Human Rights Violation Hearings — Lusikisiki — 1997-03-26

CHAIRPERSON: We will now call Refiloe Iris Koadi.  We welcome you, Refiloe Iris Koadi.  Reverend Xundu will swear you in.

REV XUNDU: Thank you Mr Chairperson.  Ma'am will you please stand up.

REFILOE IRIS KOADI: (sworn states)

REV XUNDU: Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Are you going to address us in Sotho?

REFILOE IRIS KOADI: Yes, I will mix Xhoza and Sotho.

CHAIRPERSON: We welcome you Iris Refiloe, we will ask Reverend Xundu to ask you questions on behalf of the Commission.

REV XUNDU: Thank you Mr Chairperson.  I will ask you questions Ma'am, concerning what happened to Allan, your son, is that so?

REFILOE IRIS KOADI: Allan is my husband.

REV XUNDU: Can you please repeat Ma'am.

REFILOE IRIS KOADI: Allan was my husband.  Allan was my husband.

REV XUNDU: He was  your husband?

REFILOE IRIS KOADI: Yes, he was my husband.

REV XUNDU: Can you please tell us about Allan, what happened to him?  Can you explain to us your story?

REFILOE IRIS KOADI: He left home on the 16th of June 1980, he was 26 years old because he was born in 1954.  He was a student at Fort Hare at that time.
 He was doing his B.Proc degree, it was his fourth year.  He was at home at that time, he left home saying that he was
going to Matatiele, it was on Monday the 16th of June 1980. 
 I never saw him again after that day.  I was pregnant during that time with our second son.  After two months  one young man came, Tsepo Maki.  He told me that my husband was seen on boarders to Lusaka, he was seen crossing boarders to Lusaka.
 We waited for him to come back together with our parents and months - years gone by and in 1985 Mrs Morashani, Allan's aunt, came.  She was Allan's aunt from Moqasha, telling us that she heard rumours that Allan was shot in Empangeni by the Boers.  I didn't believe that because Tsepo Maki, who was together with him at Fort Hare, he came to my house one day telling me that he was confirming that Allan was dead.
 But I still did not believe that because I thought that I was supposed to be informed.  But even today, I don't know what happened to him.

REV XUNDU: Let me ask you Ma'am.  Was Tsepo together with him in exile?

REFILOE IRIS KOADI: No, he was a soldier here at home.

REV XUNDU: Who told him, who told Tsepo that your husband was killed?

REFILOE IRIS KOADI: I didn't ask him anything.

REV XUNDU: They said that he was killed in Empangeni?

REFILOE IRIS KOADI: The person who confirmed that he was killed in Empangeni, was Gotsho Madli, who was a student together with him in Fort Hare.

REV XUNDU: Was he from exile or was he inside here?

REFILOE IRIS KOADI: He was from exile.  He left with Allan.

REV XUNDU: Did you ask any questions to the ANC officials to help you with your husband's disappearance?

REFILOE IRIS KOADI: Can you please repeat sir.

REV XUNDU: Did you make any attempts to go to ANC to go and enquire about your husband's disappearance?

REFILOE IRIS KOADI: No, I did not make any, I did not go there because I didn't know what to do and where to go.

REV XUNDU: Your request to the Commission, you request the Commission to help you to investigate this matter.

REFILOE IRIS KOADI: What I would like the Commission, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to do is, I want the Commission to help me to find the perpetrators and I want to know what happened to him because I was not informed maybe by the Government.  Together with my family, we were not informed that he was killed, so that we can take his bones and bury them at home.

REV XUNDU: How many children do you have?

REFILOE IRIS KOADI: I have three children.  One girl and two boys.

REV XUNDU: How are they surviving?

REFILOE IRIS KOADI: They are surviving sir and the - my first born, when he was 15 years old, he had fits and he is under treatment, he managed to pass standard 10 in Mareazela, but because we did not have money for him to go to school, he is now in the Strategy Community College in Matatiele, he is doing a diploma in business management, but his aim was to do law, but I had no means to send him to University.
 My second born in doing standard 10 in Muchess Secondary School and the last one is doing standard six.

REV XUNDU: Except for the requests you have made in your statements, do you have any other thing you want the Commission to do for you?

REFILOE IRIS KOADI: My request together with Qwati's family is
that we would like the Commission to help us.  We want to rebury Allan's remains at home where his children and grandchildren will be able to point his grave.
 Another request is that I would like to be helped with my children because their future is not bright right now, I would like them to further their education.

REV XUNDU: Is that all Ma'am?

REFILOE IRIS KOADI: Yes, I think that is all.

REV XUNDU: Thank you Mrs Koadi, and I will hand over to the Chairperson.

CHAIRPERSON: I would like to ask one question.  Allan, your husband, is there any evidence that he was a member of Umkonto We Sizwe?

REFILOE IRIS KOADI: Yes, the young men who went to exile with him but they are back now, they told us that they were together with him, he was a soldier of Umkonto We Sizwe.

CHAIRPERSON: Did they tell you in which office you can go in order to know whether he was under a certain mission so that you can know what happened to your husband?

REFILOE IRIS KOADI: No, there is nothing I found concerning this matter.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you Ma'am.

REFILOE IRIS KOADI: Thank you sir.  And I would like to thank the Government which helped us through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that after so many years we didn't know who to talk to and the Government helped us through the Commission that we can come forward and tell the world what happened to us, thank you.