Human Rights Violation Hearings — East London — 1996-04-18

DR BORAINE: We invite Mrs Nokuzola Songelwa to the stand and I understand that you will be accompanied by two fellow prisoners who were friends of your late husband.  Please come forward, they're very welcome to join you on the stand, but I gathered they will not be giving evidence.
 Good morning Mrs Songelwa, Thank you very much for coming.  Will you stand please?

UNKNOWN: (sworn states)

DR BORAINE: Mrs Songelwa, your husband died in very  mysterious conditions.  Like many others he was detained and his death took place in detention,and you will be telling that story because it's an unfinished story, and we are very glad that you have come to tell that story in the hope that some of these can begin to have an end.  Ms Tiny Maya will lead the evidence and I hope you will feel very relaxed and just take your time and answer the questions as you are able to.  Thank you very much.

MS MAYA: Mrs Songelwa, as it has already been said, you are to explain to us about the death of your husband.  He was Mbuyiselo Songelwa.  Can you please tell us exactly who he was.  You know we just want to know you within a few minutes, thank you very much.

UNKNOWN: Mbuyiselo Songelwa was my husband.
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Mbuyiselo was born by very proud people, brilliant people.  Those were people who belonged to a church.  These were the people who were involved in politics.  I think this political thing was really inherited.  He was working at SABC at TV 2, he was a producer who started working there in 1981.  In 1983 he came back.  The report that I received on that day was that he was involved in a fight with a white man with whom he was working.  Well he came back home and we were settled.  It was a happy life that we were leading.
 In 1983 we married.  Before then we had a child, a son, Nomawande.  In 1983, we got married while I was expectant of another child, a daughter.  As I have already mentioned that Mbuyiselo was of a family involved in politics, I realised that he also was interested in politics.  At Komani, Queenstown, he arrived from Gauteng, he was very active in organisations.  He was involved in the parents' committee in Queenstown. I remember one day I was crying because Mbuyiselo was working at ABC, he was moving up and down all the schools mobilising all the children who were on strike, and I asked him, "Mbuyiselo, when are you going to start working?  People are working, I'm really carrying this heavy load on my shoulders".  I said, "Well seeing that I'm now married to the whole team", this was a UDF team, he was a very active member of the UDF, Mbuyiselo was among the people who were arrested for parent support.  There was also a residents ad hoc, I realised that there was nothing that I could do anymore. I said, "Well you can leave me, go to the funerals".  Well at that time I was always warning him.

MS MAYA: As he died in the police cells, what was your feeling?

UNKNOWN: Well we were really preparing for a funeral, EAST LONDON  HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
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because at my place my sister in law's son also passed away because he was shot.  There was a mass funeral in Queenstown, I can't remember whether there were 16 people being buried or not. Mbuyiselo was one of those people who  were making preparations for that funeral.  Well after the funeral he said, "I am going to East London, we have to give the report about this funeral".  I agreed and he went off.   The next day, I was now worried because he wasn't yet back home.  You know at times we would run away from the boers and would sleep at places unknown to us.  Well I didn't worry about that but the next morning, if he did not sleep at home he would be back home very early the next morning.  Well I was a bit worried.  Somebody came and said, on their way, we were in a group together with these gentlemen next to me, they were from East London, on their way they met the police.  I think the police waited for them there and they took them and detained them.  
 He was taken to Tilton Prison, we searched for him everywhere.  They did not to tell us where he was.  Well someone told me he was at Tilton Prison and I tried to ask how he was.  You know the cell in which he was was very dirty.  There was a bucket at the side and I was worried at how  would cope there because he had asthma.

MS MAYA: How long did he stay at Tilton Prison?

UNKNOWN: I think he stayed there for three weeks.  Well after three weeks he was taken to Queenstown. They all met at Queenstown, we went to court every time on notice.  We were only given a few seconds to speak. Well I managed to speak to him.  e was transferred to East London.

MS MAYA: When did you hear that he had disappeared? Was it when he was in the prison cell in East London?
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UNKNOWN: Well I had seen him the previous week while I was here in East London. He didn't tell me anything. You know, something that made me worry was the fact that he suffered from asthma, and I knew that there was a sea at East London.

MS MAYA: Now what was the condition there, was he not affected?

UNKNOWN: No they did not tell me anything.  They kept everything secret.  I didn't know when the asthma attacked him, there were different times.

MS MAYA: What did you hear that really scared you?

UNKNOWN: On the 5th of October I was at home, it was on a Sunday and I was made to understand that Mbuyiselo is not living any more.  My sister brought this message.  When I went to my place I was informed again that two white policemen arrived and they told very young children, the older one was thirteen years old and the other on six years old, and they told them that Mbuyiselo is dead, and they went off in their van.

MS MAYA: Which children were those?

UNKNOWN: One child was my sister in law's and the other one was mine.

MS MAYA: How old was your child?

UNKNOWN: Mine was six years old.

MS MAYA: Now how did the children take the message to the elderly people?

UNKNOWN: The children cried hearing this news.  My mother in law arrived from church, the house was full of people when she received the news.  The children cried so loudly that the neighbours came. They told her that two white men arrived and gave the news that Mbuyiselo is now
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dead.  When they left we started flocking into the house to investigate this loud cry.

MS MAYA: Did you confirm that it was really true he was dead?  How did you go about confirming this?

UNKNOWN: One brother, our neighbour phoned the police at Queenstown and he was told by the police that he is indeed dead.  A message had been received from East London that he passed away.

MS MAYA: There is a report that you received from these two gentlemen.  What kind of report is that

UNKNOWN: The report that I received said it was on a Saturday, Mbuyiselo was attacked by asthma.  Well he received his treatment, the next morning, a Sunday morning, just after lunch, he was in a terrible condition.  He tried to shout, he wanted help from a policeman, but nobody turned up.  Very late he was still in that condition.  He did not go to sleep.  A white person came to them, which I think they will explain in their evidence.  Now this white person came to them having also seen the situation in which Mbuyiselo was in and he said, "Oh no do you think I can help a political man?"  He went back.  The next morning, they said, he said to them, Mbuyiselo went to drink water and he fell.  At about seven o'clock  a medical officer arrived and he took him away to the hospital.  That was the last time they saw him.

MS MAYA: Now do you mean he never went back to the cells?

UNKNOWN: Yes he never did.

MS MAYA: Did they receive any report why he did not come back to the cells?