Human Rights Violation Hearings — Uitenhage — 1996-08-27

CHAIRPERSON: We are now going to call on Mr Sandi to call people.

ZWELIBANZI ALFRED NQIKASHE: (sworn states)

MR SANDI: The person who is going to be leading you is Ms Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela next to me, the other side, thank you very much.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Thank you very much Chairperson, thank you Mr Sandi.
 Zwelibanzi, as you have heard, my name is Pumla and the chairman has already indicated that we are now going to ask you to tell us how this whole thing affected you, the Langa massacre.  What affect it had on your life, if you could just tell us so that we could see.  You have come here on behalf of Lungile Nqikashe who was your brother.

ZWELIBANZI ALFRED NQIKASHE: Thank you very much Ms Pumla.  I greet the house at large, I am Zwelibanzi Alfred Nqikashe and I live in Despatch.  I am going to be very brief.
 Firstly, as the Chairperson said, he would like to know how this whole massacre affected our lives and I am going to say that is was very painful for us what happened on the 21 
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March because firstly, there was no reason why it should have happened, because the people had not done anything.  All that had happened was that we were being oppressed and victimized by the Whites accused of being violent, we were their victims at the time.  We wanted to go and bury our fallen victims at the time, and unfortunately the authorities stood in front of us at the time and would not allow us.  It was very painful so much so that as I speak today, my parents are no longer here, they have passed away.  At the time when my brother Lungile Nqikashe passed away, when this happened to Lungile they were still alive, but after they heard that he had also been shot, and we had heard that he wasn't even in Uitenhage any longer, that he was now in Cape Town, we don't even know how he got to Cape Town.
 This surprised the whole Nqikashe home and it shocked my parents and we heard the request from the social workers in August.  It was about something that had happened in March.  Social workers from Port Elizabeth came and asked us if we would have any place for Lungile Nqikashe who was in Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, who would be in a wheelchair because he had been struck in his spinal cord and it was found that his legs had been affected and firstly he would have to go to court and they wanted to know if we would be able to go.  We then found that we wouldn't be able to go because I had just started working and I was the only one working in the family and thus we were unable.
 During the third week the social workers came back to tell us that what had happened is that Lungile had received an operation where they wanted to try and fix his legs but he did not survive the operation, he had passed away.  There UITENHAGE HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
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was a request that we should hurry because the government would give us four days to go and claim his body and if this four days expired he would be buried by convicts.   Thereafter what I did because my parents were not very literate or educated, they did not know what was happening or what to do, then unfortunately I was working and I was in a struggle and myself and Tobikile Laauw were the ones leading Despatch under comrades such as Fikile Nkobese who was speaking here.  I then hurried to ask my comrades in Uitenhage for help.  They were also our brothers from our White brothers who had shops, the Watson brothers and there was also my one brother who was in the struggle who was working at Volkswagen, his name was Machola.  I met him and said to him, asked him what I should do about this situation because we would not be able to fetch my brother in 4 days.  He took me to Mr Watson who was at this shop of his in Uitenhage.  We went there and Mr Watson phoned the social workers in Port Elizabeth requesting, informing them that we would not be able to go within the 4 days if they could please extend those 4 days by a week.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Without interrupting you Zwelibanzi, you were now busy preparing to go and fetch him there in Cape Town?

ZWELIBANZI ALFRED NQIKASHE: Yes, this is the time we were preparing to fetch him in Cape Town.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: So if you could just try and tell us after having fetched him did you bury him here in Uitenhage?

ZWELIBANZI ALFRED NQIKASHE: When the request was successful, I met with Comrades Netisis Toto and they took me to the gentleman at the burial society and he said that he would provide transport to me free of charge, not free of charge, but he
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would charge me per kilometre.  So it would cost me R550.  We then fetched him and brought him back and buried him in Despatch.  We were unable to bury him together with the others at the time because we brought him back and we buried him as his family in Despatch, but fortunately there were some comrades such as Netsis Toto that were present.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Thank you very much Zwelibanzi, I would like to ask you, what requests you have that you would like to place before this Commission?

ZWELIBANZI ALFRED NQIKASHE: Appearing before this Commission today I am very happy because for a long time I have not known what to do because things like this are very important because it is my wish that things like this should have been public that the whole world should know about it and my wish is that the Truth Commission should please make it possible for us, the people of Despatch to have a tombstone to commemorate the victims, the fallen victims of the massacre on March the 21st.  Even though there are few of us, the tombstone that exists is here at Kwanebushle but I would like there to be one there.
 Secondly, I would like the Truth Commission to give us a hall at Despatch where we can hold our meetings and use that hall to hold meetings our children can play there and we can inform people of our history and things like this.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Thank you very much Zwelibanzi, I am now going to hand you over to the Chairperson.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much Mr Nqikashe.