Human Rights Violation Hearings — Grahamstown — 1997-04-08

LENDISO RICHARD NDUMO GALELA: Firstly, he said that I had to leave Robben Island because I was a traitor.  Secondly, I was made a homosexual at Robben Island.  Thirdly, I was asking his wife for cigarettes.

REV XUNDU: Was this discussed in your organisation?

LENDISO RICHARD NDUMO GALELA: On the outside in all three countries, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Lesotho, assisted.  The reference to asking his wife for cigarettes was where it was said I need a cigarette and that refers to homosexual intercourse in prison.  The police would then say to us you should not do your things that you use to do out in Botswana here.

REV XUNDU: These violations which you referred to as being within your organisation, is this Ntlathi still alive?

LENDISO RICHARD NDUMO GALELA: He was still alive when last I heard about him.  He was in Botswana.  The last I heard he was still alive.

REV XUNDU: Was he still outside the country?

LENDISO RICHARD NDUMO GALELA: No, they had come back.

REV XUNDU: Would you like Ntlathi to come to you and ask you for forgiveness?

LENDISO RICHARD NDUMO GALELA: You are cutting me short.

REV XUNDU: I am trying to keep your story as brief as possible, because of time constraints.  I am not trying to undermine your suffering, but we would like to be very clear on what the objective is.  We are a Truth and Reconciliation Commission so we would like to know where you were, your human rights were violated.  You mentioned that Ntlathi also treated you badly.  What would you like the Commission to do about that?

LENDISO RICHARD NDUMO GALELA: It was not the same as other people.  With other people they told their stories, completed what they wanted to say and then you would put questions to them.  With what you are saying, you said that time is running out.  What I am going to say is that a person is not valued.  There is no amount of money that can pay for a person's dignity.  That is a fact.  I am the equivalent of a corpse, I do not have any dignity left, I have been stripped of my dignity and that is what I wanted to say and I would just like to say that even though my physical appearance seems like that of a man I have been stripped of my manhood and a specialist told me that it would give, it would take three months for me to be treated and if nothing happens, I should know that I would be condemned sexually.  So, I am just here to say that there are so many things that I suffered and there is even something else I would like to say here.  When people were eating in the other room I was not called to come and get something to eat.  I do not know what the reason is for that.  That is why I say I have been stripped of my human dignity.  I was not called in, but that does not surprise me.  What I am saying is that I do not see what the Commission can do for me, because so many of them were unsuccessful.

REV XUNDU: So you say that with the things you could be assisted was that you came back to Grahamstown and found that you did not have a house anymore.

LENDISO RICHARD NDUMO GALELA: You did not want me to tell you about that, but now you are taking me back to that.  I do not have a home,  yet we were promised homes upon our return.  I got back only to find that the people who lived in my house were all deceased and even my parental home was no longer there and I do not have a place to stay and if, perhaps, I or the matter for which I was charged for high treason is, was finalised, I do not know about that.  The fact that I cannot use my private parts anymore is like a chronic disease.

REV XUNDU: Thank you very much, Sir.  I would like to hand you back to the Chairperson.

CHAIRPERSON: Mr Galela, it is not very clear to me whether the loss of your manhood occurred at which stage.

LENDISO RICHARD NDUMO GALELA: The loss of my manhood occurred when I was taken to Harare Central Hospital and the doctor said that I had, there was something wrong with my prostate gland.  It had already been treated, but I was going back for follow-up treatment and that is where they killed me instead of healing me, because they conducted that small operation on my prostrate gland and when I got home I was bleeding profusely and when I got home I urinated blood all night.  The following day my penis was ice cold, it was just limp and it is still the same today.  It is still the same today.

CHAIRPERSON: I do not want to go into detail, but what we are looking into here, as a Commission, is looking at gross  human rights violations in a political context.  Were you violated at the hospital or who do you blame.

LENDISO RICHARD NDUMO GALELA: I blame Drs Sigoni, the specialist.  He has a local name.  Hence, I am saying that he is a South African person and also Mkolisi from Umtata.  They are the persons who were treating me.

CHAIRPERSON: Did they do this because they were furthering political motives or because they had a personal grudge against you?

LENDISO RICHARD NDUMO GALELA: I do not know.  All I know is that after they had treated me my manhood was never the same.  However, in Botswana after I had undergone a major operation, Magwas who was a specialist, said to me that there was nothing left, there was nothing wrong with my manhood, that I was still fine, but in Zimbabwe the damage was done.  Firstly, my hospital files disappeared and secondly, my medical certificates were stolen where I was staying.

CHAIRPERSON: And you say that the damage of your property back home, you say that your house was taken back home, your house was taken away from you?  Who do you think is to blame for taking your house away, back here?

LENDISO RICHARD NDUMO GALELA: I got back here on the ninth of September 1991 and I lived at 684 Joza, which was my wife's house, her maiden name was Mapufo.  When I got back she had children from another man and after her mother had spoken to me I accepted those children and after I had forgiven her and taken her back she would still bring in another man in spite of me being there.  I then went to speak to the priest and he said what I could do, all I could say to my wife was that she should respect me and that that man should respect me, that my wife should go to him and it appeared as if my wife intended for me to assault either her or her lover so that I could be arrested, but I did not do that, but what she did instead was to divorce me in 1993.
 At FAMSA, FAMSA then said that I should not leave my house, because it was my house.  That did not happen.  What then happened was that her man would come into the house and they would leave.  What I then did was to go to FAMSA and, Anna was there, said that I cannot force my wife to divorce me, that she would divorce me when she was ready to.  All she could do was to go to her lover and I saw it as a sign of disrespect, because she was white and I was black.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much, Sir. I think that you are right in saying that your story is fairly long.  If we could count or to have a look at the time which we granted you it is longer than any of the other witnesses times, but there are certain issues which we will be unable to cover.  We promise you, however, that what we probably could do is to set a day aside where we can invite you to, perhaps, our office and sit down and set a day aside for this story which you are telling, because it is quite clear that we should vacate this hall by six o' clock.  They need the hall for something else.  We apologise for the fact that you did not receive anything to eat.  We apologise for that, it was probably a mistake or an oversight.  We would like to officially close off our days proceedings now.  We would like to show respect to this witness.  We would like to ask you to excuse yourself while they are still seated, Sir.  Thank you very much.  We will be back here tomorrow at nine o' clock.