Human Rights Violation Hearings — East London — 1996-04-17

EVENTS LEADING TO HIS DEATH: .   On a Monday the 24th of June 1985, Matthew telephoned the secretary of the UDF of the EAST LONDON  HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
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Eastern Cape Region, Derek Swarts, informing him that he won't be coming to the usual Wednesday meeting due to other commitments, but will be coming for a briefing on the 27th of June 1985 instead. He made a second telephone on the 27th of June 1985 to confirm that he was coming.  Both conversations were taped by the security police and a transcript of these telephones was produced as evidence during the second inquest.  This confirms what we long suspected, that Matthew's movements were closely monitored for 24 hours, in fact on the day he left for Port Elizabeth, with his friends and colleagues, his movements were monitored.
 On the 27th of June 1985 he left for Port Elizabeth in the company of his friends, Fort Calata,  Sicelo Mhlawuli, and Sparrow Mkhonto and that was the last time we saw them.  They were due back on the same night and when they did not come back, we knew that something serious had happened.  Early in the morning of the next day, I telephoned the UDF offices in Port Elizabeth, I also phoned Derek Swart and Molly Blackburn, to establish their whereabouts.  Derek Swart informed me that Matthew left with his friends for Cradock the previous night of the 27th of June 1985 at about 9 pm. You can imagine the shock, and I shivered to think what might have happened to these comrades.
 I kept the news secret for a while from all the families, excepting my brother in law who was planning what to do next.  The brother in law, Alex and I, we picked up a few activists and went and looked for them.  We decided to drive towards Port Elizabeth, and on our way we stopped over at Cookhouse and Bedford police stations, to check whether they have seen them, but we drew a blank.
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 I just want to say something mysterious happened then, well not mysterious but very interesting.  As we approached the police station, of course they didn't know who we were up and till my brother in law identified himself.  Immediately their whole mood changed and all the young police officers stood on guard, just in front of the door and we asked them whether they had seen them.  And they said that the last time they saw them was a t 12 o'clock the previous day.  And that also made us to wonder, because the police station in Cook House is far from the National Road.  Something clicked, it could be through their monitoring network that they picked up that Matthew was passing by at about that time.
 A similar search party looked for them in the Port Elizabeth area with no result.  We drove as Patterson and returned back home.  On arrival at home we were informed that the police had phoned, they left a message with a child, my brother in law's son, to inform the family that Matthew's burned car had been found near the Scribanta Racing Course outside Port Elizabeth.  Immediatly we knew that something serious had happened.
 Of course we had pointers because in May, you know, the PEPCO Three had disappeared without a trace. Relatives and  the Community were informed and some members of the family had to go to Port Elizabeth to establish what had happened.  It was this group that also assisted the families to identify the bodies later on.  So I alerted the press, the national media, international media and everybody of influence to try and put pressure onto the police authorities, or the government to produce them.  Of course, during those days anything could have happened, I mean we 
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thought of detentions, whatever.
 The community immediatly embarked on a school and a shop boycott to add more pressure on to the government. n Saturday the 29th June 1985, the bodies of Sparrow Mkhonto and Sicele Mhlawuli were found first and those of Matthew and Fort were found on the 2nd of July 1985.  All the bodies had multiple stab wounds and were badly burned.  
 Our lawyers during the second inquest argued that Matthew was monitored for 24 hours, a factor that was confirmed by Winter and Snyman who was regional head of the security branch of the Eastern Cape at the town station in Port Elizabeth during cross-examination. He couldn't have slipped the police monitoring networks.  Whatever befell him on that night of the 27th was known to the police and they killed him.
 We have stated why we believe that Matthew had to die.  We think that it was because he was seen as a person who was responsible for the collapse of the community councils discipline in Lingalishle.  We also think that he was also held responsible for disrupting the schools by instigating the students to engage in school boycotts and for the resignation of all school communities in Cradock. He was also accused for mobilising the people of Cradock and the neighbouring towns under the banner of the then banned, ANC.  They hated him for raising the level of political awareness of people in the rural areas.  He was seen as a communist, a terrorist and therefore a dangerous man, who was threat to the state.

MR SMITH: Thank you Nyame. Can I just take you back a little?  You mentioned this, one of the forms of harassment, tampering with motor vehicles, can you maybe just give us a
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little more detail about that?

NYAMEKA GONIWE: I can't hear.

MR SMITH: You mentioned as one of the forms of harassment by security forces, the tampering with motor vehicles.  Can you maybe just give us a little more detail about that please.

NYAMEKA GONIWE: Well of course our tyres were slashed, sometimes we would wake up and find ...(indistinct) they poured some, I think it was sand in my brother in law's petrol tank. Yes those were the things that we thought they did while we were asleep because the cars were parked in an open yard.

MR SMITH: Can you recall when Matthew left for Port Elizabeth on that evening of the 27th, can you recall whether he said anything to you regarding when he was going to return?  Anything at all of importance at all to the Commission?

NYAMEKA GONIWE: Yes normally Matthew and Felix used to come back at about 12 and obviously their meetings would go on till late in the evening and he used to go every Wednesday to a briefing or to a meeting in Port Elizabeth. Of course the family used to warn them all the time, because this was a marked man, and there were pointers that the security police were after him.  So we warned them not to come back very late at night but rather to stay over than to come back, but that evening they came back.

MR SMITH: And the warning that you're talking about, did that actually also happen on the 27th before they left?

NYAMEKA GONIWE: Yes still jokingly I talked to Matthew, Sicelo and Fort, and I said, well your car was chased, when this family left for Port Elizabeth it would be followed, by the
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security last week, and please don't travel at night!  Rather sleep over.  They laughed at me, of course they didn't take me seriously.  I don't know why, perhaps they never thought that they would be killed.

MR SMITH: Now you realise of course that it's quite possible for persons to come forward and to actually admit to the killing of your husband and to apply for amnesty to one of the committees of this Commission.  What would by your attitude to that. How would you feel towards these people if they were in fact identified and that you were to know that these are the people who are responsible for the brutal slaying of your husband?

NYAMEKA GONIWE: Well I look forward to that.  I mean I know it's difficult after suffering such pain and trauma.  But we need to know what happened and who they are, and also, I mean they have to need to show some remorse.