Human Rights Violation Hearings — Nelspruit — 1996-09-03

DR BORAINE: Please don't worry about the off-stage noises, that's a bird of peace so you can just let the bird fly.

YASMINE SOOKA: Sorry Mr Maseko can you carry on.

MSONGELWA AMOS MASEKO: Can you please repeat your question, I thought I had already given you an answer.

YASMINE SOOKA: I don't think I was able to hear because I was distracted by the bird.  If you could just tell us how you support yourself now.

MSONGELWA AMOS MASEKO: I am employed at present.

YASMINE SOOKA: Thank you very, very much.

MS MKHIZE: We thank you very much Sir.  We have met many
NELSPRUIT HEARING TRC/MPUMALANGA
6 M A MASEKO
young people today and in the past days who are left injured in their lives, when you look back what is it that should be done for the youth so that they can live a normal life?  We have realised that many people within our communities have these scars in their hearts.

MSONGELWA AMOS MASEKO: I wish the perpetrators to appear before the Commission and they should confess and by so doing many of us will reconcile and we will have peace.  I will be very glad if the many injured people can be assisted in a way by the Commission because the injuries that they sustained are permanent.

MS MKHIZE: I thank you.  When you say you wish the Commission to assist them we have realised in the previous sittings of the Commission that there are many ways of assisting, there is compensation and there is the development of the community, what kind of assistance do you specifically think of?

MSONGELWA AMOS MASEKO: If I have to be specific I think money compensation will be the right kind of assistance because since the 23rd of March 1986 I have been using money to go to hospitals to go and see doctors, I was paying and my parents were paying.  There wasn't anybody helping me.

MS MKHIZE: I thank you.

MR LEWIN: Mr Maseko could I ask a practical question, maybe you can help us here, you are now the third person this morning who has described being shot, is it buckshot these pellets, could you tell us what is the difference between rubber bullets, pellets and other ammunition that is used?  And how does it feel to be shot by these pellets that sound very innocent but obviously have played such a big part in ruining people's lives?
NELSPRUIT HEARING TRC/MPUMALANGA
7 M A MASEKO

MSONGELWA AMOS MASEKO: The difference between a rubber bullet and a pellet is very big.  When a rubber bullet hits you you feel it, but a pellet or just these bad bullets they are very small, if it was a rubber bullet Dr Steyn would have been in a position to remove it.  Because it was a pellet and it was so small and he tried to operate so that he can take the pellet out but he realised that if he could remove it he is going to do a lot of damage.  He decided to leave the pellet in my body and I would die with this in my body.

DR BORAINE: Mr Maseko we are grateful to you for coming to the Commission.  Not only have we heard of three people today who have been shot in the face and have been either blinded totally or have lost their sight in one eye or the other, but we have also heard about the stark difference that it has made to people's lives, how it shifted it from one direction almost entirely to another direction and has left you carrying a very heavy burden.
 We have heard your request that people who have done this should also appear before the Commission and we agree.  We have said over and over again that we wish it was possible for those who have done the damage on any side of the conflict to be present when people like you and others who we have heard today tell their stories.  We are still hoping very much that perpetrators, who themselves are carrying a very heavy load, should still come before the Commission so that both victim and perpetrator should be healed.
 You have also reminded us, as have others, of the very high cost that young people have paid in leading up towards a new South Africa with a new democracy, with new opportunities, and one of the main objectives of the 
NELSPRUIT HEARING TRC/MPUMALANGA
8 M A MASEKO
Commission is to make sure that what happened to you and so many others like you throughout the country will not happen again.  That is one of the reasons why there is a Commission.  And your coming to tell your story makes it a little easier for us to try and achieve that so we work together.  Thank you very much for coming.  You many now go.

MSONGELWA AMOS MASEKO: I also thank you.