Human Rights Violation Hearings — Cradock — 1996-02-10

BONGANI FINCA: We welcome you Miss Khethwa, I am going to hand over to Reverend Xundu to swear you in.  After that Ms Tiny Maya will lead you in questions on behalf of the Commission.

REV XUNDU: Thank you Mr Chairperson.

BONISWA ELSIE KHETHWA: (sworn states)

REV XUNDU: Thank you, she is sworn in Mr Chairperson.

MS MAYA: Thank you Chairperson.  Mrs Khethwa, are these your correct names Boniswa Elsie and you reside at number 42, Nizizwe township?

BONISWA ELSIE KHETHWA: Yes.

MS MAYA: In your statement here in front of me, you are going to tell us about your son Simphiwe Khethwa who was shot and killed by the police at Nizizwe, Venterstad on the 6th of April 1986?  How old was Simphiwe at the time?

BONISWA ELSIE KHETHWA: He was only 13 years old.

MS MAYA: The statement says he was born in 1973, is that so?

BONISWA ELSIE KHETHWA: Yes.

MS MAYA: He was still at school, he was doing standard 3, is that so?

BONISWA ELSIE KHETHWA: Yes.

MS MAYA: Can you tell us briefly what was the situation like at Nizizwe township during the time of his death?

BONISWA ELSIE KHETHWA: Yes.  The police started by troubling our
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brothers who were studying outside Colesberg and Burgersdorp, they didn't like them because they were saying that they were the cause of the commotion at Venterstad.
 Just before the death of my son, my brother quarrelled with a Sergeant, I was called, I went there.  When I tried to intervene by asking the police what was their problem, because they were assaulting my brothers, what was the reason now for that chaos, the policemen said I must keep quiet, because I had a communist right in the house.
 And they are going to make it a point that they end all the communists, they will put them to end.  On the 6th of April 1986, it was on Good Friday, the police came to my house in the afternoon.  When they arrived, they said today we are here, and we want these communists that are here in your house, these dogs.
 Unfortunately the elder people were not in the house, it was only my child and the other children who were in the house.  They ran away, they ran out of the house through the back door, because the police were coming through the front door.
 They ran away, they went to the bush and the police was still chasing them.  They were running towards the farms.  Late in the evening the other children came back who also ran away with my son, but my son didn't come back.
 The following day we started looking for him, asking people.  One of the children from the Baduli family said he left him next to the river and the police were following him and he didn't see him, because he was also running away.
 That is when the residents of Venterstad took a step and said we are going there, we are going to the farm, we will be looking for this boy.
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 My father had left with a bicycle to the neighbouring farms with the aim of looking for him.
 He couldn't find him, he came back.  After some time they got him.  I went to the owner of the butchery and told him to help me trying to find my son and I requested that the people shouldn't be killed, because they were looking for my son.  And the owner of the butchery said he was going to talk to the police about this.
 My father and my uncle found my son.  My father said while he was still at a distance, he could see that the head was twisted, the face was facing another direction.
 He noticed that he was not alive, just before he could come closer to him.  He touched him, he could see that he was beaten and his body was full of blood.
 Even under the arms, he had blisters all over the body.  My father left my uncle there and he also went to the police and he called the police to see him.
 When the police arrived, my father said he asked the police if they could see that my son's neck was broken.  The police said it is because of his behaviour, that is why he was like that, there is nothing that the police could do at that stage and he deserved to die at that place.
 And the police even said that we parents, don't talk to our children to tell them to stop doing the things.  The police took my son with my father, they took him with the van, took them with a van and took them to the police station.

MS MAYA: Do you think he died because he was shot or because he was assaulted?

BONISWA ELSIE KHETHWA: No, I think he was shot and his head was twisted.  The police said he bumped against the pole, that
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is why his neck was like that.  But when my father looked at him, he could see that that was not true at all because even the pole and the fence was at a distance.  If he died as a result of that bumping, he would die next to the fence.

MS MAYA: What happened on a Monday?

BONISWA ELSIE KHETHWA: They said on Monday they will take him to the Doctor for a post-mortem because the police were treating us badly and I requested that they should stop the process of a post-mortem, because I could see that my son was shot, there was no other reason for the post-mortem and they said he will have to be operated.
 I phoned my sister and I told her about the situation and my sister said there was an attorney in East London, I must request her to go there and approach the attorney.

MS MAYA: Did you get that Doctor for a post-mortem?

BONISWA ELSIE KHETHWA: The police took him on a Monday to Steynsburg to Dr Jordaan and the other Doctor.  When they arrived there, my father was there also.  He said they put his body on the table and the police forced him to stand there and watch the procedure of the post-mortem because he deserved to die in that manner.
 The Doctor gave my father a Death Certificate and my father asked what was the reason of his death and the Doctor said, you can see that he is shot and as you can see, even the neck was broken.
 My father came back and he told me that he was very, very depressed because of what he had seen on that day.  He told me that my son was operated from top to the bottom in front of his eyes.
 He gave me the Death Certificate.  On that Monday at five o'clock the Sergeant came with a van, with one White
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policeman and they said they want to take the Certificate, the Death Certificate, because they were not satisfied with the results of the post-mortem because it was actually degrading the police and they were taking the Certificate to Bloemfontein to their own Doctor and they said they are not going to release his body because a new Death Certificate was available.
 They also took his body.  For two weeks his body was taken away, because they were saying they want their own Doctor to perform the post-mortem.

MS MAYA: During this time - what were these police doing at that time, while you were waiting for the body of your son?

BONISWA ELSIE KHETHWA: They said to me I must wait, they will tell me, they will give me the date of the funeral.  I phoned Siwisa, the attorney, I told him that the police refused to give me the body of my son and he said he was going to phone the police.
 And he said the only thing that can help you is to go to East London and make another statement.  Even in East London the police in the offices, they were arresting people in Siwisa's offices, the attorney's offices.
 Siwisa said he can not, there is nothing much he can do, he will try in stead to go back to Venterstad, because the police were arresting people in the offices.

MS MAYA: When did you get the body of your son?