Human Rights Violation Hearings — Pietermaritzburg — UNKNOWN

MOSES NDLELA: (Sworn, States)

MR LYSTER: My colleague and fellow Commissioner, Dr Mgojo, will assist you in giving your evidence.  Thank you.

UNKNOWN: Good morning, Moses.  We welcome you to this Commission.  You are here to give your testimony about what happened to you.  Your name here is Moses, and what about this Umkhleku?

WITNESS:   Since I was a child they used to give me this nickname as Umkhleku.  That's how it happened.

UNKNOWN: You were born in 1948 at Mpophomeni?

WITNESS:   I was born in a rural area called McKenzie, and I grew up at Khaweni.

UNKNOWN: You were working at Sarmcol?

WITNESS:   Yes, I was working at Sarmcol.  I was an operator.  There was a new machine which was used to make belts, mine belts.  Those belts were called steel cords.  So I was the operator of that machine.

UNKNOWN: When these strikes started where were you?

WITNESS:   When this started I didn't belong to any organisation except that I belonged to MAWU, because MAWU was a union for workers. Would you please tell us more about your family?    ---   Yes.  My mother is a daughter of Mr Zuma from Impendhle, and my father was born at Howick.  From my mother's family we are six boys and two girls, and two girls died while they were still young.  As times go on three of - I lost three of my brothers, and the only remaining now it's three guys and five girls.

UNKNOWN: What about your own family?

WITNESS:   I got married to an Ndlovu lady, and after the strike she wasn't well.  She wasn't okay in her mentally and she just didn't cope.  I think maybe it was because of the situation, the strikes and the boycotts, everything.  Lots of things disturbed her.  Maybe some of the things were because I was being tortured.  And then I was forced to marry another woman.  I have two wives now.

UNKNOWN: You remember in 1985 at Sarmcol it was quiet, and then in 1986 problems started.  There were strikes.  Would you please explain more to us about the strikes.

WITNESS:   Before 1985 it was okay there, it was quiet.  We used to work nicely.  In 1985 our union, MAWU, negotiated with our employers.  Our employers accepted that MAWU will take stop orders from our salaries, and then later in 1985 we had grievances that we needed to send to our employers.  And then our employers didn't want to accept that we have those grievances, and they didn't want to pay attention to our needs, so we started showing them that we needed them to pay attention to our grievances.  We called unions, we tried to negotiate, and the employers didn't want to pay attention.  And then we decided that we're going to sit-in, we're going to embark on the sit-in, and then the employers decided to close the gates.  It was in 1985. Do you remember the month?   ---   No, I can't remember the month.  I am not sure whether it was May or April.  I am not quite sure.  I was very surprised the following morning when I went to work and they had actually made out a lock-out and people were locked outside.  I looked around because our firm is a little bit further down in the south, and then when I looked up I saw soldiers who were called.  They had guns and we were being watched over.  Then thereafter we were told that all those who had been working and getting their salaries over the week are now being chased away, they are being expelled.  They can go and get their money at Ndabazabantu.  And one of the leaders of the union came to address us.  He told us that we're not supposed to take any money, we were going to arrange means by which we were going to get our salaries because we were still at the negotiation stage.  From there we went back home.  So we made a resolution.  We said that we didn't want - it wasn't a fact of not wanting to work at the firm, but we had grievances that we needed to be addressed, so we wanted the firm to change its ways.  At ... (incomplete - end of Side A, Tape 1)

UNKNOWN: What made you agree with that arrangement?

WITNESS:   What made us agree was the fact that even if we didn't agree it was going to be a 1976 riot situation, because we saw soldiers there, they were milling around, and they were going to do something to us.  We were not going to survive.

UNKNOWN: So you were afraid of the soldiers?

WITNESS:   Yes.

UNKNOWN: What type of soldiers were they?  There are so many types of soldiers that we get.  What sort was there?

WITNESS:  It was white soldiers.  They were wearing the soldiers'  attire, combat.  We assembled at a certain hall, but there was also a problem there because we were ordered to go out.  We were ordered to vacate the hall and we were told never ever to assemble at that hall again.

UNKNOWN: Where was that hall?

WITNESS:   It was at the location where we stay, that is at Mpophomeni.  From there we went to a Catholic church, where we assembled once more.  Then on a particular day - there were certain occurrences that took place.  People were being harassed.  On a particular year we were sprayed with tear gas, and quite a number of things happened that indicated to us that something was going to happen to us.  There was quite a number of occurrences.  I don't remember some.  When we were still in a meeting - that meeting was going to be an Inkatha meeting, so as workers we didn't have anything to do with Inkatha.  Our meeting was specifically designed to sort out our problems, our work problems.  We had absolutely nothing to do with the Inkatha group.

UNKNOWN: There's something that I want to clarify.  You were chased away from Sarmcol.  There was a lock-out.  You went to the location.  You were also chased there.

WITNESS:   We were chased from the hall inside there.

UNKNOWN: The Catholic church helped you, they offered their church for you to conduct meetings there.  Do you know the reverend of that particular church?

WITNESS:   I have forgotten what his name is.  It was heard that there was going to be a meeting.  We didn't pay particular attention to that Inkatha meeting because we told ourselves it was our right to conduct a meeting if we wanted to, but what actually disturbed us was - it was in 1986 when we heard

UNKNOWN: rumour and we saw people marching.  They were getting into  /the location.

UNKNOWN: the location.  They were busy assaulting people, stabbing them, harassing them, and one gentleman died.  I have forgotten what his name is.  Then thereafter there was rumour that the very same people had killed my brother.  There was also my sister's daughter, as well as my brother, Mike Ngubane, who had been killed.  We were told that they were burnt, and they came back to assault people in the location.  Now we were asking ourselves as to what was happening.

UNKNOWN: Was that now in December 6th, 1986?

WITNESS:   Yes, I am referring to that incident.

UNKNOWN: Who had killed them?

WITNESS:   I cannot exactly say who it was, but it was rumoured that it was Inkatha, because they were the ones who were marching on the particular day that these people died.  They were even identified by the flag that they were having, an Inkatha flag, where they were told that they had to move away from that particular location because that place was not for Indians.

UNKNOWN: Are these Phineas Sibiya, Simon Ngubane, Ray Mahathi, Alpheus Nkabinde?

WITNESS:   Nkabinde is the gentleman who was killed the following day during the march at the location.  The other ones were taken in the evening and they went to burn them in the evening.  Marcus was also there, but he survived because he ran away.

UNKNOWN: Did you report this matter to the police?

WITNESS:   Let me just say this because I was there.  Let me just tell you because I was also present.  There was a certain person who went around shooting people.  He was driving a car.  The people in the location now decided to assemble