Human Rights Violation Hearings — Duduza — 1997-02-07

DR RANDERA: So was your house attacked after your brothers died or before they died?

OLGA NYATHI: The house was attacked by IFP after my brothers had died. They took everything, the furniture inside because my mum was only left with her ID document.

DR RANDERA: Olga, my last question.  Are you saying that your brothers had nothing to do with the self defence units in Tokoza, you said already they were not comrades, but were they not part of community self defence units or the self defence units as we know them?

OLGA NYATHI: My brothers were not comrades at all.  They were church members and church choir members and they were not hooligans by any definition of the term.

DR RANDERA: Thank you very much Olga.

MS SEROKI: Olga after your brother's death did nurse explain to you the cause of his death?

OLGA NYATHI: Please repeat your question.

MS SEROKI: I'm saying that according to your statement here, you've told us about what the nurse has said, and what had speeded up his death according to the nurse.

OLGA NYATHI: The nurse said the police were trying to extract the bullets from his chest.

MS SEROKI: What were the police using to extract the bullets from the chest.

OLGA NYATHI: In the caspar there was a towel and a jacket soaked in blood.

MS SEROKI: In other words were they using a knife?

OLGA NYATHI: Yes.  Because David himself was also saying, let them finish up.  And I told him that these were nurses now, those are no longer police surrounding him.  And he said those dogs have been trying to extract bullets from me and it's been painful, and when I looked on the side there was a towel soaked in blood.

MS SEROKI: According to your opinion, why do you think they tried their best to extract the bullets?

OLGA NYATHI: No that was done to just so that people, especially my family would not discover who shot my brother. So that we could not think the police themselves shot him, maybe some other people.  Because when I got to the hospital I was asked by the police asking who I was and how I was related to the boy, and I explained to them that I am the sister and one other believed that I was indeed the sister because I was fuming at what they had done to my brother.  Even in the registration book I was the one who signed for his admission and so forth, because my mum was at work. I had my little boy with me.

DR RANDERA: Olga, sorry, did you or your mother report the killing of your brothers at the time, either to the police, I know the police were responsible as you say for the killings in the first place or to any other legal organisation?

OLGA NYATHI: We didn't go anywhere because my mum doesn't have much money.  She's only working as a domestic worker and I was not employed at all.  Even at the police station it's known that David Nyathi was arrested.  Nkatha asked why he was arrested and they did not explain.  The station commander said that what my mum experienced was terribly sad because I asked the police not to patrol around because we are around and where there are police that can carry out their duty but they insisted that the stability unit insisted that they wanted to patrol in the location instead of the police.

DR RANDERA: My last question Olga is, you said you had to flee your house and your furniture was taken away.  Have you and your mother managed to get your house back and what has happened since?

OLGA NYATHI: WE didn't go anywhere because the riots and the violence was still on.  We didn't know where to go, Tokoza was a terrible place because people looted everything from my house and my mum's employers tried to help us by giving us some clothes and blankets and my brothers received donations from the Tokoza community, and also for the funeral expenses were helped by the community and the neighbours.  That's how we managed to carry through the funeral.
 Yes now we are occupying the house.

DR RANDERA: Thank you very much.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you Olga.  Obviously there's very little that one can say when the family has experienced so much loss, the double tragedy having both brothers killed and what happened to the family house.  We can say however that, with the investigations that have been done and with all the amnesty applications, we are beginning to get a better understanding of what was happening in the East Rand and also into the workings of the Internal Stability Unit, we know that this unit was actually disbanded because of concerns about some of the activities of the Internal Stability Unit.  So we hope that once all this information is available, we will have a clearer picture and maybe some of the questions which you want answered will also be answered.  But thank you for coming, and as soon as we have more information we will certainly pass that on to you.  Thank you.
 I think we will also now break for lunch and we will come back at a quarter past two.  Thank you.
HEARING ADJOURNS