Human Rights Violation Hearings — Queenstown — UNKNOWN

MS MAYA: We shall now call upon Maria Mkayi.

BONGANI FINCA: We would like you to be quiet please, quiet please.  Thank you.

MS MAYA: Ma'am in this statement before us we find that you too lost your husband at the shooting incident at this church.  We would now like you to please tell us who Mnyandeki was and how your life changed after this incident and also tell us how you felt after the death of your husband when he was shot at this church.

M MKAYI: I've never been right since then up till now.  I am receiving treatment at present.

MS MAYA: How did you feel when your husband was shot in that church?

M MKAYI: I was very hurt because there is no one that helps me.

MS MAY: Who told you what happened?

M MKAYI: My neighbour came to tell me.  When I was going out following my husband to church, my neighbour appeared and sent a child to call me and please come, because my husband has been injured.

MS MAYA: ; When you got there, what happened Ma'am?

M MKAYI: Before I even got there, I was told to go back, that there was a car going to the yard and I went back and
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found the car at the yard.  I said that this man must go with him and the children and take him to the hospital.
 This man then went and when he got to the corner house, there were hippo's standing there and they stopped it, the car and told the children to get out and searched it and wanted to know who was this person going with, then this man said he is with me.
 And they wanted to know who are you, he said I am Mboqana, I'm taking him to the hospital and they put Mboqana in the hippo and said this is a bloody communist.

MS MAYA: And this vehicle which was stopped by the police, you say that they took him out of the car and put him into the hippo?  Much as your husband was hurt, he was taken out and put into the hippo and why did they say they were taking him out?

M MKAYI: Because they didn't want him to go to the hospital because he was a communist or a comrade.

MS MAYA: What happened after they had put him into the hippo?

M MKAYI: The children came back and told me and we slept because it was late already and the next morning my neighbour and I woke up and went to the hospital to check and we were told that he wasn't there.
 We were referred to court and when we got to court, we got there when they were busy opening and there were several people there.
 Other were laying on the floor, others on top of the tables and when we found him, we were told to go into an office there at the mortuary.
 We went there and we were asked who does he belong to and I said, he is mine and we were told to take him to a 
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place where we could have him, to a mortuary.
 I then went to Russel.  I went and took him to Russel and Russel signed that he would accept him and I went home.
 The following morning when we were preparing ourselves, Russel came and said he had come to fetch us because we were needed.  When we got there, Russel said that we should go and it was now that he was being released to take him.
 And we then went back home, they had already taken him.

MS MAYA: What explanation did you get for his death because I mean, you had last seen him on his way to the hospital for treatment and next thing he was dead?

M MKAYI: There at the police station, where he was taken at court, he, when I hear people talking I understand that he died when he got there and I wanted to know what was found and I was told that he had died of bullet wounds.

MS MAYA: You got the corpse and you prepared for the funeral.  Were you harassed or what happened, what bad treatment did you received?

M MKAYI: I haven't been healthy ever since then, even during the preparations for the funeral, after the funeral the police didn't stop harassing us.  They would come to the house and ask what damage there was and I would just say that there was nothing wrong, and they would take the children.
 The children weren't getting any rest.  The children were not getting any rest.  Since then, my health was not being right and I have had to stay at home because of health reasons.

MS MAYA: Was anyone arrested, was there any investigation?

M MKAYI: No, there was no investigation or inquest.
 After the funeral we were told that we were wanted at 
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court and we went and when we got there, there were seven of us, I was the first one.
 And when I looked, I saw that there was no Magistrate, there was only the Prosecutor and other people.  I was called and I went in and I was told that Cooperwitz had said that he had TB.
 I said, no Cooperwitz was laying, he never had TB, he was working at Rex Security and there was nothing wrong with his health.

MS MAYA: Did they say that this was the Doctor's report that he had TB?

M MKAYI: Yes, they said that Cooperwitz had said that he had had TB.
 After that no further steps were taken up until now.

MS MAYA: Didn't you approach an attorney?

M MKAYI: No, I did not go.  I never had any means to go to an attorney.

MS MAYA: ; What is your wish, what would you like the Commission to do for you?

M MKAYI: I do have a wish.  I do not work.  I do not even have a place, I live in a shack.
 And I would like the Commission to help me in such regards.  I've got a child that stopped attending school because of the lack of finance.

MS MAYA: Is there anything else Ma'am?

M MKAYI: No, that is all because I am still receiving treatment.  I don't even know what else to say.

MS MAYA: One more question.  One last question, when your husband died, how old were your children?

M MKAYI: They were a bit old, my two.  The one limps and the other one is the one that stopped schooling.
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29 NA DASTILE

MS MAYA: Thank you very much Ma'am.

MR SANDI: Let us now go to Ms Dastile.  Mrs Dastile, in your statement you said that your child Fikile Dastile was also at the church at the time of the shooting incident.

NA DASTILE: Yes, he had ... (tape ends) (tape starts) ... up at home and at about five o'clock, half past four, five o'clock, a car came with three men inside.
 One of the men had recognised him as somebody that stayed there.  I don't know who the other two men were.
 The men came and stopped the car at the gate.

MR SANDI: Is this the car that had Fikile inside when he was injured, was this before he died?

NA DASTILE: Yes.  He, when he came, he couldn't even talk any more.  When they brought him out of the car, they were carrying him, but he couldn't talk because he had a hole in his chest and when they blew there, he would look and when they stopped, he would close his eyes.
 And when we looked at his back, there was a hole there too and a big hole on either side of his back and another one in the region of his stomach and they said to me Mama sit, we are taking him to the hospital.
 They never came back and told me what happened at the hospital.  We woke up the next morning and we were told to go and look for him at the hospital.

MR SANDI: When you got to the hospital, what was happening there?  Did you find Fikile?

NA DASTILE: At the hospital I found a nurse who told me that all the people who were shot at the meeting, were sent to the mortuary at the court.

MR SANDI: Did you then go to the mortuary at court?