Human Rights Violation Hearings — Uitenhage — 1996-08-27

FIKILE NKOBESE: Thank you Mr Chairperson.  The first banning order was delivered to the burial committee and the families and then this was discussed in the various meetings that were held and explained that the funeral should be conducted on a week day so they obeyed.
 Then the second one which lead to the killing of the people stated that this funeral was not to be conducted on a week day but instead over the week end, which was accounted to the first banning order.  So people did not 
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know anything about the second order and they were getting to the funeral and yet the South African defence force members knew that it was no longer in force.

MR SANDI: Where was is read out, this second banning order?

FIKILE NKOBESE: It wasn't read out anywhere.  It is only the first banning order that was read out in churches, in halls in meetings.  We did not actually see the second banning order but we got to know that these people had been shot because of the second banning order that had been issued out.

MR SANDI: So you never actually saw this banning order?

FIKILE NKOBESE: It may have happened that the families may have received these but the community in general which was shot and which was working according to the first banning order were not aware that there had been a change.  Thank you Chairperson.

CHAIRPERSON: Firstly I would like to say you are lucky that you are still alive.  Now I have this question to you, firstly, there was something that they used to say that the papers and people used to say there was no better judicial system than the one in South Africa.  Commissioner Kannemeyer gave a report that the people shot were the SADF and the police.

FIKILE NKOBESE: Chairperson, according to the report we got it became evident that the people were not armed but they were shot.  Various firearms that belonged to the South African Defence Force and the police.  Now the Judge said he was not going to lay any charge against the police.  He accuses no one, he says no one is responsible therefore he discharged all of them.

CHAIRPERSON: Now do you think this charge, you would feel
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that this charge should come forward and explain.

FIKILE NKOBESE: Yes, the leaders have asked me that this charge did all this and he should come forward to explain some of the issues that we do not understand that are related to this incident.

CHAIRPERSON: Referring to the hospital, you say a Coloured policemen, do you know that Coloured policemen.

FIKILE NKOBESE: No, I don't know him, but I know some of the policemen who were there, I can even name them, because they only spotted me when I was on the second floor.

CHAIRPERSON: Let us now hand over to Mr Sandi.

MR SANDI: Mr Nkobese, how do you interpret that police were discharged and yet the governmnet of the time issued out some money to the victims of this particular incident, now how do you interpret this, when Judge Kannemeyer actually said the policemen were not responsible?

FIKILE NKOBESE: At the time we were under the state of emergency, the government did publicise that he was going to pay those victims.  Secondly, when he asked the people to come and get this money he was trained to cover up all this that had happened and therefore it becomes ironic that there should be an investigation and thereafter people should be given a small amount.  It is just a way of taking responsibility that people were actually killed according to the instruction of the government.

MR SANDI: Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: We thank you Mr Nkobese.