Human Rights Violation Hearings — Alexandra — 1996-10-30

MR LEWIN: Thank you very much.  We have asked Yasmin Sooka to lead you in your evidence.  Thank you.

YASMINE SOOKA: Hi Kenneth.  I would like to welcome you to the Commission.  Before you begin to tell us about the incident which affected your life tell us about what you were doing before that, were you a student, how old you were a little bit about yourself and whether you were politically involved in any organisation.

MR MATHEBULA: I was involved in the films for FAWO,  which is a Film and Allied Workers Organisation.   The date I was injured was on the 22nd March 1991.  I was travelling in 1st Avenue on my way back from FAWO.   I was approached by five people.  As they approached me one of them pointed me with a firearm and asked me to which nation do I belong.  I told him I am a Masutho.  He asked me where am I from.  I told him I am staying in 8th Avenue.  He said to me I am violent.  He said it again, he said I am violent.  I just kept quiet.  He started pulling me and then he pointed me with a gun on my neck.  I said to him if I did anything wrong please forgive me.  I was just shocked to see that he shot me and then I fell and then he shot me again.  He was intending to finish me off.  When his companions told him that it is over with him, you can leave him they left and after having left it was round about ten minutes when another group came.
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They kicked me whilst I was lying there.  As they were kicking me they said our brothers have done it already.  These people who shot me had cloths around their foreheads.  I lay there for a long time.  Fortunately some boys came wanting to see what was happening and fortunately they knew me.  They took me to the clinic because it was not far from the clinic.  They supported me from both sides and took me to the clinic and they examined me and they pierced me with needles.  I couldn't feel anything, I was numb.  They even tried on my right arm, even there there was no feeling.  I was numb.   They transferred me to General Hospital and there they did the same procedure.  There is something that I forgot to mention.  Whilst I was at the clinic I spoke to somebody who was working for the ambulance and I asked him to tell my family that I have been shot.  When I got to the General Hospital I found my father there.  He asked me what happened.  I told him that I was just surprised to see people who asked me to which tribe to I belong to and where am I staying.  When I responded they told me that I am violent and they shot me.  The doctors examined me and they pierced me with these needles in the very same manner that they did at the clinic and there was no sensation in this arm and my legs.  I stayed there for seven months.  The whole two months my body was numb and my body was sort of like - after two months that feeling went over.  Even at the moment the bullet is still here embedded in my neck.  After that my life changed completely because this used to affect me all the time.  I even tried to commit suicide.  I went to these boys who helped me because there was one who came to visit me in hospital and he told me that these boys who helped you, took you to the clinic are dead.  So Solep
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Botanya was shot at a night vigil the following week. I was very hurt because these people saved my life and now they are dead.

YASMINE SOOKA: Thank you Kenneth.  I would just like to ask you a few questions just to get your story clearly.   Did you know any of these men who shot you?

MR MATHEBULA: I don't know these people but if I can see them I will be able to identify them.

YASMINE SOOKA: Do you think that - what I am trying to find out is do you think you were specifically targeted or were they just walking around looking for people to hurt?

MR MATHEBULA: These people were just shooting at random.  Inkatha was just attacking everybody.

YASMINE SOOKA: Besides being a member of FAWO, were you yourself involved in any other political organisation?

MR MATHEBULA: No I was not involved in any political organisation.

YASMINE SOOKA: At this point in time do you receive any treatment for your condition?

MR MATHEBULA: Yes, there is a treatment that I am getting.  I am getting it from the General Hospital.  I am undergoing some physiotherapy there but it is not a regular thing.  The one thing that hurts me is that the people who shot me, if I could just see them and they could just explain to me why they did this maybe I will forgive them.

YASMINE SOOKA: Was this matter ever reported to the police?

MR MATHEBULA: Sorry?

YASMINE SOOKA: Did you or your father ever report this to the police?

MR MATHEBULA: No, he never went to the police.

YASMINE SOOKA: So there was never any investigation of this
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matter.

MR MATHEBULA: I don't know because the social workers at the General Hospital they were involved in such things.  Maybe they have evidence there in the General Hospital.

YASMINE SOOKA: Do you receive any treatment for counselling, particularly after your attempt to take your own life, did do you get any treatment for that?

MR MATHEBULA: It is only the treatment of tablets that I am getting but it affects me and I have this picture of these people all the time and this makes me very short tempered sometimes.

YASMINE SOOKA: Do you receive a disability grant from the State?

MR MATHEBULA: Yes, whilst I was in the General, yes I did sort out getting the disability grant.  I am getting one.

YASMINE SOOKA: Kenneth, the men who were killed at the night vigil, who shot them and killed them?

MR MATHEBULA: It is Inkatha members who killed them.

YASMINE SOOKA: Thank you.  I have no further questions.

MS MKHIZE: Kenneth, you have written that these people shot you because you were talking Sotho instead of Zulu.  At that time was there a war between the Zulus and the Sothos?

MR MATHEBULA: It was the issue of the Xhosas and the Zulus.  Generally it was at the time when the Inkatha was attacking people.

MS MKHIZE: Thank you.