Human Rights Violation Hearings — Tembisa — 1996-11-28

PHUMZILE PRISCILLA NTIMBANE: It was in 1976, Vus was involved as an accessory member, he was schooling at Tembisa High school. From there we didn't get threats from the white people.  I'll say even at night they will come to our place. After that Vus realised that he had to skip the country.  He skipped the country without even saying bye to us.  We didn't know where he was.
 After some time my father passed away.  After he skipped the country, the Boers came to arrest us and my mother was not feeling well at the time. 
 In 1981 Vus came back to the country, he was arrested TEMBISA HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
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when he came back and detained.  I was the one who used to visit him, and I asked why, and they told me that he was arrested for skipping the country. He was represented by Priscilla Jana and he was released later.
 In 1985 they declared a state of emergency. At 12 o'clock at night, white men came, they found all of us at home and they said to Vus, we are coming to fetch you. He asked them has he done and they said to him, they've declared a state of emergency and came to arrest him.  They took him away and for a month we didn't know where he was, how he was dressed, what he was eating.  We went out to look for him all over and we couldn't find him.  After a month we got a letter, they told us that we have to go to Special Branch at Springs.  They will give us another letter which we can use to go to Modderbee to see Vusi.  
 We woke up in the morning, we went there, we got the letter and we found him. When we looked at him, his face was swollen, we couldn't even look at him twice. And he told us that, " As they have detained me here, they are afraid that you might see me, the way that they have beaten me up".  We used to go and visit him in detention, we tried to get him out of prison or get him charged.  After three months he was charged for public violence.
 He stayed in detention on trial for two years and six months.  The case was held and he was represented by Priscilla Jana and he was found, not guilty, and he was released.
 After his release, about after three days, white police came again, they said, "Vus, we're coming to pick you up".  They said they were going to question him.  They said they will bring him back after three hours.  We waited for three 
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hours and I had to come to Tembisa, Rabasotho Police Station and I asked where Vus was.  They said they didn't know where he was, and I asked them, he was taken by police. They said they didn't even know the police who took him.
 Lucky enough I used to take the registration numbers of all the cars that used to arrive and I asked them their names.  I gave them these registration numbers and they discovered that the police who took him were police from Benoni.  Then I called Priscilla Jana.  The lawyer found him and he was released.  When he came back all his body looked like it was burned, he said he was given electric shocks, it went on like that.
 In 1993 the violence started in our area.  We were 
staying next to Visumuzi Hostel.  There was some fighting and Vus and his colleagues, as they were the leaders, formed the SD Youth.  They were the people who were patrolling in the township.  People couldn't sleep, people were dying and the boers were always coming now and then asking for firearms.  They asked my mother whether they were keeping guns in their house or not and she told them she didn't know anything about arms.
 On the appointed day, the day on which Vus died, he was not at home, he was with another family with one of the men he was working with.  It was about past 7 o'clock in the evening.  Young boys came to our place and they asked where Vus was and they told us that they were coming to tell us that one child by the name Sunele has been shot.  This child was working with Vus and his friends he was staying in our street.  I told them that Vus wasn't at home and they asked me to direct them where he was.  They went to the place and they found him.  He accompanied them and went to see where 
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Sunele was shot.
 When he arrived he told them that they must call the police. They called the police and Vus stayed there and waited for the police.  They called for police and he took about two hours.  They didn't arrive.  When they arrived, Vus and his friends helped the police, they took the young boy and put him in the police van.  As they were trying to pour some soil over the blood which was spilled on the ground, we could hear the sound of Caspers as they were running around.  After a few minutes after the police had left, we heard some gunshots.  I suspected that they might have killed someone. The shooting continued.  It was so quiet and the Caspers which surrounded the place, the 
hippos were still there surrounding the place.  We were afraid to go out and Vus was not in the house at that time, because the Caspers were just standing outside.
 We were all confused, we went to the phone to call, it was disconnected and we didn't know how we could be helped.  And we went to sleep. And Vus was not at home that night. At about five o'clock in the morning a little child knocked at our door.  This little child found me in the kitchen.  The child told me that it was sent to come and call me. It said Vus had fallen on the opposite street.  I took my shoes and ran towards the direction.  When I arrived there I couldn't believe what I saw with my eyes. I found Vus lying in a pool of blood. When I looked cartridges were all over the street.
 I asked what had happened. All over his body were gunshot wounds.  The cartridges were from an AK 47.  I tried to ask someone to call the police, who took time to arrive and asked what happened when they did so.  I told them that Vus had been shot and they said, Why did you call us, why 
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didn't you call Mr Mandela?  I told them that I thought they were the people who were supposed to help us and I can't call Mr Mandela because I don't know his numbers.  They turned him over and all his body was shot and his ribs were broken and I put my hand into his wounds.
 They took him away, I was standing outside, they said to me, "Get in", and then I got in, they took him to the police station.  He was a joke, all the boers were laughing at him and asking, why didn't he protect himself and where the other comrades were, why didn't they protect him?  All the people were there who were shot and Vus was put on the ground and he was not covered. The Boers and the Police were laughing about him.  They were saying people should come and see him because he's dead now.
 At the present moment I'm just alone, it's myself, I have neither brothers nor sisters, my mother is 76 at the moment.  I asked them in hospital, to help me to take Vus to a mortuary and these policemen heard my plea and they took him and put him onto the ground.  They told me I must carry him.  He was a giant, and I asked them how can I do this because he's such a big man?  They said, "Then who is going to pick him up if you can't?  I tried to pick him up and put him put him in the car and some of the police came to help me and we put him into the van.
 They took him to the mortuary.  Later the police came and they told us that they are the investigators on the case.  The person who killed Vus is Eli Khumalo who stayed in the same street with us. When I came from the mortuary crying, this young man was standing on the corner of the street and he asked me why I was crying. He said Vus was killed on his duty. He knew that he was going to be killed 
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like this.
 I didn't answer this man.  Later this investigating officer came and we gave him a statement and they said they would call us.  They called me to Rabasotho Police Station.  I went there and from there they took me to Olifant, where they showed me Vus' photographs and they were telling me that they are investigating and they are still looking for witnesses. It was surprising because all the people in the township know exactly who the perpetrators were.  Even today, the person who killed my brother is a friend to the police.  He came to my mother to tell her that it was not his intention to kill Vus and he will ask for forgiveness. And my mother told him that she doesn't know how to forgive. In the first place she didn't know how Vus was killed and what wrong he did. And he said to me, "I won't be arrested, the people who are investigating the case are my friends".  And I also realised that this was true because every time when they came I thought they were coming to me to tell me about the investigations.  They just came to see this friend of theirs and would sit and enjoy themselves drinking beer and cold drinks and later he would take them out. He was always with them.
 And I used to come to the police station to ask to talk to the station commander.  They said I don't have a right to talk to him and I tried to ask what the progress was on the case.  They didn't tell me anything but this man who always boasted that he'll never be arrested, is not working.  After killing Vus he was driving a Mercedes Benz.  At the present moment he's driving a BMW and is a big friend of the police. There's nothing we can do.  As the Truth Commission started in Tembisa I was phoned and told that if you go to the Truth TEMBISA HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
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Commission your life is in danger.  Even now, I'm here knowing that I can die at any time. Maybe if I get out of this place I might be killed because he knows that he is a friend of the police.
They just told me that I must go and tell Mandela.