Human Rights Violation Hearings — Port Shepstone — 1996-08-13

MRS GCABASHE: Do you have any other wishes besides this?

WITNESS:   I just want to be assisted financially, because there is nothing I can do.  I am just - I cannot do any other kind of labour in my life because I was injured.

MRS GCABASHE: You know, I like your idea because you still want to go to school.  This is quite rare.  Now you always use that stick when you walk.  Did they ever try to tell you about other means of walking better than that?

WITNESS:   No, before I was using crutches, but now I am using just this stick, walking stick.

MRS GCABASHE: Thank you very much, Thulani.  As I have already said you are not the only who got injured.  You are just one of those who were fortunate.  Maybe the reason why you survived this is because you were not inside, you were outside the yard, but it's bad that you have lost friends and colleagues in that incident.  Maybe you still miss them.  But we will promise that we as the Truth Commission we've heard what you have said, and your request that you still want to further your studies, you need some assistance, and finally we will gather all this information and forward it to the State President, who will take decisions and he will see how you get out of this predicament.  Thank you.  I will hand over to the Chairperson.

MRS GCABASHE: I have just one thing that I want to explain to you because you are still young, and you are so ambitious, you are such an ambitious young man.  As you go for your treatment at hospital do you pay?  Do you pay, or you are just treated free of charge?

WITNESS:   No, before I used to pay, but since it's the new South Africa I am no longer

MRS GCABASHE: paying.  I just go, I don't pay.

MRS GCABASHE: Secondly you've already made mention of the fact that you cannot do any hard labour now because of your state.  Do you at times think - what is it that you want to do exactly?  Tell us what do you envisage to do?

WITNESS:  What I usually think I want to do is work that I could do using my hands, but not hard labour as such.  Something like computer.

MRS GCABASHE: Thank you.

COMMISSIONER: (Inaudible) ... more witnesses will be coming to tell us today more details about this massacre, about the loss of their children and grandchildren, and when they have given their evidence then I will make some remarks to all the people who suffered as a result of that massacre.  So thank you very much for coming to share your story with us today, for having the courage to do that.  Thank you very much.

COMMISSIONER: You are from Gamalakhe township here in Port Shepstone, and you have come to tell us today about the death of your son, Nthokozize Mapumulo.

GILFORD MAPUMULO: That's correct.

COMMISSIONER: In 1991.

GILFORD MAPUMULO: That's correct.

COMMISSIONER: Before you tell us that sad story please can you stand and take the oath?

GILFORD MAPUMULO: (Sworn, States)   (Through Interpreter)

COMMISSIONER: Just before we start with your story, Mr Mapumulo, your son who died in 1991, did he have brothers and sisters?  Do you have other children?

WITNESS:   Yes.  There are five of them.

COMMISSIONER: And are they all young, or are they working, or are they schooling?

WITNESS:   They are still at school, but one has completed.

COMMISSIONER: And your wife, is she still alive, or are you still with your wife?

WITNESS:   Yes, my wife is still - but she is paralysed.  She is still alive, though she is paralysed.

COMMISSIONER: And are you working, or are you unemployed, or are you retired?

WITNESS:   (Inaudible)

COMMISSIONER: (Inaudible)

WITNESS:   As a result of an illness.

COMMISSIONER: (Inaudible)

WITNESS:   Yes, as a result of this event.

COMMISSIONER: I see.  Please extend our best wishes and our sympathies to your wife, who can't be here today.  Now, Mr Mapumulo, can you tell us in - this incident took place in April 1991.  Well, the first incident in your story, and your house was apparently burned down.  How old was your son at the time of this incident?  That was in 1991.  That's five years ago.

WITNESS:   He was 19 years old. Okay.  Well, if you'd tell us what happened in April 1991.  Where was that?  Where was your house burned down?  What area was that?   ---   It was at Thafeni, at Mzimbini, Greener Park(?).

COMMISSIONER: All right, would you like to tell us the story in your own words from there, April '91.  Just tell us also a little bit of background, what was happening in the area at that time, so we can understand what the circumstances were like in those days.

WITNESS:   I am so grateful that you have given me this opportunity to relate this story, because we were suffering so much.  I was at home, and the ANC people were allowed to come to community, and we will have meetings, and the roads were under construction as well, fighting for the municipal issues.  After some time, it was on Sunday when that day there was going to be a meeting, and the boys were told not to attend the meeting and they were told to go.  Now I was at home with my wife, and with my kids as well, and they came at night with assegais and guns, and they will make me to stand up.  One other will stand by the door and pointing the gun at me, and others will be carrying their assegais, threatening me, wanting to shove them through my legs.  Some others will come and do exactly that.  And my wife said, "I am not free here.  I am not comfortable here."  And then I said to my wife, "Well, I am a man.  I will have to be here.  I cannot run away from the situation."  My wife cooked some food and took food with to Gamalakhe to hide.  I was left at home.  I could not even eat, my appetite was so much destructed because of not knowing, and could not anticipate what was next.  I could not even go along with them, I had to be at home.  And they told us - it looked  like we could not even get the pension as well, we had to get Inkatha tickets.  I got Inkatha tickets.  They came at night.

COMMISSIONER: Sorry, just - sorry to interrupt you.  When you say that you couldn't get your pension without - what do you mean?  Was it an Inkatha card, an IFP card you had to carry before you got your pension?

WITNESS:   I am talking about the IFP ticket to join IFP, that when they come at night I could produce my ticket to show them that I am also one of the members so they could leave me alone.  And I took those tickets and I produced them to them, and they said, "We don't want those tickets," but they wanted a person to take along with during the night and patrol.  I am sick, I could not walk around.  And one day they came back and they said they wanted my wife.  My wife was not there.  They said they wanted to take my wife.  It was far away where they were supposed to be going and my wife was not at home.  They wanted my wife.  And they said now they'll have to get me.  They were so numerous in number, so amazingly many.  When they took me I had already put on my clothes.  One came out shouting and screaming and saying, "I know this man.  This man is not well.  His health condition is not good," and they pointed at me with the assegai, they said, "Go back to the house."  I went back to the house and I sat down.  They left me alone.  They kept coming back.  They kept coming back, harassing me.  One day, it was on a Friday, they passed by and we were seated by the door.  They said, "This house, we need to torture this house and burn this house, because the people who belong here are sort of not going along with us."  And I said to my wife, "Don't sleep here.  We shall

COMMISSIONER: /"go to

COMMISSIONER: go to Gamalakhe."  And I said to my wife, "But I cannot