Human Rights Violation Hearings — Pietermaritzburg — UNKNOWN

WITNESS:   It was on a Sunday, May 27th.  I was just catching a nap because of my health.  My husband was not there because he went to fix his car with his friend, Moses Makhanye.  They continued fixing the car up until 1 o'clock.  They came back.  I heard them chatting to each other, and he asked me how I was.  I told him I am still okay, and he told me that they need petrol to put in the car so that they can test if it can start.  After a while one girl came and knocked at the house, and she said he must come and they are going to have lunch in our neighbours.  They left, and when they came back if I am not mistaken it was 3 o'clock, and they said they were going to look for the petrol so that they can test the car.  They went by a van.  This van belonged to Mr Mkonjo.  They were three.  It was Mondli Mapanga and my husband and Mkonjo Jama.  They left, and they didn't explain where they were going to buy this petrol.  Until it was late they didn't come back.  I went to bed and I fell asleep.  I woke up at half past nine and I realised I didn't turn off the lights, and then I turned them off and I went back to sleep again.  I dreamt that night, and my dream told me that something happened.  At 3.00 am I woke up and I started packing things.  As a cultural thing when someone has died you pack things, but at that time I started packing things before I could hear that something happened.  I don't know why I was doing that.  And one person came to my house and asked where was my husband, and I said he didn't come back home, and this girl said, "How come, because also even my brother didn't come back, and they all left all at the time."  So this girl went on looking for them, and she didn't find them.  During the day my mother-ion-law came, and she said to me I must get ready so that we go on to look for them.  And I said to them that, "If you find Mondli you will find my husband, because they left both."  At half past three, when I looked at the road and I saw them coming.  They walked slowly, slowly, and then when they started departing from each other ... (incomplete - end of Side B, Tape 3) ... in-law came and ... (inaudible) ... been burned.  We stayed there as usual and we prepared for the funeral on Wednesday, and the following day it was going to be a holiday, Thursday.  They went to fetch the corpse, my husband's corpse, and people who saw his body said no, this wasn't my husband.  I didn't see it, and then they took it back to the mortuary.  And then the next day they brought my husband's body.  It was really my husband's body that time.  After three days we buried my husband.  I was called at his job.  After four days actually, not three.  I went there and I told them whatever they needed to know from me, because they were asking me questions.  And then the next day police came.  These were police sergeants.  They told me that I need to come to my husband's work, and they also asked Mrs Mkonjo to come with me.  We went, myself and Mrs Mkonjo, and we found one policeman who greeted us, and this policeman asked us how old we were.  I told the policeman, and Mrs Jama as well did the same.  And this police asked us, "How come you don't look your age?  Mrs Jama looks older than you and you look younger than her, but your ages are different."  And then he explained to us that, "We called you to come here because of your late husbands.  He said, he went to the garage where your husbands have died, and they said - their story is difficult for us to understand.   When we were quiet these policemen produced photographs showing us how they were burned, and he asked us to identify them, so we pointed to him.  And he asked us whose car it was, and we explained it was Jama's car.  He didn't explain more to us, and he just said to us, "I have been to the garage where the incident happened, and I got nothing and there's nothing I can do."  And I was surprised to hear someone from the police force saying something like this, telling me that he's just working for his children.  We went back home, and he said he was going to call us on the date of the case.  I stayed there and weeks passed.  One day I went to my aunty, my mother's cousin.  I heard someone saying, "There are people who are looking for you," and when I went outside I realised it was the same police sergeant.  He didn't come out from his car, he just asked  me, "What did you do, because the date for the case has now passed?"   And then I asked him, "Why are you asking me, because you were supposed to be the one to tell me the date, and if you didn't give me the date how was I supposed to know?"  And then he said, "I sent Mrs Jama to come and tell you that this date was the court case."  That was the end of the story.  Nothing happened after that.  After that I was forced to go and look for the job.   I am very much happy, Mrs Jama, about what you've just said, you explained to us.  You can take your time.  In your statement you said there was a kombi, and this kombi had corpses inside and it was trying to park next to your house.  Did you notice the colour or the numberplate of this kombi?   ---   They explained to us that there was a kombi that had been robbed, and this kombi had people who were dead there.  And then no one knew who were they, and then we just heard that they were shot and burned.

MRS GCABASHE: Were they burned in their own car or in this kombi?

WITNESS:   In their own car.  They were tied up by ropes, and then they shot them, and then they brought them to the garage and they burned them there.  The neighbour was there and he saw this car, and he said, "I just saw the car after it had been lit."  Luckily one guy had a hose pipe from the garage and he tried to stop the fire.

MRS GCABASHE: Those people - that person who saw them, can you remember his name?

WITNESS:   No, I can't, but he said it was just a kombi that he saw.

MRS GCABASHE: Let's go back to your statement.  You said something about Detective Gumede.  You said something about Detective Gumede who came to you.  I am now asking was he from police station called Plessis?

WITNESS:   Yes, he was working there, but I don't know whether he's still there.

MRS GCABASHE: Lastly, did you find out - did you find your husband's death certificate, what was written?

WITNESS:   It was written burnt.

MRS GCABASHE: You said your health or your life changed after your husband's death.  Can you please explain to us how it changed?

WITNESS:   I was a housewife, but after that I was forced to go and look for a job.

MRS GCABASHE: Another thing that I would like to know is that you were called at your husband's work.  Did they give you something?

WITNESS:   Yes.  I received R600,00 cash

MRS GCABASHE: How long was he working there?

WITNESS:   I think it was two months if I am not mistaken, because it was Metro Motors Garage.

MRS GCABASHE: I also heard you saying one woman from Wesley Methodist Church is the one who's trying to comfort you, and you said you also have pain.  Where do you have this pain?

WITNESS:   In me I - sometimes I have this emotional pain.  I was talking about emotional pains, and I am emotionally tortured, and I find myself not acceptable to people since after my husband's death.

MRS GCABASHE: You said your son, Luwazi, has asthma.  Is he

MRS GCABASHE: receiving treatment?

WITNESS:   Yes, he is going to hospital. Who is paying for this medication?  Who is paying for his medication?   ---   In hospital it's free for kids under six, so he's not paid.