Human Rights Violation Hearings — Bisho — 1996-11-19

BENNETTE NDYUNDYU JACK: After I was released from hospital I would continue to go the clinic at Grey.

MR SANDI: When you were shot what were you doing?

BENNETTE NDYUNDYU JACK: I was working at the college in Clover.

MR SANDI: I am talking about the time when you were shot, did you say that you were not doing anything?

BENNETTE NDYUNDYU JACK: I ran to the stadium when people were being shot.  My shoelace was loose, when I was looking towards the tar road trying to tie my shoelace I was looking towards the Fort Hare University, a man came to me who greeted, as I lifted my head I got shot.  I realised that it was coming, the bullet was coming from the helicopter hovering above. Everybody was trying to hide under the other people.  I fell over.  It was a while afterwards that I realised that I had been shot.  It was almost like I was paralysed.

MR SANDI: You say that there was a helicopter hovering above you whilst you were lying on your stomachs?

BENNETTE NDYUNDYU JACK: That is where the first bullets came from, there were two, they were changing.   The bullets that were coming out of there it was almost like beans were just being spilt
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over.  My leg is now healed it is just that it get numb now and again.  When it is cloudy it gets very painful.

MR SANDI: Did you go to see any attorneys?

BENNETTE NDYUNDYU JACK: Yes I did go to Tabatha.

MR SANDI: Did you get a satisfactory grant?

BENNETTE NDYUNDYU JACK: No I was not satisfied, but because I knew that I was not going to get help anywhere else I was just doing it because everybody else did get money.

MR SANDI: You said in your request here that you should be helped with educating your children?

BENNETTE NDYUNDYU JACK: Yes Sir because I am not working anymore.  I just get temporary jobs.  My children are far from completing their schooling.

MR SANDI: How many children do you have?

BENNETTE NDYUNDYU JACK: I have 8 children.

MR SANDI: Which standard is the eldest?

BENNETTE NDYUNDYU JACK: Standard 10.

MR SANDI: Are they all staying with you?

BENNETTE NDYUNDYU JACK: Yes they are staying with me.

MR SANDI: Is this your complete testimony?

BENNETTE NDYUNDYU JACK: Yes according to that incident that is all I have to say.

MR SANDI: Thank you very much.  Perhaps before I hand you over to the Chairperson perhaps I could get your opinion, what do you think of Mr Gqozo's statement this morning?

BENNETTE NDYUNDYU JACK: Sir what I am grateful for is that the Lord sees even in the darkest places where nobody else sees.  A lot of things would not be revealed if the boer government had not been defeated.  The perpetrators of violence now have come forward because a lot of things were investigated, investigated by the perpetrators and the truth would not
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come out, the Lord sees even in the darkest places.  People have been requested to come forward and told that they would be forgiven, I am thankful for that.  The Lord will deal with Gqozo.  I can't say I detest him.  Maybe what he did he did because he was obeying his employers, the previous government.

MR SANDI: Thank you Sir.  Thank you Chairperson.

MR POTGIETER: Thank you very much Mr Sandi.  And thank you Mr Jack and also the rest of you, and in her absence Thobeka.  Just when one thinks one is able to handle this process and one is able to handle the situation then you are confronted at the end of a long session like this with your testimony, and it brings one right down to earth again.
 Mr Mpunga you throw out a challenge to us.  You raise a very, very fundamental and difficult question, forgiveness, amnesty, those issues and you do it at a time when you share the podium with Thobeka who shares her story with us, the way in which this incident has affected her and the situation she is experiencing at this stage.  And again it brings that human element into what is regarded academically otherwise as an incident, statistics.  It is very difficult that you have raised.  The question of forgiveness we will never be able to resolve.  We are faced with a situation where there was compromise, compromise means that you don't get everything that you want, it's give and take, that's what a compromise is all about, and that is where most of the difficulty of the question that you have raised comes in.  But thank you for the challenge and thank you for reminding us of how difficult this process really is.  I wish you luck, all of you.  Thank you very much for coming.