Human Rights Violation Hearings — Sebokeng — 1996-08-06

ALBERT AMANDLA NANGALEMBE: I thank you Mr Chairman.  We were sent to the police station to go and see Chris.  I went with my uncle to go and identify him.  They told us the name of the policeman who was handling the case.  When we went to identify my brother that policeman was not there.  Apparently he was from VanderBijl.  They asked me to get in there but I refused.
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 On Monday we went to the police station.  They said I should submit a statement.  We were sent to the VanderBijl police station to look for the particular policeman who was handling the case.  I couldn't get hold of the policeman. Where Chris was dumped in Boipatong is nearby where I was working.  
 On that particular Monday I had to go to work, I was working night-shift.  That is when I got the message.  It happened that Zanzi's father and myself were working together in that particular firm, and it was said that Chris could not be buried even if we found them because they were going to attack us.  I was told by my co-workers.
 I asked permission at work to be released because I could not work that particular day.  I went back home and I asked them to give me a few days leave.  I wanted to bury my brother on a Wednesday that particular week because I did not want the organisation, of which he was a member to be involved.  But I still say the leadership of the ANC asked my mother for permission so that they may conduct the funeral themselves.  
 But the most painful aspect of this is that the people who took him blew their horn and they waved their hands at me.  When I go to the shops they also used to go to the shops.  I want to explain that at the time that Chris died he did not always stay at home.  He used to be called at places.  He used to like staying at Malinga's place.  That is where we went to fetch his clothes.  I just want to remind the Commission that Chris, when he died, he died after his wife had died only a year before.  He left a two-year-old child.  His name is Sepo.  When all this happened, I don't know how these people know my relatives or how they 
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got hold of the information.  They knew all our relatives and whenever we went to the relatives they wanted to know what we were talking with the relatives.
 On a Wednesday we went to the police station.  I was with Mncube that is my aunt but she is not present at the moment.  We went to report this that we were receiving threats that the people who had attacked Chris had promised to come back and attack us as well and they were very well known.  Even the very same car that abducted Chris was seen driving around the streets.  I will leave that matter momentarily.  Maybe I will come back to it when I remember some of the things that I think I might probably have left out.
 On a Friday when we were preparing for the funeral we asked people and warned them that there wasn't going to be a night vigil for Chris, but it so happens that the youth as well as the community insisted.  They said that they knew there wasn't going to be a night vigil because the people had said they were going to come back and attack but they wanted to come and protect us.  They wanted to stay in the yard and protect us just before the funeral.  We could not refuse the offer.  
 We reported to the police station that there was going to be a night vigil and there were going to be people so we requested them to come and give us some security. Saul Sotetsi was there.  He was a member of the Council of Churches, some of them I've forgotten their names they also came to report.
 On Saturday in the evening, it was 1:20.  It was towards dawn, no I am sorry that was on a Friday.  Just before the lights were switched off in Sebokeng, the lights
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were switched on once more but the whole block at home our lights went off.  I think these were the technicians who had come to do this job.  Our neighbours gave us tremendous support.  They tried to look for cables and connect so that we may have electricity.  At the time they didn't know that as they were doing this they were doing it for the attackers to be able to see us and attack us.  
 Just at about five to two we saw a group of people coming towards our place.  They were wearing coats, long coats.  It was summer but at that time it was now getting cold.  Many people went to fetch jerseys.  We saw three youths.  They came to me and they grabbed me and said "these were the comrades we are just coming to observe the situation, do not worry, get into the house".  Just as I got into the house we heard gunshots.  These gunshots lasted for about ten minutes and people were screaming.  They shot at the tent and the tent was riddled with bullets.  They also threw handgrenades, two of them.  The other one hit a grape tree.  The other one hit a back opposite house where there was a box of coals.  According to information that we got thereafter they wanted to throw it into the bedroom because they thought my brother's coffin was in the bedroom.  Luckily it hit outside but it injured so many people.
 At about 2:15, just opposite my place where we used to go and phone whenever there was something wrong at my place, as I was still dialling the numbers for the ambulance luckily I had dialled to my friend or my colleague who was working at Cape Gate, I told him that I needed an ambulance.  Luckily he phoned the ambulance because he knew the numbers.  But what was surprising was that the ambulances came first to take people who were alive and needed medical attention 
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but the police said they got lost.  They could not reach my place.
 The police who came to me were from the Everton police station.  As we were busy loading the people into the ambulances they told me that the police were looking for me and they said I should get into the car because they were taking me with.  I was very confused at the time.  I got into the Casper but as I was inside I was asking myself as to why they were taking me and somehow I felt that probably they were the ones who had shot at us and I asked them as to where they were taking me.  They said I should not ask them because they were doing their job.  As we were going this car which had shot people and abducted my brother was following us.  I pointed this car to them and said this the car that had abducted my brother.  They said I must keep quiet because they were doing their job.  
 Now they were phoning a certain person they called the Lieutenant and they said they were reporting what had happened.  They took me back.  There were four boer police.  They did not even look at the corpses.  They just collected the bullets that were strewn, the cartridges that were strewn around the yard, they just ignored the corpses.  They even ignored the people who needed first aid who were lying down on the ground.  I approached them and showed them that there is the car that had been busy shooting.  They did not even pay attention to what I was saying.  They flatly ignored me.  
 I think everybody had heard what had happened.  People came to my place in the morning to come and enquire as to what had happened the previous day.  What I can say is as -there were handgrenades, they shot the tent, they shot the
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 house itself, the walls of the house, the people who died there were 38 and it is true that people who got injured were in the region of 40, and they are eight who are crippled presently.  I believe that some of them had come to submit their statements. 
 When we went back to the police station we were told to report the matter.  I personally, together with my aunt, I said I had gone to report that my brother was abducted, they did not want to take the statement.  Now after the person had died they wanted me to give a statement.  Now I started asking as to whether the police dealt with dead people or living people, now what statement did they want because the people had died already.  I think this statement is the fourth that I am submitting and I keep on repeating one and the same thing.  I don't remember who the Lieutenant was.  The question that I asked him was, as he is the Lieutenant when the police report what should be done?  But he never answered me.  
 Chairman I should request you that I do not want to be confused.  I do want to come back to all that I have said.  I believe I have left quite a number of things because the families of the people who had died are also here and I am happy that Ketisi's mother is also here so that she could also hear the truth.