerprints, and they were coming from Dundee.  They pitched up and dusted for some fingerprints.  I think the policemen were - the bottles were - there were 16 bottles which were put on top of the roof.  At the time that they were shooting they did not want to be seen.  So they dusted for these fingerprints, and at that time up until now I have never been told or informed, as a person who lost his wife as well as his possessions, as to what has happened to the people who bombed my house.  The police KwaZulu Police as well as the police in town took the statements, and made the statements their possessions, but they never followed the matter up.  I knew that the police were used by the station commanders.  They were the ones who directed them as to what to do.  And after the funeral - just before the funeral the police came to keep a vigil, and some were nearby the office.  There is a spokesman for NACTU, Paulos Nkosi, who did not sleep at his place on that particular day because after the funeral, when he went back to his home, the police were waiting for him, and they were asking him about the statement that he made at the funeral, and he was arrested.  But I don't remember how long he stayed there, but he was detained.  After I had buried my wife I kept on checking as to what was happening to the case, but there was absolutely no report that I was given.  I went to Mthethwa, who said that I should write a formal letter, because at that particular moment he was still busy.  He never replied to my letter.  I never got any response.  And later on, after I had forgotten about the letter, I received a letter from Mthethwa, who said I should come and see him at the police station.  I went to him on a Tuesday.  At quarter past two I was getting to the police station, and I went to talk to Mthethwa, but I could not see him.  I stayed there up until five without seeing any trace of Mthethwa.  Then at that time I decided that I should go, but it was dark and I was thinking that I could possibly be killed, and I told one policeman that I was going.  Then this policeman said to me I should not go straight to the gate, but I should walk along the fence and try and get some place to escape, but I should not go through the gate.  Then I realised that Mthethwa had planned this that I should stay until late at the police station, and they had planned to kill me also and they were going to get my corpse thereafter without knowing who killed me.  I listened to this young policeman, I went along the fence until I got an escape route, and when I got home I phoned Kwenza Mlaba and he said he would phone Kwenza Mlaba.  He phoned, Kwenza Mlaba - he phoned Mthethwa and spoke to him.  He further came back to me and told me that he had phoned Mthethwa.  Then they came during the day, they would assault my children, and they would also come at night and fight with my children.  That's the life that I have lived ever since they were terrorising my family.  I was working three shifts, from six to two and from two to 11, as well as from 11 up until morning.  And in the morning when I go to work - my bedroom is in the front - whenever I put the lights on I would hear people whistling outside.  And I was scared because I felt that I was not safe from the KwaZulu Police, so whenever I went to work I never took a straight route.  And most of the time I did not put off my light in the bedroom because they knew.  And one time they came across me.  I saw them, and they just looked at me.  I knew that they were armed, but they never did anything.  I went to work on that particular day.  That is the life that I have lived.  Whenever I was working night shift, especially 11 to seven, every time on Friday, or every Friday the police would come and swear at my children, they would kick the doors, they would assault them.  But at night it was not the KwaZulu Police but it was de Kock, as well as other boers.  They would traumatise and terrorise my family.  And they would search the house, they would turn it upside-down.  But they knew my bedroom, and each time they used to go straight to my bedroom.  They never went into my bedroom.  They would go into the other rooms, but they never went into my bedroom.  At times when I was working the day shift they would come after lunch and they would say we should all get out of the house, and there were quite a few black policemen who were with them.  There was no case whatsoever with regard to the incident that took place earlier.  And Mr Dube went to open up a case, accusing my children of having broken his windows.  This case was heard, but there wasn't enough evidence and my son was acquitted.  Thereafter he was accused of having assaulted certain children, and they wanted to attack him.  Later on he was accused of having ridiculed some other people, saying they were Inkatha members.  And when I went to the police one policeman who was from KwaZulu said to me, "When I talk about Inkatha I talk about God."  I said, "At my place there is no god except the Almighty."  Then I told him that I was going to phone Mlaba in Durban.  I phoned Mlaba in the morning, and he was released on bail.  Then when the case went on he was also acquitted in that matter.  Now, I kept on being arrested and my children kept on being in and out of prison, being accused of doing certain things and offences.  Then on a certain Friday I was using a certain machine and the machine got broken, and we were told to knock off and go back home, and at 12.30 the policemen came to my place.  When they got to my place they said they wanted to see Ephraim.  I told them that Ephraim was at college and they told me that they had heard that he was not at college, because there were many informers.  I was not an ANC member, I was a activist in the union, that is SEAWU at Falkirk.  And when they came to knock they knocked using their guns, and now I realised that the police were somehow protecting me because they were coming to my place almost every day.  At times they would search and say we were hiding ANC documents, as well as banned books, and they were told that the books were being kept in the chimney.  The went into Zwelinjane's bedroom, Zwelinjane at that time was not at home.  They searched, and de Kock called me outside.  I don't know whether my younger or my elder girl went out, but we stood on the grass and de Kock said the law says that all of us should be arrested if we did not want to disclose Zwelinjane's whereabouts.  They said we knew where he had gone to  because he was not at the college.  I explained to him