Human Rights Violation Hearings — Pietermaritzburg — UNKNOWN

WITNESS:   It was a boy from a neighbour, from Zondi's place.  He was shot on the arm that evening.  After that the police took him with, early hours of the morning, and they took him to the hospital.  I will try to get his name.  It went on.  I did discover that, you see, it was something that was planned.  You see, before they will come to harass us, the Inkatha, police will come first, peruse and search the house, and after that, a day or two days after, the Inkatha will come, knowing very well that we are not armed, we don't have any weapons with.  I left that place.  Now I want to proceed to this Seven Day War, which I don't understand why it's referred to as the Seven Day War because according to us, and as Zulus, what we know about war is that there are two groups fighting each other, not that people will be just shot and stabbed, innocent people.  But I want to accept that because the Truth Commission has accepted that this is a Seven Day War, but I would not call this a Seven Day War, I will only call this a day of attack and a reign of terror.  The 25th came.  I won't even explain so much about the 25th because I was up at the mountains just nearby KwaMnyandu.  I saw the bus stopping by a certain store.  I did not know why it was making a stop there.  When I was coming back with the cattle herded to my place I discovered my brother, the one who just left here, the son was shot and died, and the daughter by the name of Gabingane of my brother's was also shot.  And they were there, they were at one place.  I got home and I saw people running towards the scene to see how they were killed.  On the 25th the kids were coming from Kings Park.  Well, let me not waste your time with regard to the 25th and 26th and 27th.  On the 8th war began and hell broke loose.  I opened up for the cattle.  When I was trying to lead them to the other side the neighbour asked, "Why don't you leave them alone?"  As we were still conversing we saw - around Shange area we saw many people, numerous in number, approaching.  There were the Shanges on the other side and us on the other side.  It did not take long.  Within a twinkling of an eye we saw them coming from the other side of the mountain, you know, the place that was separating the other area.  The youths, the young men who were trying to stand the situation, they could see that they were fighting a losing battle, they ran, they fled, they ran away.  My brother, the father of the deceased, was at home.  According to our culture after your daughter has died you have to put on certain attire, and he was in that attire respecting what had happened to him.  All the UDF youths ran away.  I was only saved by the bush and one other friend of mine who is late now.  It was Zimu.  We were the only two of us, although I did not know where he has hid, because when I tried to gain entry to one neighbour's garden I found out my neighbour was already there lying down, and I lied right next to him.  They came attacking the houses, opening up the porch, and one will ask, "Do you want a key?"  We were quiet lying down there, very quiet in that garden.  It was difficult for me to leave Zuma, the one who was lying next to me, because he had lost the other foot, he only had one leg.  You know a man die trying and fighting, you just don't give up as a man.  I also realised that because those people were close by, and were in the garden, if I had something I would probably not even have used that thing, because they would have realised and seen where the direction of this thing that was hitting them came from and start attacking us, and this other one was at a disadvantage because he could not walk, he had lost his leg.  It was about one and a half kilometres, the people who had run as far as one and a half kilometres away from where we were.  I tried to crawl when I heard the smell of smoke, and lo and behold they had already attacked Lawrence Zimu's place, and they left this house, they attacked the next one, they attacked the next one, they attacked the other one.  The last one was my house.  We left the kids, those who were still around, to try and see if we could extinguish the fire.  Although the house was set alight it was not so much burnt.  We could try some means to save the house.  We discovered that everything, the furniture inside, was burnt to ashes, like the primus stoves that were there burned into ashes.  When we got to the house they had already burnt houses.  I got that one clear.  We tried to extinguish the fire, but so much was damaged that we could not manage.  We left to search for the other kids who had already run away.  I told them, and especially the boys, that, "Little boys, leave, go.  Zimu and myself," I mean Lawrence Zimu, "will see what to do here," and truly the boys did respond and said, "We will leave and we will go to Eden."  And I told them that, "We won't make it to Eden, but you go," and they left.  We slept in that bush area, so to speak, of it.  