Human Rights Violation Hearings — Durban — 1996-05-07

WITNESS:   I was still coming there.  There are lots of things that happened.  And others I am starting to remember them, and others I have forgotten them.  It's just so much that happened during that time.  My Khumbulani, on the day he was killed there - the fighting started on the 7th of April 1990.  There was a fight every morning.  We were told that there was fighting at section 14.  It's an area far away from us.  We were very far, we were on section 2.  I wasn't at home on that day, I was with my relatives around on section 14.  Inkatha was going to have a funeral on that day.  They were going to bury a boy called Thami Sindane.  After that it was around about 2 o'clock when I saw ZPs started shooting.  What I did see, I was around there at that time, we were forced - we were all crawling on our knees running away, because they were shooting on all directions.  I can't say there was no place where a bullet wasn't coming from.  I don't even know how I arrived home.  It was on the 7th.  It was on a Saturday.  The people at section 14 they ran away and came to our area, and others ran to the furrow.  Because other children were killed, Simakahle Miyeza and Makhanya, a boy called Mlungisa, was also shot.  They died on that day.  On Sunday the situation got very bad, but it was quiet.  You could hear the situation was tense even though it was quiet.  Many people ran away, others ran to town and to hide in town, and other section 14 people came to our section at section 1.  While we were still there on Monday morning at around 10 we just saw many vans all over.  The vans were fawn in colour.  They looked like the C cars, but I didn't see them on that day.  There were lots and lots of them.  When I heard I heard that they had beaten Msesha Habanyane.  The detective, Msesha Hlabanyane was beaten on the other side.  When he was beaten, the Detective Hlabanyane, at around about one there was shooting all over.  We just couldn't move.  There were even aeroplanes above us.  You couldn't even hide under the tree because there was lots of wind blowing, and they would expose us even when we were hiding.  The situation was very, very tense.  We couldn't even go to our neighbours to ask for telephone.  When I tried to phone the phone wouldn't even work.  When I tried to go to the neighbours to phone there I just heard a bullet which hit at a pole, and then I crawled down and went back to the house.  At about three there was a voice, but I don't know whose voice it was because at that stage we were all confused.  It said all the boys must just run away because the ZP and the soldiers are going house to house shooting them.  So my child and his brothers, the three of them left and ran away.  They ran away, but at the time when they had left they ran to a place called Mkazini.  I was not there because I was at home.  I was telling myself that they are hiding where they are.  While I was still at home it was in the afternoon.

JOYCE NOMVUYA MSISAZWE: Your memory is very distressing, it's about your own son, so please don't hurry at all.  (Pause)

WITNESS:   Late in the afternoon there was my other boy whose name is Nkosi, Musawenkosi.  I asked him, "Where is your younger brother?"  He said, "I don't know, Mama.  We got scattered because we were running away."  Later on Sipho arrived.  I said, "Where is the child?"  He also said he didn't know.  While I was still there I phoned Eden Mngadi, who is a neighbour, and - because we were told that our children had run towards that direction.  I asked him if he had not seen my child, he had also run away from home.  There was nobody, nobody could answer the telephone.  After a while there were boys who came, and they came in and knocked.  They told me that my child had been shot, shot by white police.  I asked where.  They said at Mkazini area.  It's a place which is about one kilometre from our place.  I was very confused in my mind.  I left, I went to another person called Sipho Makhanya, who has got taxis.  I asked him to take me with my other friend called Doreen Ngcobo, who has also passed away.  I said they must please accompany me where my child was.  When I arrived there I couldn't even reach near.  I said, "I don't want to see my child full of blood and soil, because it will be a picture that will stay in my mind forever."  I stood far off.  I saw people crying, and my children were also crying.  I just sat down there where I was.  I sat there for a long time.  Eden Mngadi took my child and one other Ngidi boy.  They took him to Amanzimtoti.  I was happy because I didn't want my child to go to the ZP, because they were happy, they were laughing as they were going past my house, saying they have killed a very beautiful boy of this woman, of this nasty woman of UDF.  I was really happy that my child was not taken by the ZP.  My child stayed there at the mortuary until we buried him on the 21st.  That is ... (incomplete)

JOYCE NOMVUYA MSISAZWE: I just want to make sure that you tell the whole story, because even after this very distressing death of your son something else happened in 1992, when somebody set fire to your house.  Could you tell us about that as well?

WITNESS:   We were asleep at night with a child.  We had my son's child from Ntuzuma.  When I got up at night I was suffocating from the smoke.  I asked her what was the light in the other small bedroom.  She said, "I don't know."  When we opened the door in the bedroom we saw there was fire burning, and the flames were high up.  I managed to escape - because my other child was no longer staying at home, Musawenkosi.  He had also been shot in 1991.  He had been shot on his legs.  So he was no longer staying at home, he was staying at Umlazi.  I managed to get out and went to my neighbour, Mbatha.  That's where I made a telephone.  When I made this telephone call I was phoning my son, telling him.  He phoned at Merebank, phoning his friend who was an SAP.  His friend came with the other policemen, but before the policemen arrived the ZP arrived.  The ZP came and said to me - it took a long time before I got out.  I didn't call the ZP people because I am not related to them.  They said I must come inside the van.  They said, "You woman, you nasty woman, you think you are a man.  Today these Comrades are burning you.  These are your comrades who have burnt you because you think you're clever.  You have been thinking you're clever all along.  Today it's the last.  They are going to shoot you in the head.  You are safe because you didn't get shot by us."  I stayed at the police station of the ZP, and they were busy saying all these nasty things to me until this policeman came from Merebank.  When these police arrived from Merebank they took me and put down the fire, and took all the remaining property and they put them in bags, and we left and they put all those things in their cars.  I went to stay at Sweetie's house at Umlazi, at Mnyandu Station.  There are houses there that are ... (inaudible)   There's a relative of mine that was staying there.  That's where I stayed for a while.  From there I moved, I went to build a shack in Lamontville.  That's where I am even now.

JOYCE NOMVUYA MSISAZWE: I have just a few questions.  I know this is very distressing.  You've told us of continual harassment, the death of your son, the shooting of the other son, the burning of your house, but just a few questions to help us that we may be able to help you.  First can you tell me the names and the ages of your three sons?

WITNESS:   The elder one is Sipho, Sipho Dlamini.  He is 22 years old - no, he is 24 now.  The one after him is Musawenkosi, and he is 22 years old.  The one had died at the age of 17, but he was going to turn 18.

JOYCE NOMVUYA MSISAZWE: (Inaudible) ... when he was shot was there any court case or inquest or inquiry as to Khumbulani's death?