Human Rights Violation Hearings — Grahamstown — 1997-04-08

REV XUNDU: I would like to swear you in, Sir.  Tobile Cecil Gqolodashe, please stand.

TOBILE CECIL GQOLODASHE: (Duly sworn in, states).

REV XUNDU: The witness has been duly sworn in.

CHAIRPERSON: We would like to welcome you, Mr Gqolodashe, and thank you for having had the patience to wait here all day.  We are going to ask Mr Sandi to lead your testimony by way of a few questions.  Sorry, I have made a mistake.  Tobile Cecil Gqolodashe, I am advised should be combined with Nomalady Tyuku, Nomelumzi Tyuku and Nontobeko Joyce Pikoli.  We would like them to come forward as well.

REV XUNDU: I would like to begin with you, Nomalady.

NOMALADY NOMELUMZI TYUKU: (Duly sworn in, states).

REV XUNDU: Thank you very much and now Nontobeko Joyce Pikoli.

NONTOBEKO JOYCE PIKOLI: (Duly sworn in, states).

REV XUNDU: Thank you very much.  Chairperson, they have been duly sworn.

CHAIRPERSON: We would like to welcome you as well and we are going to ask Ms Maya to put questions to the three of you on behalf of this Commission.

MS MAYA: Thank you Chairperson.  Mr Gqolodashe, we are going to start with you.  In the statement before us we have a date mentioned here, the sixth of November 1984, but before I start leading your testimony, I would like to say that we have read a lot about you in the statements of the people of Port Alfred and how you assisted the community at a time where there was a politically explosive situation.  Would you please tell us that, what role you played and what happened when you people were preparing for the funeral of a Comrade in Port Alfred.

TOBILE CECIL GQOLODASHE: Thank you Chairperson.  What happened is since a Cupa boy had been shot dead by the police, arrangements were made for that funeral and they involved the Magistrate of Port Alfred as well as the Commissioner who was there at the time, Mr Griffiths, the Magistrate was Mr van der Merwe, in the sense that they were asked that since this funeral was going to be conducted, we were going to attempt to have as peaceful a funeral as possible and make it unnecessary for the police to be present.  Our request was that the Magistrate and Commissioner speak to the police and ask them not to make their presence obvious,  because when police, when people saw police, a police presence at funerals, it led to a volatile situation.  They promised to do that.
 What happened was that the funeral procession began, but just before that we noticed while we were digging the grave, you could see into town from the cemetery and we saw many police vans going towards town.  I actually took the initiative to leave the cemetery while the funeral was in progress and went to enquire and found all these police vans parked at the police station.  I came back, we continued to dig the grave and on the day of the funeral, we had dug the grave on the Thursday since the funeral was going to take place on the Saturday.  We asked everyone in the community, because this was the first incident where the police had killed someone, we asked everyone in the community not to report for work so that they could attend this funeral.  A stay-away in other words.  
 It then happened that there was a stay-away and we conducted this funeral and while we were on our way to the graveyard, there were so many people, I would say the entire location must have been there.  On our way there we did not see any police up until we reached the cemetery.  When we were on our way back, there were two main roads there, we split, because the people were singing.  We took the bottom road and the others took the top road, because we were in the, had taken the bottom road we passed the Methodist Church and we passed the police there.  They did not do anything to us.  When we approached the house where the deceased's relatives were, we heard gunshots.  It was apparent that they had, there were other police in the top street and they had shot at those people.  
 We hurried back to where these people were and encountered a lot of people running in all directions.  I then ran past this house to where these people were being shot.  When I got there, there was a T-junction which met with the main road.  When I got there I saw the police standing at the lower end and saw these people running and crossing the yards.  I came and stood between the police and these people and stopped these people from running.  These police stopped shooting.  Many people had already been struck by bullets.  Some of them had been scratched by the fences and I tried to stop them from running, because a lot of them were being injured simply by running away.  
 While I was still standing there facing the police they shot at me with birdshot and from my waist up they riddled me with these birdshot.  I was very angry, but in spite of that I did not run away.  They shot a canister of teargas near me and when they shot the teargas at me I ran away, because one could not stand, one cannot stand for that.

MS MAYA: Did anyone, during this shooting incident, was anyone fatally injured beside your serious injury?

TOBILE CECIL GQOLODASHE: A lot of people were injured.  Some of them were injured in their eyes, they lost their eyes.

MS MAYA: Do you know Zolisile?

TOBILE CECIL GQOLODASHE: Yes, he was one of the people that was injured in his eyes.

MS MAYA: You mention a house that was burnt, tell us about that.

TOBILE CECIL GQOLODASHE: After I had been shot some people had run to the house where the funeral was taking place.  When I went back there the police cut across the yards and came closer then and fired teargas into the tent and the tent, the teargas burnt the tent.  I was bleeding profusely and I had left the situation behind as it was and I was found by Kwinti at home to say that he had phoned the Magistrate and the Commissioner to come and see what the police had done.  I went back by car and when I got there I, the Magistrate and the Commissioner were also arriving at the same time.  They then wanted to know what had happened and I told them and the other people were there as well.  We showed them what had happened, because the tent was alight and the other people had also come back when they saw the Commissioner and we told them that the police were still back there.
 They wanted to know why the people had been shot, but they did not give any plausible explanation.  It was then said that we should be taken to the doctor and police vans were summoned, people were taken and I refused to get into the police van and went to the doctor in my own car.

MS MAYA: Did you receive any treatment from the doctor?

TOBILE CECIL GQOLODASHE: No, I did not.  Some, while I was there police came and dropped a group of people.  This one boy came to me and said that I should not leave, the police were coming to arrest us for public violence.  That was before we could even be treated.  The police came, people were loaded into the van.  I was escorted by a policeman to the police station.

MS MAYA: Were you one of the people that was arrested?

TOBILE CECIL GQOLODASHE: No, because I was seriously injured and that there was a policeman who knew me, because I worked at the bakery and, because these people liked to eat too, as someone who worked in the bakery, they would come for bread and pies and I would give them these things when they would come to the bakery and ask for these things.  I consequently could not sleep that Friday night and I had to be taken back to hospital.

MS MAYA: Were the pellets ever removed from your body?

TOBILE CECIL GQOLODASHE: No, the pellets are still in my body.  There are many of them.

MS MAYA: Do they not cause you any inconvenience?

TOBILE CECIL GQOLODASHE: Yes, they do.  There are pellets in my knees and in my calves and there is one which I can feel in my left forearm.

MS MAYA: When you were taken to the Magistrate after you had been arrested, were you charged?