Human Rights Violation Hearings — Alexandra — 1996-10-30

CHAIRPERSON: Good afternoon, Mrs Vilakazi.  I am very pleased that you could come.  Can you hear me, is that all right?

ALINA VILAKAZI: Yes.

CHAIRPERSON: Before you start giving your evidence, I would like to ask if you could take the oath.

ALINA VILAKAZI: (Duly sworn, states).

CHAIRPERSON: I will ask Yasmin Sooka, the Commissioner, to lead your evidence.  Thank you.

YASMINE SOOKA: Welcome, Mamma, to the Commission.  Mamma, tell me about your son, Abraham, what did he do before this incident happened to him.  Tell me a little bit about him and then tell me about what you know about what happened.

ALINA VILAKAZI: He was working. I went to the farm.  When I came back I found that he was shot and that he was in hospital.  He stayed in hospital for a long time and I thought he would recover but he died later on.  He left a son behind who was seven years old.

YASMINE SOOKA: What did your son do and how old was he at the time that he was shot?

ALINA VILAKAZI: I don't know. I wasn't here.  When I arrived I found him in hospital. What I know is that he was working at one of the firms in town.

YASMINE SOOKA: Do you know who shot him?
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ALINA VILAKAZI: I don't know.  I was told he was shot by police.

YASMINE SOOKA: Do you know where he had been shot, Mamma?

ALINA VILAKAZI: They said he was shot at Malborem.

YASMINE SOOKA: Mamma, why do you think he was shot by the police?  Did somebody tell you that?

ALINA VILAKAZI: Nobody told me as to why he was shot, even himself in hospital he couldn't speak, so he couldn't tell as to what happened.  I was surprised, because when I left him he was well.

YASMINE SOOKA: After he died was there any court case?

ALINA VILAKAZI: No.

YASMINE SOOKA: Mamma, was your son involved in any political organisations?

ALINA VILAKAZI: No, he wast a very good child, well-behaved and he wasn't involved in political activities.

YASMINE SOOKA: Was anybody else shot at the same time as your son was shot?  Do you know?

ALINA VILAKAZI: I don't know, I just discovered that he was shot. I don't know anything more about his friends.

YASMINE SOOKA: Is there anything else you would like to tell the Commission before you finish your evidence?

ALINA VILAKAZI: No, I have nothing, except what I have said.

MS MKHIZE: Listen carefully to me.  I know that you were not there when this incident occurred. However, if any great event happens, people normally talk about it.  Didn't you hear from rumours as to finding a clue what happened at the time?  This is going to help us in investigating the case.

ALINA VILAKAZI: I didn't find any clue or hear any rumours as to why he was shot.  I tried to call his friend and ask him as to what happened. He didn't come and even when I went to
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the funeral the friend didn't come.

MS MKHIZE: This friend, is he a neighbour?

ALINA VILAKAZI: He stayed in the township, but after he discovered that my son was killed, he tried to distance himself from us, so we couldn't reach him.

MS MKHIZE: At the time when you buried your son, the people who came to comfort you, were they comrades?

ALINA VILAKAZI: It was our family, his friends and friends of my children.

MS MKHIZE: The other friends which you mentioned, you said they came to the funeral. After the funeral didn't you hear any rumours about the incident?

ALINA VILAKAZI: I didn't hear anything, because they don't want to tell me the truth as to what happened.

MS MKHIZE: Thank you.

MS SEROKE: These friends, are they still around, many of his friends?

ALINA VILAKAZI: Yes, two of them died.

MS SEROKE: The one that you mentioned, is he still around?

ALINA VILAKAZI: No, he is not, he passed away. There were two friends, the one of them he was working with and the other was working somewhere else.

MS SEROKE: Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: The rest of your family, what other children do you have?

ALINA VILAKAZI: I had four sons, one died, the one I am talking about. I am left with four sons and have three daughters.

CHAIRPERSON: Is your husband still with you?

ALINA VILAKAZI: My husband is still alive and we are staying together with our grandchildren and our children.
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CHAIRPERSON: What we try and do in the Commission is to try and bring some light to the story.  But I think one of the most difficult things for any of us to come to terms with, is not knowing. That is probably one of the most difficult things to realise, is to feel the grief, to know that someone has died, and not to know why, not to know the circumstances of why they have died.  We feel very much ...

ALINA VILAKAZI: Can you please repeat the question?  I don't know what you mean?  Do you mean the one who died?

CHAIRPERSON: (Indistinct - microphone not switched on) ... what we will try and do as a Commission and how we feel.  Because I think all of us feel a great sense of grief with you, but a sense also of frustration, because we can't help.  We can't offer you any consolation in your grief.  Although we can understand it very much, because we have heard stories like this, and we can understand particularly how difficult it is when you don't know actually what happened.  We salute you for your strength and for your fortitude and thank you very much for coming to tell your story, because it tells what was happening, it tells a story of what happened here in those days not very long ago.  Where we can help we will try as much as we can to help, and we will come back to you with that.  Thank you very much for coming.  Thank you.
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