Human Rights Violation Hearings — Port Elizabeth — 1996-06-27

STEPHEN DOUGLAS MZOBOSHE: I'd like the people to come forward, those perpetrators cannot just go.   We feel that justice should be done.  They should come forward in public, as we have also appeared in public and state what happened to us.
 I think it is the time for them to come and confess.  Especially our Black brothers, we know the Whites were protecting the regime, but the Blacks, we cannot understand why they could allow themselves to be used as tools by the Whites.
 The other thing, I have a child who is attending school.  This child is in one of the colleges.  The pension 
PORT ELIZABETH HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
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that I am receiving monthly is inadequate.
 The other thing that I would like is the fact that I had a child who was shot and then his eye was removed.  That child was working at Menthol, she ran away, she is at 2029 at Quba at Butterworth.
 There was no follow up, there was no case against anybody, but my child lost her eye.  She was also treated here at Livingstone Hospital, then after she was discharged from Hospital, she was detained for three weeks, but she was detained without trial.   And nobody was implicated for those injury.

MR SANDI: What is the name of the child?

STEPHEN DOUGLAS MZOBOSHE: The name of the child is Dandiswa Monica Mzoboshe.

MR SANDI: Mr Mzoboshe, do you have anything to say?

STEPHEN DOUGLAS MZOBOSHE: No, I don't have anything to say further than what I've already said.

MR SANDI: Thank you very much.

STEPHEN DOUGLAS MZOBOSHE: I'd like to thank the Commission.  I really express my gratitude because I've never expected that I would ever, ever be able to come forward and state what happened to me.  I was the person who was politicising people and I was always praying and requesting that I wish that the perpetrators should not die.
 So that when we get out liberation, they should still be alive, I was very worried when BJ Vorster died, because he was the instoner of the apartheid system.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much.
 I thank you Mr Mzoboshe.  I would like to say ... of the liberation struggle in this country.  There are very many unsung heroes. 
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I think you are one of those unsung heroes.  In as much as you, the older generation, were getting inspiration from the youth, such as you have described in 1986, when you were saying you were feeling the thunderous march of the youth behind you when you felt you had the courage to face the enemy, those very young people got inspiration from all those stories that they used to hear about Amafolandea, about the end plan and all such stories which were being told over and over and over again by those who were pioneers in the history of our struggle.
 When I looked and I calculated, you are telling us the story of your first suffering which took 32 years ago.  32 year ago, but you still remember those incidents as if it happened yesterday.
 Because it was an incident that not only was intended to deny you the dignity which you deserve, but it was also an incident that was intended to deprive you of your inalienable right, the right to freedom.
 When I look at you, I see another Ray Mglaba, another Mandela, another Coveren Begi, because you operated in their types.  
 There are so many of the people that we can quote who are now senior citizens who have also had a contribution to the struggle, I think we should also wish that they could also come forward, because you are one of the unsung heroes.  Thank you.