Human Rights Violation Hearings — Tembisa — 1996-11-27

CHAIRPERSON: This is the second day of the Human Rights Violation here in Tembisa in Gauteng.  We greet you all and we request that we should treat each other with utmost respect. The languages are English, possibly Afrikaans, Zulu and Sotho.  Please make sure that you get these leads so that you can be able to listen. These are for people who don't understand Zulu and Sotho, because most people who will be coming here, they'll be speaking in Zulu and Sotho, so if you understand any of those languages you really do not need the leads.
 I'll request that we treat each other again with utmost respect while the witness are still sitting in front and giving their testimonies, must be given attention and they mustn't be disturbed and given every chance to present their stories because this is their opportunity.  We must please make sure that we do respect them.
 Before we can open with a prayer, we would like to introduce the panel that is accompanying me today. This is Commissioner Yasmin Sooka, there's also myself, I'm also Commissioner Hlengiwe Mkhize, I'm the chairperson of the Reparations Committee, on my right hand side is Hugh Lewin who is a committee member within the Human Rights Violations Committee, on the extreme right is a new partner today, Joyce Seroke who is a committee member of the Human Rights Violations Committee.
 We also have our reverend here today and he requests us TEMBISA  HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
2 MANYISA
to sing the chorus and then we'll proceed with a prayer.
 We will start today by calling all those who are going to give their testimony today, this morning we'll call four of them to come.  The first one is Agnes Faslahsa Manyisa and the second one is Antoinette Mundau and Matilda Shilabe and Elsie Manganye.
 We greet you this morning and we realise all of you are to give testimony about what happened in Ivory Park.

AGNES MANYISA: (sworn states)

ANTOINETTE MUNDAU: (sworn states)

MATILDA SHILABE: (sworn states)

ELSIE MANGANYE: (sworn states)
 As is a custom, the Commissioners are going to help you to give your evidence and thereafter we will be able to ask you a few questions.  The first one will be Agnes who will be led by Hugh Lewin to give her evidence.

MR LEWIN: Mrs Manyisa, can you hear me and understand, can you hear through the translation?

AGNES MANYISA: Yes I can hear now.

MR LEWIN: Thank you very much. We'd like to welcome all of you to the stand and also it's often very difficult to begin each day so we're very pleased that you have done this and we welcome you and thank you for coming.
 We're dealing this morning firstly with a series of incidents that took place in Ivory Park in August 1992 and I think we need to bring the context here, is that from the cases that we heard yesterday for instance dealing with the '70's and '80's primarily, a figure was given 
that in the 1980's there have been as many as three and a half thousand people killed in political conflicts killed in the Tembisa area between 1984 and 1989, three and a half TEMBISA  HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
3 MANYISA
thousand people.  Suddenly we are dealing in the '90's, between 1990 and 1994, the figure jumps to 15 000 people, almost five times as many people suddenly killed in that period.  That is the context of what we're talking about today and at this instance.  And Mrs Manyisa, if you could, yourself being very much involved in an instance, we'd be very pleased if you could tell us about that in your own words and take your time please, thank you.

AGNES MANYISA: This happened in 1992 on the 14th of August.  We were sleeping at night, it was round about 3  o'clock in the morning.  We heard gun-shots, it was me and my mother in law and my children, and we were quite frightened.  We didn't know what was happening.  We didn't even know what was the cause of this.  When I went outside, I found out that there was gunfire all the time and we started to run to my neighbour's house and we went into my neighbour's house and we found that they were frightened as well. We were all cramped into a garage which was used as a spaza shop.  Whilst we were sitting there, they decided that we should rather run to the Umfuleni area.
 When we decided to go there, we met some other people who said that we don't want you women, we want men, you can go back and sleep, and we ran back to the garage again. Whilst we were sitting there another group came who demanded that we should open but we just kept quiet, but they threatened to shoot and burn down the shack if we don't open. And one women said that we should rather open, 
otherwise we'll all be killed, and we did open the door.
 As I was opening the door they started, they shot. I was carrying a three year old baby in my arms.  As they were shooting, some of the bullets went through the door and they TEMBISA  HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
4 MANYISA
shot me in my buttocks and I fell on the floor whilst carrying this baby, and I didn't realist that even the baby that I was carrying on my back was shot as well, and my sister's child and my mother in law was shot as well. My sister's child was shot in the stomach and my daughter was shot in her knee, that bullet is still embedded in her knee.  She still complains about that, it's still aching.
 I took her to hospital and they said we must wait until she is eight years old so that they should be able to extract this bullet and I realised that this is a waste of money and I decided to take this child to the farming areas.   People were very scared to see me, they couldn't believe that I was still alive, the doctors and the nurses.  I told them that I'm also surprised as to how did I make it.  I asked the, will I make it?  They said they don't know.  If you can even look at me now, at my buttocks, it's an undesirable sight.  You'll find the bullet wounds that are in my body and even here in my spinal chord, still have effects on me, I cannot even bend to do my washing and even at home I cannot carry heavy buckets.  I told my sisters that I cannot walk a long way because of all this pain and my sister's child is still suffering from after effects from this shooting and even at school she can not even run normally like other children.
 My neighbour's child will tell her story as well. It's a pity she passed away because she never made it, otherwise she would sit here to give testimony and the worst part of it, it's my child who is now seven years old and this bullet must be extracted. I don't know where we will get the funds to have this bullet extracted but this cannot be done because of lack of finance. I thank you.   
TEMBISA  HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
5 MANYISA

MR LEWIN: Right Mrs Manyisa, if I could just ask a couple of questions to try and find out a little bit more clearly what was happening.  You say it was 3 o'clock in the morning. Had there been any previous incidents of this sort? Had you had any warning in fact that something like this might happen?

AGNES MANYISA: There were no such warnings.

MR LEWIN: And could you tell us a little bit about the people who came, you say that there were a lot of people and they were shooting. Who were they, what could you see?

AGNES MANYISA: When we tried to run towards the Umfuleni area, these people had covered their faces but when they turned us to go back to the house, I couldn't realise who they were because they had already shot me and I couldn't realise anything at that time.  I don't know how I survived or escaped that incident.
 At the time of this incident, when we decided to run, we met these people, we could see that they were people and they had covered their faces but they were dressed in police uniform and then they turned us back but when we got into the house they shot us and we couldn't exactly tell who was shooting us now because they started shooting immediately.