Human Rights Violation Hearings — Empangeni — 1996-11-04

WITNESS:   Sithle was at Mchane and they had an altercation with friends and he was stabbed and admitted to Ngwelezana Hospital.  Thereafter he was admitted on the 18th December.  Then his friends hunted him, because they didn't know where I was staying and they burnt my house down and I ran away to stay in town.  Thereafter they looked for me and they got me on the 19th and they told me that my son was admitted, but I could not go to Ngwelezana, because I knew that whoever injured him is going to do the very same thing to me.  They were waiting for me, so I was scared to go to Ngwelezana.  I looked for a doctor who could treat Sithle in town.  Then I was given the telephone.  I phoned Ngwelezana Hospital.  They refused to hand him over to me, because they were still treating him.  Thereafter I went back to my doctor on the 21st and I told him that they had refused Sithle to go out.  Then he phoned himself.  He phoned Ngwelezana Hospital.  They still refused to hand him over to the doctor and he came back and reported to me that they were refusing.  Then the doctor said to me I should wait until such time that they were going to hand him over to me or discharge him.  After quite a few days, on the 26th, there were three men - soldiers - who went to the hospital.  They were sent by members of the Inkatha.  They shot him at the hospital, but he did not die immediately.  He was - oxygen was administered, and on the 27th it was discovered that he had a big hole on his tummy, but he never told his mother as to what had happened.  The nurses filled in a certain form, but his mother did not want to sign the form, because she did not know what the form was for and they said what they wanted to do was to take him to the theatre and operate on him and his mother asked as to why he was not taken to the theatre before, why were they taking him on the 27th, but she nevertheless signed the form and she came to tell me what had happened.  She told me that Sithle was going to be taken into the theatre and she could not go back to see Sithle.  Then she went there and the doctors told her that Sithle died immediately after she left.  She came back and told me that my son had died.  Then on the 28th I received a telephone call that Sithle had been stolen from the mortuary - the body had been taken - but they could not elaborate as to who had taken Sithle's corpse.  From there the police told me that I should come back on the 30th, so that we could go and investigate as to what had happened.  Then I decided that I would go on the following morning.  The police took me.  They showed me around, so that I could identify my son's body, but we could not find him.  They told me that he was at shelf No 11.  The policemen were telling me that, but we never got him.  From there we went to the superintendent and I asked as to where Sithle was.  They could not shed any light as to where Sithle was and I could not understand it, because they refused me permission to take him out of the hospital as a parent and they even refused the doctor permission to take him out of the hospital or to have him discharged.  It was Dr Alexander who refused us permission to take Sithle.  Then I told them that I needed my son, because if it was a white person who had died they would be looking for the body or the corpse, but because the child was black it was just more or less like a dog who had died, and I said I wanted my son, because I wanted to bury him, but they could not answer me and they told me that Sithle died at three, but my wife was there at half past ten.  I could not reconcile the two.

CHAIRPERSON:  Mr Khumalo, just to go back a little bit.  You said he was admitted to hospital after being stabbed.  Do you know what that incident was about?  Because it seems as though that was the incident which led eventually to his death.  What happened there?  Do you know - were you able to find out what happened and why he was stabbed?

WITNESS:   They were fighting all by themselves when he got stabbed, because they were drunk, according to the information that I gathered.

CHAIRPERSON:  You mentioned in your statement that - you said there was political fighting between the ANC and the IFP.  Now, I don't know whether that's correct or not.  Do you think that your son's death had anything to do with conflict between those two parties?

WITNESS:   I will put it in this manner.  At the hospital there were certain security police who were IFP members and when my son was admitted these very security police went to tell the other members of the IFP that son had been admitted at the hospital so they could come and finish him off.  They came all of them - they went to the hospital and they were keeping guard and I could not take him out, because they were there, waiting for anybody who wanted to take Sithle out, but they were never reported that they were sitting outside, keeping guard.

CHAIRPERSON:  And perhaps I misunderstood you earlier on, but did anything happen to him in hospital before he died?  After he was admitted and before he died, was there any other attempt on his life?

WITNESS:   They got to the hospital.  They were a large group.  Some went into the ward, in which he was admitted, and they surrounded him and when he opened his eyes he looked and he found quite a large number of Inkatha members and asked them as to what they were doing and they ran away at that time.   Then on the 26th the soldiers came in and they were the ones who killed him.  These soldiers were from the rural areas and they would be taken to Ulundi and be trained, and these are the very same people who came to kill my son.

CHAIRPERSON:  Which hospital was that?  Sorry, was that Ngwelezana Hospital?

WITNESS:   It was Ngwelezana Hospital.

CHAIRPERSON:  Are you saying that they attacked him in the hospital, the soldiers?

WITNESS:   That is correct, inside the hospital.

CHAIRPERSON:  Do you have a death certificate for your son, Mr Khumalo?

WITNESS:   The people from Cape Town took the certificate.

CHAIRPERSON:  Do you remember what the certificate had on it, how did he die?

WITNESS:   The pathologist found him decomposed, because he had been dumped at a forest and the body was badly decomposed and by the time they got him he could not detect the cause of death and the doctor could not operate on him or check as to what killed him, because he was badly decomposed.

CHAIRPERSON:  So, as far as you know, was he killed and then removed from the hospital or was he removed from the hospital and killed in that place where his body was left?  Do you know that?

WITNESS:   He was shot first at the hospital and he died and a group of people came with guns and they took him, but they escaped through a certain exit.  They never went through the usual exit.  When they got into the ward, the security who was looking after him said he wanted a letter and they said they were not going to produce any letter, they were going to take him forcefully.  They went to the mortuary and they took him out.  They said, "This is the one that we are looking for and we are taking him with", and they were told that it was not lawful for them to take a corpse, and they shot that very security.  He died on the spot.

CHAIRPERSON:  So someone else died.  Do you remember whether there were any cases in relation to that shooting or your son's death that we can look at the records of, because this sounds like a very complicated case?  Was there a case that you recall in Empangeni that you attended, relating to the death of your son?

WITNESS:   No, there were no other people who died, but the security at the mortuary was killed because they wanted to get Sithle.  I don't know on other days, but on that particular day that's what happened.

CHAIRPERSON:  So you don't recall attending any court case at all about your son's death or the death of the security guard at the mortuary?