Human Rights Violation Hearings — Soweto — 1996-07-26

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: Right.  Do you know who this person is and are you at liberty to tell us what her name is?

KHOLEKA PATRICIA MANYAMALALA: The woman's name is Sobetwa, Mrs Sobetwa, that's the name of the woman.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: Thank you.  You went, after you were informed about the attack, you went to report this at the police station. Am I right?

KHOLEKA PATRICIA MANYAMALALA: Yes.
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GLENDA WILDSCHUT: What was the reaction of the police at that time?  Did they take a statement from you or did they dismiss you and say that they are not prepared to take a statement from you?

KHOLEKA PATRICIA MANYAMALALA: They took a statement, but they were saying the evidence is not enough, a lot of evidence that used to take place, that took place on that particular afternoon, all of them, they are going to combine them and they will make one statement or I can't remember clearly, but they said all the incidents of that particular day, and the people who were killed and the people who were injured, their statements, they are still investigating their statements.  Therefore they said they are going to call us again and tell us about the follow-up.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: There was no follow-up?

KHOLEKA PATRICIA MANYAMALALA: No, there was no follow-up.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: Can you tell us, at the time of the funeral, were you harassed at all, how did the funeral go down with what happened, at the funeral?

KHOLEKA PATRICIA MANYAMALALA: At the funeral there was nothing, there was nothing unusual. Everything was just normal.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: I would like to just find out from you, this was an incident that happened to your family, it was completely unexpected, you didn't expect this to happen.  As you said your husband was involved with the church but not actively involved in any political organisation.  What was the impact of this incident on your life and in the life of your family? How did it affect your family?

KHOLEKA PATRICIA MANYAMALALA: My family was affected, especially the children.  My children, they don't have peace. Even when they are writing their compositions at school, the essays,
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they still have a question mark, although they are small children, they don't actually have an opportunity to voice out, but when they write down, I can see that they are emotionally affected, they are emotionally affected.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: Do they talk about their father at all, and what are the kind of things they say when they talk about him?

KHOLEKA PATRICIA MANYAMALALA: They talk about him, especially when we are happy, when we are relaxing, maybe on Sundays, if we are going to church, they remember things that we used to do while he was still alive.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: We normally try to find out from people who come and appear before the Commission, what it is that they would like the Commission to assist them with and to for them. I would like to find out from you, what would you want the Commission to do to help you to deal with this incident, what is it that the Commission can do for you?

KHOLEKA PATRICIA MANYAMALALA: I would be grateful if the Commission can try, if a person is in charge of something, like a person normally in charge of escorting people from the rally and any person who is in charge, he must try and use his powers. I think he was callous, because there was no reason for a person to be killed, whereas there was a person who was in charge.
 Secondly, if the Commission can help me financially, because I have children and even Thandabantu, his mother is very old and she can't do anything for herself.  I am the only breadwinner, I must support the children, I must maintain and take them to school.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: We have noted your requests. We also have to make recommendations to the President that would help the
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President formulate policy that will ensure that human rights violations don't ever occur again in our country.  Maybe you had an opportunity to think about this before.  So I would like to find out from you, what are the kind of things that you think that we should be saying to the President, so that we can ensure that this does not happen again.

KHOLEKA PATRICIA MANYAMALALA: To the President, I wish the Commission can emphasise that as I have already said that the police, so that the police must help confidence, they must do their duty completely.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: I have no more questions to ask you, so I will hand you back to the Chair.  Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Mrs Manyamalala, I am going to ask the other Commissioners if they have any questions to ask you.

MR LEWIN: Mrs Manyamalala, could I just ask, I would like to get a clear picture of what you know from the people who were with your husband.  What actually happened in terms of the actual incident where they stopped the car and attacked him, because was there for instance, anyone who gave a command, the person ....
END OF TAPE 3 - DAY 5 - (FOLLOWING TAPE 5 - DAY 5) - WRONG CASSETTE IN HOLDER - NO TAPE 4, DAY 5.
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