Amnesty Hearings — Boksburg — 1999-02-22

BEKI XABA: There was also this white Peugeot, which was parked on the side of the road, and there was also a red Colt which belonged to Mazibuko.  It faced an opposite direction to that which I was, to the vehicle which I was driving.  I parked this vehicle next to Mazibuko's vehicle.  The white Peugeot also belonged to Mazibuko.  We had two Mazibukos.  The red one, vehicle, also belonged to another Mazibuko whom I think is related to the other one.  I parked this vehicle next to the red motor car, so that my brother-in-law then said to me that I should drive the white Peugeot that belonged to Mazibuko, and I wanted to know from him where my vehicle was.  He did not answer me.  I left him like that, because it was in his nature not to answer questions promptly.  I took it then because I knew his nature."

MR DRAHT: Why did you want to know which, why did you want to know where your vehicle were, if you were driving in it?

CHAIRPERSON: Sorry the evidence isn't that he was driving it Mr Draht.  The evidence is that he was driving in a white Cressida which was his brother-in-law's vehicle.

MR DRAHT: Okay, you can proceed.

BEKI XABA: After asking him that, he just kept quiet.  He took the vehicle and he said the people who were in the vehicle in which I was travelling should come with me into the white Peugeot.  Indeed the people responded by getting off the car to join me in the other motor car.  This other vehicle which I was supposed to drive now this time, had a problem with the ignition, and when I got there I engaged the first gear but it just couldn't move, it just, the ignition just went off.  They tried to push the vehicle but I just couldn't manage to get it started.  And as I was standing there wondering what to do next, Mazibuko came.  I just saw him standing next to me, and he offered to help me, saying that he knew his brother's vehicle quite well.  We then helped push the vehicle and it got started, and when I was just about to take the steering wheel he said, you should take my vehicle because the engine was running, but don't get it switched off because you'll have a problem getting it started again.  He said I should use that vehicle, the engine of which was running, so that I could be next to the funeral procession.  Yes, he got into the vehicle and he left.  I then went back, I just cannot recall how many occupants I had in this vehicle this time.

CHAIRPERSON: Now are you in the red Colt now?

BEKI XABA: Yes.

CHAIRPERSON: I think when you refer to it, refer to it as the Colt, so we don't get confused between Peugeots, Cressidas and Colts.

BEKI XABA: Okay.  Thank you.
	I then went to this Colt even 'though I cannot remember how many occupants were inside.  The one person that I can still remember is the one who was sitting on the passenger seat, and I also discovered later that it was Mr Dlamini.  Others got at the back and they explained and said, hey man you have to drive for us, we take off from this place immediately because there is some place we have created trouble, and I answered back and said that's no problem, and they insisted and were adamant of the fact that I should drive.  Indeed I drove for I had no other any alternative.  I therefore decided to help by means of driving.  As I was trying to put the gears into the first gear a fawn Cressida approached right at the time, so it was a bit cumbersome for me to take a U-turn at that point in time, and the funeral procession was very close at the time.  As I was still waiting for the Cressida to pass I saw soldiers emerging from the right-hand side.  There was a garage under construction at that time, and they approached and got to us, and said I should stop, and I decided to stop.
	I decided to stop and I alighted from the car, and as I was alighting from the car I did not take any notice of anything.  I stood around next to a certain pole and they took, they told, instructed the occupants of the car to get off and out of the vehicle, and they did.  And I discovered that they found and discovered guns from some of us, some of the occupants of the car that is, and they went on searching the car.  One other soldier came to me and asked if I was with them.  I said yes, and he instructed me to lie on the ground and they searched me as well, and they found nothing.  
	Then they took myself and Mr Mbatha into one Casper and the others, they separated us in other words.  The next time we met as a group was in the police station.  That's how I got arrested or was apprehended."

MR DRAHT: You testified that when you, before you got into the Colt, the people told you that they created trouble.  Did they tell you exactly what they did?

BEKI XABA: They did not fully explain and elaborate on that issue.  There was no time to keep asking questions and to expect of them to furnish explanations.  There was no point at that time, especially the situation that was prevailing was not conducive for us to sit, rest, and offer explanations.  When, or as soon as they said they had created trouble, I sort of understood as to what it could have been, and there was no time for them to fully explain.

MR DRAHT: What did you understand it to be?

BEKI XABA: In my mind, what occurred were two things.  Because of the situation that prevailed at the time, I first of all thought it could have well been that they shot somewhere and somehow, or they could have killed a person.  That crossed my mind as well.  But as for them killing a person, they did not strike me as people who were capable of such an act of violence, of going to an extent of killing a person.  As soon as they said we should rush, I took it upon myself that we should do just as they have instructed because we had to run away and get out of the sight of the police, because as soon as the police will approach they will definitely arrest.  So that if they only said we should run away as such, without me suspecting them, I could have taken my time doing so, but the way they emphasised and the way they displayed themselves, I felt it's a matter of emergency and I should take off as soon as possible.

MR DRAHT: Did they say that they shot an ANC member?

BEKI XABA: Not exactly at that time 'though, they only said this subsequently when we were already arrested, as to the trouble that they had caused, that they shot one of the ANC people in the area.  That also did not bring any surprises to me.  I was not surprised by that at all, but I deemed it fit that as they have already explained to me I must also fit in the bracket.

MR DRAHT: Why would you say that your actions were political motivated?

BEKI XABA: For me to put this in a more clear way, I will try to bring as full a picture as possible of the situation that prevailed at the time between the ANC and IFP.  I don't know 'though how to approach this in an attempt of, to explain it to you.  There were, there was violence that erupted in the area and the situation was volatile.  And it was so also said that since there was that funeral of Mrs Khumalo there will be trouble that day, and I also asked from one of the people and I got a clear picture, you will not attend the funeral, not being the group member.  And there is also this saying that says, I don't know, idiomatic expression that say once beaten twice shy.  I had to be alert about the day of the funeral, and I did expect that violence would erupt that day in question, and the people who were preventing us from other things were ANC people, and I knew very well that whatever actions will be taken that day will be as a result of the ANC people because they were always against and opposing us as IFP group.  So this is part of that political strife that existed at the time, and the way things happened at the time.

MR DRAHT: You were later on found guilty as an accessory to murder because you drove the vehicle in which the murderers got away from the scene.  Is that correct?