Human Rights Violation Hearings — East London — 1996-04-18

MRS MPHELO: One thing that really puzzled us, as he was being accused that he was a spy who sold Steve Biko, on the other side we never rested.  The police were on their toes, on the other side it was the people.  I remember at one stage, it was a rally.  Now the youth were throwing stones at cars.  They ran to my place, into my house, I opened the wardrobes, I said to them they should get in.  Even underneath the beds.  The police were outside, you know, they kicked off my door and they asked, didn't you see any youth, I said no I didn't, nobody came in, couldn't they see that the door that they kicked was closed. Surely that would be an indication that there are no people in this house.
 You know at that time there was a child underneath the bed, I was talking alone, this child was restless and I took a cloth, I tried to clean while talking, hiding this sound that was coming from underneath the bed.  Well the police left and I opened the wardrobe.  They thanked me for helping them, another game.  
 Across the street there were police there, it was after the rally.  There's a big place of reeds. A policeman came from that area and asked us why we urinate close to the kraal, and he replied, this is our place, our tradition tells us to urinate very close to the kraal. You know, this hefty man picked him up, he was so hefty that his feet 
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couldn't touch the floor, and then he was thrown into the back of the hippo.
 After hearing this, on the other side, these youths arrived at my place with guns. My husband was not now at home, it was at about seven o'clock and they cut my telephone line, they got into my van, they took everything they wanted.  They opened the wardrobes, they took everything, they looted my house.

MR SANDI: When did this happen?  Did all this happen at the time you were waiting to bury your husband?

MRS MPHELO: They arrived the following day at 11 o'clock. Among them there was a young lady wearing a very short skirt, a mini-skirt, and she said to me, "You know what, I can shoot you any time".  You know from underneath the mini this child pulled something out, it was a gun.  I raised up my hands and said, "Oh my children, what really do you want, you killed my husband who is innocent, do you now want to kill the family?  What have we done?"  And this young girl said, "Somebody sent us, we've been given an instruction to kill you and then everything."

MR SANDI: Thank you very much Mrs Mpehlo.  I will give things back to the chairman, are there maybe things that you'd like to explain?

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much.  Any questions?  Thank you very much Mrs. We hope that the Commission will try to investigate.  We thank you very much for the evidence that you have put before us.  We understand your request, your plea about your children and their education.

MRS MPHELO: There is this one fact that I want to emphasise.  It's with regard to the children. You know you realise your child, when he has a certain talent, but
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because there was this stigma attached to our family, the child couldn't carry on with his talent, because he didn't trust anybody.  He wanted to pull himself every time.  There is something that he wanted to persue with his talent.

MR SANDI: Thank you very much, Mrs.