Human Rights Violation Hearings — Krugersdorp — 1996-11-12

CHAIRPERSON: Our next witness is Buka Pinzi.  Buka Pinzi.  I greet you Sir.

BUKA PINZI: Good afternoon.

CHAIRPERSON: Are we pronouncing your name the right way?  Are you Buka Pinzi?

BUKA PINZI: Yes.

CHAIRPERSON: We welcome you.  We are going to hand over to Dr Randera.

DR RANDERA: Mr Pinzi, good afternoon and welcome.  Can you just stand to take the oath.  If you can just repeat after me.

BUKA PINZI: (Duly sworn in, states).

DR RANDERA: Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: I will now hand over to Yasmin Sooka.

YASMINE SOOKA: Thank you Joyce.  Mr Pinzi are you able to hear me?

BUKA PINZI: Yes, I can hear you.

YASMINE SOOKA: I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about yourself and what you did before this incident happened?

BUKA PINZI: I was working at the mines.  That is when this whole thing happened and when it happened I could not go back to work.  So I lost my job.  That is how I am living at the present moment.

YASMINE SOOKA: Do you want to tell us about what happened on the KRUGERSDORP HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
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night that you were shot?

BUKA PINZI: I was not present during the day, but we were told that it was going to happen the following morning.  When I was listening to the radio I heard that people at Swanieville should not patrol as they usually do because the police would be present to protect them so they should sleep peacefully.  As we were sitting, not having any hope because we could see that the other places were being attacked.  People were told to sleep and thereafter they would be attacked.  We did not sleep on that particular day.  We only slept at 2am in the morning.
 Just as we were sleeping at round about five I heard some gunshot outside.  When I went outside to investigate I was shot.  I fell down and when I regained consciousness I ran away to Randfontein.  I got a chance to go to the hospital.  I do not know what happened at that moment because I never went back there.

YASMINE SOOKA: Thank you very much.  I am going to ask you some questions so I can just make sure of what you are saying.  At the time when you were employed, which mine were you employed by?

BUKA PINZI: I was working at South Roodepoort Mine.

YASMINE SOOKA: You also mention that on that night you heard on the radio that you should not patrol as usual because the police were going to patrol the area.  Now, were you part of a group that went out every night to patrol the area and who were you patrolling the area against?

BUKA PINZI: We were patrolling so that when the Inkatha attack us, come to attack us they would find us aware because we would not know at what time they were going to come and attack us.  That is the way we lived because we
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were told that the Inkatha was always threatening that they would be coming to attack us.  We could not sleep when other people were awake.

YASMINE SOOKA: So, where was, you mention that you were told.  Were these rumours that were going around Swanieville or had someone specifically told you that Inkatha was going to attack?

BUKA PINZI: There is not a particular person who came to me.

YASMINE SOOKA: One of the previous witnesses talked about the fact that there were two groups in Swanieville.  There was a group that was called The Men and a group that were called The Women and The Men told them that The Women, the group called The Women should patrol.  Were you part of any of these two groups?

BUKA PINZI: Yes, there was a group called The Men because the area was divided into two parts and it is still divided into two parts even now.  There is still The Men as well as The Women.  Whenever there was a patrol that was being conducted The Men would move from one area and they would be calling other members of the community.  That is The Men and they would not allow us to come out because they said we were women.

YASMINE SOOKA: What did you understand, why were they making this distinction between the two groups?

BUKA PINZI: The difference was that the other group was very rude and callous in their dealings, but with us, because we liked negotiations we were referred to as women.

YASMINE SOOKA: The Commissioner asked the previous witness and the one before him who also came from Swanieville about whether he knew what the problems were in Swanieville.  Were you aware of what the dispute was that was leading to what
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eventually happened as the killings in Swanieville?

BUKA PINZI: I have got no knowledge because I was working and most of the time I was not present.  Up to this stage what I knew was that whenever the residents could not sleep I also could not sleep.

YASMINE SOOKA: Were you yourself renting your shack from Mr Swanepoel or were you renting it from someone else who was renting it from Mr Swanepoel?

BUKA PINZI: Yes, Swanepoel had a small office where we had to pay our rent and that is where everybody else paid the rent.  These people were the ones who were taking the rent to Swanepoel because we use to get receipts from these people and I also paid at that office.  That is Swanepoel's office.

YASMINE SOOKA: Could you tell me on the night that you were shot, did you see the person that shot you?

BUKA PINZI: I never saw the person who shot me because when I realised that I was bleeding, just as I was heading towards the gate, I heard some people talking behind me.  They were swearing at me telling me to stop and when I looked I saw some men with assegais as well as pangas.  That is when I started to run because I was not armed and I could not fight back so I decided to run away.

YASMINE SOOKA: So did they shoot you from the back or were you shot from someone in the front because you mention that you were running away, but you were shot in your eye?

BUKA PINZI: I was shot whilst I was still inside my shack and when I went out I was shot already and I was bleeding.

YASMINE SOOKA: Did you yourself, Mr Pinzi, belong to any of the political structures in Swanieville?

BUKA PINZI: Yes, I was a member of a political organisation.

YASMINE SOOKA: Which one was that?
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BUKA PINZI: I was a member of the ANC.

YASMINE SOOKA: Can you tell me which hospital you were taken to after this incident?

BUKA PINZI: I went by myself to Leratong Hospital when I got to Randfontein.  I took a taxi and it dropped me off at the hospital gate and the very same taxi was not coming straight because this road was blocked and the taxi had to take the Krugersdorp route.

YASMINE SOOKA: And you mention that the bullet hit you on your right eye.  Can you tell us about the damage that was done to your eye?

BUKA PINZI: It is not my right eye, it is my left eye.  My eye had to be taken out.  Even now my right eye is becoming effected and now it is because of the left eye.  I am becoming partially blind in the right eye.

YASMINE SOOKA: Do you receive any kind of treatment for it?

BUKA PINZI: No, I am not getting any treatment because I do not have money to get treatment.

YASMINE SOOKA: Mr Pinzi, what we have learned is that there was a case which took place in the court in Johannesburg and that the seven men who were charged were then acquitted.  Were you ever told to go to court in this matter?

BUKA PINZI: Because I moved from that area the very same moment, I never went back and I never heard about the case.  I have only just come back now because the place has now been changed.  I never went back at that time.  It is only the first time that I hear that there was a case because I moved as from that day when I was shot.

YASMINE SOOKA: Did you yourself never lay a charge against anybody?

BUKA PINZI: No, I never reported the matter because I did not KRUGERSDORP HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
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know who shot me and I knew that if I did not know the identity of the person, there was absolutely no help that I could get.