The following morning they came to see how much damage they have caused.  And I said, "Let's not go to my place."  I told Zimu, "Let's not go to my place."  We went to a certain man called Mr Vilakazi.  I said, "I will go and have a look at my place," because they had taken about 22 cattle, about 15 goats.  My possessions, everything in the house was burnt into ashes.  My two cars were so much damaged.  I went to Mr Vilakazi.  It was myself, Mr Vilakazi and Zimu.  We made our way towards my place.  We could see that they were doing as they wished.  It wasn't long they came.  That was on the 29th they came, using a completely different route this time around.  You see, our house is towards the mountain.  Now, they came from the upper side of the mountain and they were approaching from some rocks from up the mountains.  They were so excited and the mood was jubilant, saying, "They have left the place, we are in control."  And as they were so excited up there in the mountain, you know, they looked like they were dancing they were so much in a jubilant mood.  They were coming down from the other side of the mountain, from behind.  Suddenly we saw them right on the route that we were supposed to use trying to escape.  that's when I heard Vilakazi saying, "We are finished here, we are dead."  Zimu said, "We are dead."  The axe that he had from his place, because he said, "This is the only thing that was left in my house," he took it with.  He did not know now where that axe was, and he had thrown it in some dustbin around there.  Now we heard gunshots coming from those people to us.  I just saw Zimu suddenly hiding, and the few things that I had with me, I don't know how, I just threw them down, but I had to find some place of refuge suddenly.  Vilakazi had an opportunity because he hid at a better place than we were.  Now, the three of us were each one in his own place hiding.  We saw the mood changed and the place suddenly was in smoke.  Now what was happening then, they were finishing up the houses that they did not get to burn the previous day.  We were there hiding.  We heard doors banging and we were in smoke.  I woke up where I was hiding, I tried to crawl.  I was looking around for Lawrence Zimu as to where he was hiding.  Fortunately I located him.  There was a police vehicle, the Hippo, the one we refer to as a Hippo.  It was going that sound.  They were taking the cattles.  You see mine were taken on the 28th, now on the 29th they were taking the rest that was remaining, the cattle, and they took them with.  If I am not mistaken I just heard one police saying, "Why are you taking these cattles?  Why are you taking them?"  One voice responded and said, "These cows belong to us, because they took our cattle so these ones definitely belong to us."  And I woke up.  They had already left, the area was clear now.  We went and made our way towards Vilakazi's place.  Now, there was a supermarket along the way.  Before even getting there we met two gentlemen, white gentlemen, driving a car.  They said,"Come join us.  We've people we've heard that died around this area on Thursday."  It was now myself, Zimu and Vilakazi accompanying these two white gentlemen.  When we got to the scene we found two grandmothers - the other was Sibisi, the other one was Mtolo - lying so pathetic on the road and bleeding profusely.  The grass was suddenly in a river of blood.  They were taken.  I don't know where they were taken to.  They took pictures of those grandmothers and they asked, "How old do you think they are?"  I guessed, I said, "Probably 70 years."  Late in the afternoon the two gentlemen said, "We've already heard that at Ngubane's place there's something that occurred.  Let's get there," and when we got there we found them.  No, actually they decided now we should not go there because it was already dark to Ngubane's place.  And we asked them to take us in their car to Ntuthuko or in Edendale.  When we got there our children and our wives thought we had been killed because we were not there yet, but fortunately we escaped and we made it to the hall in Edendale.  What made me so excited, and even to this day when I look at that area, and when I look at the Truth Commission and those who have witnessed KwaMnyandu, the attack, and things that were going on and transpired, and the tragedy.  They came taking statements from us.  I don't know how many statements we gave them.  Even to this day we've never seen anything being done from those statements, or perhaps any action that was taken.  It seems the statements were taken and nothing was done thereafter.  Maybe let me just stop right here.  You know my possessions I can't even tell you.  There's so many things that were damaged.  I am talking also about my doors, because they kept coming to the house and I will discover when I get there that my door was just on the floor.  They kicked it probably and it broke and fell.  And neighbours started telling me, "Stop coming and frequenting your house.  Please keep away from your house because you will die."