Human Rights Violation Hearings — Empangeni — 1996-11-05

MRS GCABASHE: do because where we're supposed to go for help, that's where the people who did this are."  And then I left them.  They tried to wash my wounds and they gave me some painkillers - Panados.  I went back home and I tried to make my husband lie nicely and we covered him by a blanket.  After that I said to Mrs Mnconco, "If you can go outside and hide yoursel, even if it means to hide under the tree, go out and hide because they will come back and they'll kill us but if they kill me and you survive ... (incomplete)"  (Sounds of sobbing)  This is my daughter who came and found me lying there.

MRS GCABASHE:  We apologise.  We didn't know that you were with your daughters.  We should have let them come forward because they also are in pain.  Let me just ask one thing.  You said in your statement there was a driver.  What was his name?  It's written here there was a neighbour Mrs Mnconco and there was a driver and there was also a helper.

WITNESS:   I think whoever wrote that statement made a mistake.  There was only a helper.  This girl who was helping me.  Her hame is Thabisile Thabethe.

MRS GCABASHE:  Is she still alive?

WITNESS:   Yes, she is still alive.  God helped her very much.  She's in Danny Dalton at Babanango.

MRS GCABASHE:  Do you still have contact with Thabisile?

WITNESS:   The last time I saw her is when she got a job to go to Nkandla.  I took her back home after she was discharged from Ngwelezana Hospital and I took her to her home because I didn't know her home.

MRS GCABASHE:  This girl that you said her intestines were outside, it's ... (intervention)

WITNESS:   Yes, it's  Thabisile.  She's the one.

MRS GCABASHE:  Did you report this matter to the police?

WITNESS:   I stayed there inside my house the whole night because I had asked Mrs Mnconco to go and hide herself and this other girl also.  I stayed with Thabisile because Thabisile couldn't run away because she was badly injured and I kept on giving her water the whole night to drink because I couldn't also help her because both my hands were not working.  I stayed there with this three-year-old kid.  I didn't realise that whole night that this three-year-old child has been assaulted or stabbed.  She was also stabbed - two wounds.  At about 5 o'clock in the morning my neighbours came and they called for the ambulance.  They called the police.  They called my children because I also gave them my children's telephone numbers who were staying at Ulundi to report the matter to my children.  At about half past eight, if I'm not mistaken, police came.  We'd been there bleeding since 6.00pm the previous day.

MRS GCABASHE:  These policemen, where were they from?

WITNESS:   From Empangeni Police Station.  They took us because the ambulance didn't come and when we arrived in hospital these policemen asked the hospital how come the ambulance didn't come and the administrator from the hospital said they were not allowed to go to my house.  They tried to go there and they were stopped.

MRS GCABASHE:  And they didn't tell you who stopped them?

WITNESS:   They said the people who stopped them were ANC youth.  When we arrived at the hospital they tried to help us and my children came.  My daughter and her husband and my son who was in college and my other daughter who's a  teacher.  All of them came except for Welile and Jabu.  When they arrived in hospital they went and checked for Thabisile because Thabisile was terribly injured and also Mama Mnconco because she had eights wounds, she was stabbed eight times and they also tried to cut her neck and she was bleeding very bad from the breast wound.  And they told them I was going to be admitted at Ngwelezana Hospital.  So my children asked that they are scared that I should be admitted there because those people who did this might come and finish me in that hospital and they asked them to release me and write letters for transferring me to Eshowe Hospital and the hospital agreed and they made that transfer letter and we buried my husband at Mahlabatini because when we asked soldiers that they should be there when we bury my husband because we're still scared, the soldiers didn't answer back.  And my son-in-law said, "Okay, I will take my father-in-law and we can make the funeral service at Mahlabatini."  And we buried my husband and it was difficult for me to go back to Mevamhlope after I'd removed the plaster of Paris because I was still scared.  Even today in my heart I can still say I'd like to be in Mevamhlope but I'm scared.  I don't want to go back there.

MRS GCABASHE:  Tell us, was there any post mortem?

WITNESS:   Yes, there was.  They checked my husband's body.

MRS GCABASHE:  Are there any people who were arrested in connection with this case?

WITNESS:   No, there wasn't.

MRS GCABASHE:  So according to you was there any inquest?

WITNESS:   One detective by the name of Mzuza came to my house.  I don't know whether he's still alive or still in that  police station but he did come to Ulundi to see me.

MRS GCABASHE:  Was he from Empangeni Police Station?

WITNESS:   Yes, he was.  I think he was from Empangeni but the other side - in the other building, not the police station.

MRS GCABASHE:  Thank you.  We heard - this is a very terrible story.  I would also like to ask you how this thing affected you.  Before you can tell us more about your children, just tell us about yourself.  How were you affected?

WITNESS:   I'm not well really and my right hand is not working at all and my left shoulder is also sore all the time, day and night.  And I only get rest when I fall asleep.  But when I wake up it's sore.  It's burning.  If I was standing - talking like this standing, I couldn't because I don't have strength.  I don't have power.

MRS GCABASHE:  Do you get any medication?

WITNESS:   I do go to clinic at Ulundi.

MRS GCABASHE:  What about your children when they relate to you?

WITNESS:   My children are really in pain.  They have this question that they'd like to ask which no one can answer.  They say, why?  Why was their father killed?  Because he gave them the money and you, mother, you also gave them the money.  As you heard her crying, it's always like that.  They cry.  I'm at Ulundi because of my children and there is this terribly sad question that, what have we done?

MRS GCABASHE:  Did you try and see a psychologist?

WITNESS:   No, we haven't.  We only went to social workers at Ulundi and we related to the whole story to them and they didn't do anything.  They just told us they are just writing this story down and nothing happened afterwards except that  they once gave Mrs Mnconco a bag of maize meal and a bag of beans.

MRS GCABASHE:  And what about Thabisile, the one who was injured?

WITNESS:   She is still alive.

MRS GCABASHE:  And how do you support yourself?

WITNESS:   I am a pensioner.

MRS GCABASHE:  Is there anything that you would like to request as a family?  In your statement it says that you would like people to investigate more about this case.  Is there anything else that you would like to ask this Commission to do?

WITNESS:   What I said is that I am here not to open a case for anyone because initially when I tried, nothing happened.  Now it's late.  If I ask people to investigate now, where are they going to start?  What I came here for is that to elaborate or to illustrate to people how I was tortured and I didn't know the reason why.

MRS GCABASHE:  You said you want to sell your house.