Human Rights Violation Hearings — Soweto — 1996-07-26

KHOLEKA PATRICIA MANYAMALALA: (Duly sworn, states).

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, you may be seated.  As is our practice I have assigned a Commissioner to assist you with the leading of your evidence.  We have asked Commissioner Wildschut on my right over there to help you. I hand you over to her.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: Thank you, Irene Malunga. Thank you very much for coming.  Maybe I can ask you to press the red button on your microphone.  Thanks.  Do you hear me clearly?

KHOLEKA PATRICIA MANYAMALALA: Yes.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: Maybe I should ask you to begin by telling us a little bit about yourself and then also proceed then to tell us your story as it is reflected here in your statement.

KHOLEKA PATRICIA MANYAMALALA: Thank you for being here today.  My name is Kholeka Patricia Manyamalala, I am a lady teacher in Hector Pietersen.  My husband is Thandabantu Manyamalala, we got married in 1977.  We were in Transkei by the time, we got married in Kokstad on the 25th of September 1977.  We had three children.  Two girls and a boy.  In Transkei Thandabantu was a public prosecutor.  Due to certain circumstances we decided to come to Johannesburg to join our family, the Manyamalala family, because most of the family
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members of Manyamalala are in Gauteng.  When we arrived here he was working for Stannic.  He didn't work there for a long time. He was working for the SABC.  He used to like going to church, his congregation was Presbyterian Church Southern Africa. He was an elder there.  
 In the beginning of my story of his death.  On the 8th of September 1991, it was on a Sunday evening, Sunday evening.  I wasn't at home, because we are staying in Fullers in Kagiso. He was left at home with our younger child who is four years old. I was with the other one, the second born.  The eldest one was in Kokstad boarding school.   The people came to fetch me, the family members, telling me that my husband had died.  The manner of his death, when the people told me, the person who was with him and from the information that I got from the newspapers, as I have already told you. I will go back again a little bit.   He used to like his church. He was an elder in the Presbyterian Church.  By that time the shacks in Muchanga Village were burnt, people didn't have a place to stay.  Even right in church there were people who needed some assistance. On that particular day when he was from church, he was with another woman to fetch that woman's property.  He was going to take his furniture to a place where he got a place to stay. When they were on their way on that particular day, there was a rally in Jabulani Amphiteatre, an IFP rally.  It is said that while he was driving from Fuller down to Crossroads, the people who were in that particular rally, the IFP people, it was already in the evening, the rally was over.  They were escorted by the police, police Casspirs.  As they were driving down to Crossroads, they saw a group of people in Crossroads, people SOWETO HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
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of this rally.  They were approaching this group of people from the rally when they were next to (indistinct), he just decided to make a U-turn to go back to avoid the group of people who were approaching. Unfortunately there were other people who were already out of his group which was being escorted by the police.  They were from Shangu Village, the direction of Shangu Village.  They shot at her. He couldn't get control over the car and the car came to a standstill.  They were there already, within a short time, a group of people were there.  Four them, or the men who were there, it is said that they are the people who killed him. When he stopped the car, they pelted the car with stones.  They opened the door of the car, they took him out of the car.  When I was identifying him in the mortuary, he was hit by a knobkierie on his forehead and his clothes that he was wearing.  He had a lot of wounds. There was another one that I think it was the worst wound, which was on his ribs.  I don't even know whether it was a spear or if it was a knife. There was no bullet wound.  You could see that they used spears or knives to stab him.  What is hurting, when I was reading the newspapers, because this thing was published in the Nation newspaper and in the Sowetan. When I - and from the witness also that had the information.  Fortunately there were journalists from Sowetan who were following the car who actually saw everything. It is said that those people, the people who were in that mob, in that group of people from the rally, or IFP people, they managed to stop the car and drag him out of the car and beat him and stabbed him.  But all that time police couldn't come to his rescue. 
 Secondly, the people who were doing all those things, it is obvious that they had weapons, because he had stab
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wounds.  They could take those people and with their weapons and arrest them, but unfortunately they didn't do that.   After that the police Casspirs, as I was told, the police were in those Casspirs.  They spread tear-gas to disperse the mob.  A lot of people died in Crossroads and Mfulu on that particular day.  Because these people, the IFP people were killing randomly.  It was a Sunday evening, people were coming from their churches and others were coming from their community societies.  But there was - the help was not sufficient because the people died.  
 When I was told this in Kagiso, I was very shocked. It was the time that people were being killed in large numbers by the IFP.
 After the funeral I tried to make a statement in Protea police station.  When I arrived there, I was not satisfied the way they treated me.  Because we were told, even my relatives were also told, that all those cases of that particular day, they are still investigating them.  There is no evidence which is enough, which was enough.  I waited that maybe I will get a letter or something which will be summoning me to the case from the police station or whatever.  But till today I never got anything. There was no evidence. I don't have knowledge, I am still in the dark.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: Thank you for telling us your story. Maybe we should just ask a few questions which would help us to clarify some points. You mentioned that your husband was involved in church, the Presbyterian Church and that he was an elder in the church.  Was your husband at all involved in any political organisation that you are aware of?

KHOLEKA PATRICIA MANYAMALALA: I can't say that he was involved, but what I can say, he was interested and he used to respect the ANC
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organisation.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: Could we then - could you help us understand why it was that your husband was targeted by these people who were at the rally, to be shot at and to be murdered in such a way.  Do you understand what the motive was?

KHOLEKA PATRICIA MANYAMALALA: I don't even know, as I have already told you, I don't know, because if a person is coming from a church that evening, wearing a uniform of the particular organisation, if the organisations are fighting, what is the reason of his death?  Because he was just driving, he didn't have any weapon with him.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: Any of the - was he driving alone or had he at that point already dropped off the person who was with him?  So was he alone at that time?

KHOLEKA PATRICIA MANYAMALALA: He was not alone, because he was with this other woman who was taking him to a place where she was going.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: So she witnessed the whole incident as well?

KHOLEKA PATRICIA MANYAMALALA: (Speaker's mike is not on).

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: Yes, can you please repeat your answer again, please.

KHOLEKA PATRICIA MANYAMALALA: Yes, she actually witnessed everything, because she was there, they were together.