Human Rights Violation Hearings — King William's Town — 1997-05-12

BUYISILE SAMUEL SANGOTSHA: The request I have to the Commission is that I would like to be helped, because I lost my property.  Secondly, Mxolisi has got a wife and children.  I would like the Commission to educate Mxolisi's children.

MS MAYA: How many are there?

BUYISILE SAMUEL SANGOTSHA: Two, there are two.

MS MAYA: How old are they, do you know?

BUYISILE SAMUEL SANGOTSHA: I am not sure, but their mother is here.  She can tell you their ages.

MS MAYA: We would like you to bring their mother to the investigators so that we can get that information.  Is that all you wanted to say?

BUYISILE SAMUEL SANGOTSHA: Yes, that is all.

MS MAYA: Thank you Sir.  I will request that I handle all the witnesses and then I will hand over to the Chairperson.  Your house was destroyed, your cars and this all happened because you were a member of the ANC and SANCO, 18th October 1992.  Is that so?

MNCEDI MAGUGA: Yes.

MS MAYA: Please come closer to the mike and tell us briefly as to what happened.

MNCEDI MAGUGA: It was in 1990 when the ANC was unbanned.  As the residents of Ndakana we organised that the African National Congress rise up.  There was a Resident Association, SANCO.  We, as the SANCO members, tried to mobilise the ANC branches around the area.  We succeeded in raising these structures of the ANC in our area.  We were confident that we were progressive.  We were fighting for liberation.  We, our desire was that we have a contribution to the struggle for liberation in this country.
 In 1992 there was a march from town to Bisho.  We managed to escape the shootings at Bisho.  When I got home I realised that it was not well.  Nothing happened that day however.  I think the Wednesday passed on peacefully.  On the Thursday, two am, I was not staying at home at the time, because of the oppressive ways of the Xhosa regime.  They would come at any time intimidating us looking for ANC members.  I left home, I could not sleep at home.  I was seldom home.  I would have to lock the door so that people thought that I was not there even if I was sleeping inside.  The police would come.  At the time we did not have meetings anymore as leaders.  If we held a meeting the police would come and disrupt.  They wanted leaders, especially, of the meetings.  If I had come out I would be harassed.  I could see that the police had a lot of anger and bitterness, because we were members of the ANC and we were active.

MS MAYA: Excuse me Mr Maguga.  Could you just move a bit backwards.  Thank you.

MNCEDI MAGUGA: And that kind of life, Mr Chairperson, one unfortunate day the police came and found me at home.  They took me into a Ford Sierra.  On the way it was clear to me as they spoke that my life was at risk if I had to continue with the activities of the African National Congress and SANCO.  Got to Zwelitsha to the headquarters of the Security Branch.  Got there at about seven in the morning.  A short while after I had arrived the police came, I think some were from Mtanzane, they started swearing at me.  The one started to, wanted to slap me.  They were asking what I was doing in the village.  Why is it that Ndakana I was causing chaos for the brigadier, what do I care about the ANC.  I said that my heart was with the oppressed black man of South Africa.  I was not thinking about myself, but to see our people being oppressed by the Government of the day.  Also, I said to them the Gqozo regime was part of the master plan of the South African Government at the time.
 There were a lot of questions, Mr Chairperson.  Some I could not answer, but eventually I was released.  I was given conditions that as they released me at five o' clock in the late afternoon I was told that I must not, no longer be active as an ANC member in the village.  I went home.  I could not keep quiet, I could not just sit and do nothing.  I had to continue with my struggle with the ANC.  On the tenth, after the Bisho march and massacre, as I was coming from Stutterheim, I had been driving in a bakkie that a friend of mine had lent to me.  I drove back in that bakkie at about six am from Stutterheim.  The youth, three youths came towards me.  They warned me that I must not be shocked, my entire house had been burnt down, but there were two rooms still standing.  They said that my kombi had been burnt.  The other, the windows had been broken down.  Lastly, the house of your friend was, there was also attempt to burn down her house.
 I went home and it was as they said.  Everything inside the house was burnt, my cars were burnt.  As I tried to investigate the matter in the village, I asked the residents if they did not see who it is that burnt down my house.  I asked if they could not stop the fire.  They said that they were too scared to come and put the fire out as they were scared to be shot by the perpetrators.

MS MAYA: Did you find out who is that burnt down your house?

MNCEDI MAGUGA: No, I did not find out even though I went to report this matter to the police.  What shocked me about the police is that they asked me, they asked which organisation I belonged to.  They said before they take a statement it was imperative that they know which organisation I belonged to.  I told them that they knew.  They said that I am a member of the ANC.  We were just asking to confirm.

MS MAYA: What police are these?

MNCEDI MAGUGA: These are the Frankfurt police.

MS MAYA: Did they take a statement?

MNCEDI MAGUGA: They tried to take a statement, because they wrote down all the details.

MS MAYA: Did they do anything about the matter?

MNCEDI MAGUGA: They did not do anything about it.  They just said they are going to see the house of an ANC member that was burnt down.

MS MAYA: Were you able to stay in your house after that?

MNCEDI MAGUGA: No, I was unable to do so, because there were curses from the Sandile home, Mpondo Sandile especially.

MS MAYA: Are you talking about the headman?  What did this have to do, what did the headman have anything to do with this incident?

MNCEDI MAGUGA: When our meetings were disrupted the police would say that they had been called by this family, the Sandile family, the headman, because, apparently, we had called meetings that had nothing to do with the Government of the day.  The soldiers were patrolling at that time, were based at the headman's home.  There was a house that had a double storey.  The soldiers stayed upstairs.  There were a lot of soldiers that stayed there.  I cannot, I could not even count them.  We thought that that could be their base.  There is another reason why I could not stay at home.  Before my house was burnt down I slept under my truck, because I was hiding away from the police.  About eight men came to my home.  The one passed next to me.  They had tracksuits on that I thought were tracksuits that belonged to the Ciskeian police.  They tried to kick down my house, the door into my house.  I think that they got information that I would sleep at home at times even though there would be a padlock outside the door.
 The Ciskeian soldiers, the Ciskeian police, the police force, the so-called police force, these people were the reasons why I could not stay at home, because they would come searching for me.  They would shoot at people at night in the village.  Nobody was happy.  Nobody could live peacefully.

MS MAYA: Mr Maguga, you said that these soldiers stayed at the headman's house, Sandile.  Did they stay there or would they be there now and again?  Would they be based there now and again?

MNCEDI MAGUGA: It is the police that would go there now and again.  After my house had been burnt down they actually stayed there.  The soldiers were staying there even the so-called Peace Force.  They would be coming from there when they would go to the village.

MS MAYA: Thank you Mr Maguga.  After your house was attacked and burnt down, you then went into exile.