Special Hearings — Children's Hearings — 1997-05-14

WITNESS: At that time at   KwaNdengezi Inkatha was dominating, and another organisation which was called   UDF.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. Wonder, we want to thank you for coming and sharing   with us the story of your pain and your injuries. As we have said many, many   times in this Commission, it is terrible for us when we hear stories of police,   who are supposed to protect the community, who are supposed to behave in an   impartial way, and who end up in fact abusing the community and behaving in   a very one-sided way. We hope that as we move into the future, and as our police   forces start to change their attitudes and become part of the community again,   that these sorts of practices will stop happening, and that we can learn from

CHAIRPERSON: /your pain.

CHAIRPERSON: your pain. So once again thank you for coming and thank you   for sharing with us.

CHAIRPERSON: /

CHAIRPERSON: CHAIRMAN

CHAIRPERSON: The next person who will be coming up to the   stage will be the first facilitator from the children's groups yesterday. The   person who will be talking is Nosimelo Zama, who is one of our staff members,   who is the co-ordinator of Reparations and Rehabilitation Committee's work in   this province and the Free State. Melo, before you start if you could please   stand up to take the oath.

NOSIMELO ZAMA: (Sworn, States)

NOSIMELO ZAMA: I would like to greet the audience. I would relate a story   which I heard yesterday, and this story I have heard from the youth. In fact   these are children under the age of 16 years. They were relating their stories   and they were drawing some drawings to explain. And most of the children whom   I would - these are the children who are from Desai, Dassenhoek, Clermont, KwaXaba,   KwaMashu, and what we've discovered is that most of them found themselves in   those areas not because it was their initial homes, but they are there because   of violence. They ran away from home. Some of them don't even remember where   their home are. They didn't even have a whole idea as to what was going on,   they just come out with stories that maybe the chief was in conflict with a   certain organisation, or members of the organisation. As Professor Magwaza have   explained before this Commission that sometimes when the attackers were attacking   the families children suffered, and they ran away. And yesterday one child made   a drawing of a little boy who was killed, and that was her brother. And what's   more sad is that in those drawings the child could reveal the person who actually   killed the brother, and the child can still

NOSIMELO ZAMA: /remember

NOSIMELO ZAMA: remember the name of the person who killed the brother, and   the child had drawn everything. He drawn the killer with a gun, and he painted   this killer black because that's the vision the child has. And I would like   the Commission to play the tape so that you hear what the child said yesterday.   Now the child is now 13, the other one is 10 years old, and also the child explain   how the father was killed in front of him. I would like the Commission to just   play the tape for you to hear exactly what the children said.

NOSIMELO ZAMA: "We were at the farms, and people came to our house,             and those people were known as Inkatha members. And then late at night             Inkatha members came to my house. They killed my father. They also             shot my mother. They thought she was dead, and then they realised             that she wasn't. We called the police and police ..."

NOSIMELO ZAMA: (incomplete) We apologise because we had to stop here and not   to reveal whatever the child has said here, because it's sensitive.

NOSIMELO ZAMA: "I was sleeping in the bed and my face was burnt,             and my mother was burnt because she came to my rescue. Police van             came, took us to hospital. When we arrived in hospital we were treated             and then we came back. We went to a slum area. That's where they killed             my brother and my grandfather. My grandfather died. My brother survived.             They wanted my uncle. I don't know why

NOSIMELO ZAMA: /they were

NOSIMELO ZAMA: they were after my uncle, but they did all these             killings because they were after my uncle."

NOSIMELO ZAMA: As you have heard these stories are the evidence of how families   were tortured, and how children were traumatised because of experiencing or   seeing family members being killed before their eyes. And their houses were   burnt, their clothes, everything, and they couldn't go to school the next day   because they lost everything. And even parents got separated because one member   will want to run away and the other one will say, "I sit here. I will rather   die here." And what's very sad is that these people were indiscriminate in their   killings, they were killing children. And there's another drawing here with   me. This drawing was drawn by a child who is eight years old, and you can see   in this drawing there's a man who's pouring a petrol in the house and setting   the house alight. And the child is explaining that he still has bullets in his   system, two of them. Doctors can't remove them, and in his whole life he can't   go away from this situation no matter how much he tries to forget it, but he'll   always have something to remind him of what happened to him. The last-born was   shot at the head, and also he was burnt, and still not healed. These are the   situations our children are living in. He also drew a photograph of the killers,   who are standing at the door with guns while the other one was setting the house   alight. Now we will play the tape of that child.

NOSIMELO ZAMA: "The chief came at home and he kept on coming, and             then my mother asked my brother that why was the chief around."

NOSIMELO ZAMA: /As I

NOSIMELO ZAMA: As I have said that we've erased some of the things.

NOSIMELO ZAMA: "And my mother told my brother, Goli, not to sleep             at home because she was scared. And then the chief came late a night.             We didn't see them coming. What we heard was gunfire. They first set             the house alight and then they shot. They shot and killed my mother,             my brother, Goli, my sister, Mxane, who was also my twin sister. They             were all killed.

NOSIMELO ZAMA:                       And what happened to you and your brother?

WITNESS:             They also shot at me, but I survived because I escaped at the house.             I went outside, and it was me and my sister. They also shot my brother,             Sanelo, and he didn't die. He was eight years old. They shot at him.             We left for clinic. When we arrived at the clinic my sister made a             call to the police. The police came and took us to hospital.

NOSIMELO ZAMA:             What happened to your baby sister?

WITNESS: They             also shotted her. They shot her at her head, and then my mother had             been burnt out at that time. Pilangezo, my brother, also died.

NOSIMELO ZAMA:             Explain now where are you staying, as to where             you're staying?

WITNESS: We are staying with my sister. We don't know what             happened to my father, and the house we're staying in it's very small."

NOSIMELO ZAMA: /I would