Human Rights Violation Hearings — Durban — 1996-08-29

WITNESS:   I think she is.  I stayed at Makhiya's place for quite a few days without knowing where Sithembiso and Xolani were, and as I was still there I saw some people resembling them passing and I called out their names, and they responded, they came towards the shack.  We stayed in that shack, and Makhiya gave me some clothes for me to go back to work.  I kept on working and staying at Makhiya's place.  As I was still working I heard that there were certain places at Bhambayi that were open for buying and erecting shacks.  I submitted my name and I got myself an empty stand.  I built a two-roomed house there.  I came back and stayed with my children, as well as my daughters.  Ever since I have been working I never stopped working.  When I was in Bhambayi I got wind that he was no longer a UDF member, but he was now an ANC member, and I kept on asking him what he actually was.  He was a UDF member and my house got burnt down, and thereafter he got to be a member of the ANC and my house was being threatened once more.  Now, where we were it was an Inkatha stronghold, and the chairman of the Inkatha was Mr Maphalala.

MRS GCABASHE: Is he still alive?

WITNESS:   No, I have never seen him because I am not staying there any more.  Then there was an Inkatha youth leader by the name of Michael Zulu.  Whenever there was an Inkatha meeting they would come in front of my yard and they would march in front of my yard looking for Xolani, my son, and they would take him with.  Then I would see him coming back running, and they would  be chasing him.

MRS GCABASHE: Who were chasing him?

WITNESS:   It was the Inkatha youth which was being led by Michael.  This happened several times where he had been assaulted, and he ran away from home several times.  He was being chased in and out of the house, and he ultimately ran away.  And later on they kept on coming to me and they said I should tell them where does ANC get its strength, and at that time when the house was burnt for the first time Xolani was 13 years old, and when we got the second house now he was 21 years old.  And at this time he was very stubborn.  We were taken to Mr Maphalala's office.  I was taken together with Xolani to Mr Maphalala's office, and they would ask him about the ANC and he would answer them because he knew, and I didn't know anything about politics and political groups.  And they would come in and say, "As soon as you've finished asking him questions you must give him to us.  We shall deal with him accordingly."  But Mr Maphalala sort of intervened, because he was an elderly man and therefore he was reasonable, much more reasonable than the youth.  And at that time I could not sleep in the house any more because I had had this experience, so I would sleep under the tree, and Xolani used to sleep on the roof.  And I would go underneath the tree and sleep.  At times they would just come and fill the yard, and they would look for everyone else in the house, and they would not get anyone and they would go.  I would wake up from underneath the tree, wash myself up and go to work.  At times I would get home and hear rumours that he had been chased and had been assaulted, and they would do all sorts of things to him.  Whenever I came back from work I used  to pass through some hawkers, and they would each time tell me, "Here's meat.  Buy some meat," because they were hawkers, but on this particular day when I went past them they did not sell me the meat, and somehow I felt something was wrong.  I felt it in me that nobody was selling me anything today, say probably there is something wrong.  Just as I looked I noticed that I was being escorted somehow.  There was a youth behind me, a youth on my left as well as my right hand, and there was a youth right in front of me.  I suspected that they were surrounding me.  At some stage I decided to stop, and whenever I stopped they also stopped.  We went up to a certain hillock, and as we descended the hillock I saw a group of me who were standing.  And there ensued now a shooting spree.  They were shooting each other.  That is these youth as well as another group of men.  And I ran away.  Just as I was running away these other youths came to me and said they were accompanying me because I was going to be killed and my house had been burnt earlier on.

INTERPRETER: There is something wrong with the mikes ... (inaudible)   (Pause)

COMMISSIONER: Can you hear me now?

INTERPRETER: Can you hear me?

WITNESS:   I can't hear ... (inaudible)   (Pause)   My first house was at the A Section, A782 - 84.  That was in Newtown.  The second one was in Bhambayi, D445.

MR LAX: (Inaudible) ... can be clear.  Around about the time you then moved to Bhambayi these people then began harassing Xolani again in the new place now.

WITNESS:   Yes, that is correct, because thereafter they started assaulting him even when we were in Bhambayi. Then that house was also burnt to ashes.   ---   That is correct, with all my possessions inside.

MR LAX: Then you went back to Umzimkulu.

WITNESS:   Thereafter I ran back to Umzimkulu, and he refused to come with me.

MR LAX: He then rebuilt that house.

WITNESS:   He rebuilt the house himself, and I don't know where he got the material from.  That is where he stayed with his friends now.

MR LAX: Okay, and you continued to live at Umzimkulu at that time.

WITNESS:   That is correct.  I stayed with my brother in Umzimkulu.

MR LAX: (Inaudible) ... returned after he had been murdered.

WITNESS:   That is correct.

MR LAX: Thank you very much.

COMMISSIONER: Thank you, Mrs Khumalo.  You have given us a very vivid picture of what life was like for you in the 1980s, and your story is very typical of the events of that time, where people were assaulted, murdered, or had their houses burnt down because of their support for the UDF, or because one or some of their children belonged to the UDF.  And the reaction of the police which you have described to us is also very typical.  The police refused to come to the assistance of UDF members and, worse, they often participated in the attacks.  You have suffered a lot.  The image which we have of you sitting on a roadside in your nightdress next to your burned house will stay with us for a long time, and it is wonderful to see that you have the strength and courage to come and repeat your story to us today, and we are sorry that at the end of this long tale of misfortunes that your son was brutally killed.  As Mrs Gcabashe has said, it is our job to make  recommendations to the Government as to how you, or people like you, should be assisted, and we will be making

COMMISSIONER: recommendations in that regard.  So we thank you very much for coming in and tell us your story today.  Thank you very much.

COMMISSIONER: (Incomplete - first section of tape blank) ... they said they wanted the documents from the mortuary.  I asked them, "Who are you?"  They said they were UDF members, so they would like to have all the documents or reports regarding Sipho.  I asked them, "Hau, really Sipho was the UDF?"  They said, "Yes."  Finally yes, I did give them all the reports the documents, and they took me to some place I did not know and I gave the statement regarding UDF, and we left, we went back home.  And there was a funeral on Saturday, and at the graveside there were so many soldiers.  We did not know why they were there, how we could conduct our funeral when the soldiers were present in that many.  On Friday at home they sprayed tear-gas at  my place.  I went to Makhotha because I was suffocating.  That passed, and my white lady, my employer, took me and we went to give the statement, and the case was opened.