Human Rights Violation Hearings — Durban — 1996-05-09

MR LYSTER: Thank you, Mr Chairman.  Thank you for coming in, Mrs Mthembu.  Like many others, you have come to tell the story of the loss of a loved one - in this case the disappearance of your brother Ndo Mthandoyethu.  Can you just tell us briefly something about who he was and where he fitted in in your family, just to give us a background picture?

WITNESS:   Mthandoyethu Zungu is my brother.  He is the last-born in the family of Aaron Zungu, who is our father, and our mother.  We come from Eshowe Ridge at the  /district

MR LYSTER: 13B/28 district of Mpaphala.  Mthandoyethu - we used to call him Ndo for short - he is the last-born among five boys.  His two other brothers at the time he disappeared had also disappeared.  Biyalin Zungu disappeared in 1961.  The second one, he disappeared in 1972, and then after that our other sister and after that came Ndo and then in 1991 and the last one was our sister who disappeared in 1983.  When Ndo left, we didn't know how he disappeared.  We don't know how he left and how he eventually disappeared, but we eventually did hear from the family that he was in Tanzania.  That we heard from our elder brother, who was in New York.  He was involved with the ANC at some stage.  He used to go from New York to Tanzania regarding the ANC activities and our father and the whole family knew that Ndo was in Tanzania.  We were happy to know that he was still alive and that he was in Tanzania.  In 1987 he was seen - Ndo was seen arriving at KwaMashu.  That's where I am.  I've got my own family in KwaMashu.  He used to arrive at relatives near my place and then I would be told that he said I must come at that place where he was at certain times.  He regularly did that at night.  He would be there for a short while, greet us and ask all of us how we were - ask everybody how they were at home - and then he would disappear and usually there were two of them.  He wouldn't tell us who he was with.  We were just happy and then he would just be in a rush.  He really used to be in a rush and then he would disappear again.  He wouldn't tell us where he was going to.  He didn't even tell us how he would get wherever he was going to, but we would be satisfied because we thought he knew what was pressurising him.  He appeared ... (end of tape)

MR LYSTER: /...Long time.

MR LYSTER: 14A/0 ... Long time.  For about two or three months.  I cannot remember exactly.  After that he appeared again.  He was arriving at night.  He was always in a rush.  He came to my place and it was during the day and he would stay at my house.  When I asked him where he had been, since we had not seen him for a long time, he would say he had been arrested by the boers.  At that time he was no longer anxious.  He would come to our place during the day.  After a few days I saw him.  He stayed at my place that time when he appeared in November and he didn't seem to be scared that time.  He was driving a Golf.  He used to change this Golf after two weeks.  I would see him in another Golf.  A few weeks he would be coming again in another Golf.  Those were new Golf cars he was driving, but sometimes he would come and ask me to cook for him and he would give me some money.  He would be giving me very new notes of rands.  I thought they came from the bank, because they looked very new.  I became very suspicious because when - we knew that if a person had been in exile was arrested inside the country they used to turn the boys to make them work for them.  First of all, they would get information from them and then he would be called an, "Askari".  I used to read those kind of things from newspapers and I did become suspicious but all the time when I tried to ask him he never explained anything to me.  He stayed to me for about five to six months.  At all those times he was driving Golfs.  He would disappear for two or three days and then come back again.  Sometimes, when he arrived, I would see the police van, SAP, passing by.  I became very surprised why he was so free.  He was no longer worried about anything.  I suspected that he was  /working

MR LYSTER: 14A/1 working for the boers.  I used to be very worried about that, because I knew how he was enthusiastic, working for the organization and working for the liberation of black people, but I felt sorry for him.  I didn't know how to help him in this condition that he was in, because it seems he was torn in between two and that he has got new masters, but in his heart maybe it wasn't like that.  I didn't know what to do, because he wasn't speaking to me, even when I asked him, "But Ndo, what has happened?  Why are you no longer anxious?", he never said a thing.  He just kept quiet.  If he realised that I continued talking to him or asking him questions he would just say, "Good-bye" or just go and stay with his colleagues and friends.  That was the usual thing in the township, is hanging around along the poles under the trees.  Then they would just stay there and he would leave me along.  So I also didn't want to pursue this matter, but I was worried about this.  He really showed that he was no longer happy.  There was a time when he would look at me and start - tears would roll down his cheeks, but I didn't want to ask what was happening.  Those things continued for a while, until the end of 1988.  From there he told me that he was going to disappear for a while.  He was going to disappear for a few months and he will come back again, but he was still driving these new Golfs and changing them all the time, but I never took any numberplate of those Golf cars he was driving.  The last time I saw him he came back even from our home.  At that stage we didn't have mother.  Our mother died in 1983 and all of us looked at our father as the only member of the family.  From there he'd been coming from our home, from our father.  It was between

MR LYSTER: /March

MR LYSTER: 14A/5 March and April.  I cannot remember the dates, because I didn't record those things down.  I didn't even know at that stage that there would be a day like this, when I would have to recall those things.  I think between March and April in 1988, one day after he told me that he was going to disappear for a while, he came.  He wasn't driving a car on that day.  He asked for a bag - my bag, just among my own bags I had.  He packed a few things.  It was a very small bag.  He put all those things in his bag.  He sat down with me and he bade us good-bye, to me and my children, and he said he was going.  He was going to disappear for a while.  I've got his picture in my mind, when he was walking down, disappearing in the street, and crossing the street above.  When I stood there, trying to check what he was using as a form of transport, I didn't see him and I didn't see how it ended up.  I don't even know what picked him up.  That was the last day I saw him.  In 1990, when the people in exile came back from the organization, when they released President Mandela, my brother also - my elder brother came back - the one who had left in 1961.  He came back.  He told us that he was going to try to find out where Ndo was.  He used to tell us that he had contacted Chris Hani.  They are trying to investigate where he was, but after a while we didn't hear anything.  I've got also something else, which I forgot to say.  At home our father - there was a police of the special branch - the special branch used to come at home since when our elder brother disappeared.  There were certain police from Eshowe.  My father used to go and ask about Ndo to these policemen.  I can't remember their name.  They said, "He's alive.  He's around".  That was in  /1991.