Human Rights Violation Hearings — Empangeni — 1996-11-05

WITNESS:   After he fell,  that's when all of them came inside the house and they were pointing their guns at me.  They held my husband.  They lifted him up.  I put my hand on my husband and I realised that he wasn't breathing and I asked them, "What have we done?"  They didn't say anything at that time and then I asked them for the second time, "Why are you shooting at us?"  One of them said, "Because you have guns," and I said to him, "My child, where are the guns?"  They said, "Yes, you do have guns.  They came from Ulundi."  And then I said to them, "Now that you've killed him, you can go ahead, search the house and find the guns."  They went inside.  They took my husband and then they shot him for the second time and the third time.  Then they dropped him down.  I don't know what happened because they got inside the house.  They went to my living-room.  They went to the television.  They opened the wall unit.  They took everything which was inside there and one of the shelves was locked and they said to me, "Bring the key."  I said, "Even if I knew where the key was but now I can't remember where the key is because I'm now confused and terrified."  And one guy kicked the door twice and it broke.  We had bought cattles to pay lobola for my son at that time.  When I saw them kicking my wall unit, some of them were in my bedroom sitting on my bed.  We had money put in platics in that shelf.  Some of them slashed my husband's pockets and they found money.  Some of them went to my bedroom and they took my bag and searched my bag and they took my money.  It was on a payday that day, so they took all my money from my bag.  And I also had money from my stokvel and I asked them, "What have we  done?"  One of them said, "If you think, what have you done?"  So I told them I didn't know.  There was also a child, I think he was 13 years old, he said, "Just shoot this person so that she stops talking."  I was bleeding.  I got hurt from my leg.  I don't know what hurt me because I was confused.  I think I also got hurt when they were shooting my husband.  After they finished that, taking everything from my house, they left.  I tried to stand up and then I realised that I was hurt.  I thought they were going to go to another bedroom to search for my sons and I realised that they were not going there.  That's when I started screaming and they went up and they met in a certain corner.  They went up the hill.  After that my daughter came out and she ran.  She was trying to get help from other people because we didn't realise that my husband was dead.  We thought maybe my husband has lost consciousness and he'll get well as soon as he arrives in hospital.  My daughter tried to get help and they didn't do anything to her except that they were irritating her, trying to stop her and she came back without getting any help from anyone and she said, "I couldn't get any help.  I couldn't get any car to take my father to hospital."  And then she left again.  She went up the hill.  In that area, that's where they were making their arms and my daughter found them there.  At about 3.00 we were still sitting at home.  We were terrified and we couldn't sleep.  Policemen came to our house.  And one child went to another house and they asked for a telephone to make a call to the police, that's when the police van came and that's when I realised that my husband is dead because  the police put him inside a plastic bag.

PROF MAGWAZA:  It is a very painful story, Mrs Simelane.  I would ask you - when you're feeling better, I will ask you some few questions.  If I can ask you one thing, Mrs Simelane, from these people who came to your house who attacked you, is there anyone that you noticed or someone that you know his name or what?

WITNESS:   The way they had disguised you couldn't tell because they had balaclavas, handgloves, so you couldn't see a thing.  I couldn't see a single person from those boys.  At 3.00am they came and then that's when they came to burn my house.  This happened after they'd burnt someone else's house.  They threw this bomb in the house which we tried to put our furniture to.  Then we ran away.  We ran to my daughter's place.  When we came back again, we saw others coming again, then we ran again.

PROF MAGWAZA:  Up until today you didn't know who attacked you, you never heard anything?

WITNESS:   Yes, up until today I never heard anything.

PROF MAGWAZA:  You also said that before your husband was killed, there was a funeral.  Whose funeral was it?

WITNESS:   I've forgotten the name of the person.

PROF MAGWAZA:  Were you being attacked before or was it the first time?

WITNESS:   Yes, it was the first time.

PROF MAGWAZA:  You also said in your statement that your daughter got affected by this thing.

WITNESS:   You mean my daughter, the one that I'm with?  My daughter got affected deeply because after this incident we couldn't bury my husband at Matshana, we had to pay to bury him here in town and when my daughter got ill the doctor said she has high blood pressure. What about your health?   ---   Mine as well is also very high and I'm not well.  I can't go anywhere alone.  I need someone to help me to be there when I'm walking.  Even if I tried to do to work I would think I've already arrived at work when I wasn't.  I used to get lost.

PROF MAGWAZA:  Are you seeing doctors?

WITNESS:   Yes, I'm seeing Dr Masugu.

PROF MAGWAZA:  Do you pay there?

WITNESS:   Yes.

PROF MAGWAZA:  After your husband died did you go to the police and report the matter?

WITNESS:   No, the police came to my house the same day and they took a statement from me and afterwards nothing happened.  I was scared to leave my house.  I was scared to go to the police again because I ran away.

PROF MAGWAZA:  One last thing, you also said your husband was working.  Where was he working?

WITNESS:   He was working at Zululand Surfacing.

PROF MAGWAZA:  After he died did you receive anything from his employer?

WITNESS:   No, we didn't receive any grant.  The only thing that we received was money for blue card, unemployment fund.

PROF MAGWAZA:  Are you still working?

WITNESS:   Yes, I am.  I'm working at Chip's Scrap Metal.

PROF MAGWAZA:  What are you doing there?

WITNESS:   I'm operating a certain machine which is used to make papers.

PROF MAGWAZA:  We are very glad, Mrs Simelane that you came here to tell us your story.  We want to know if you have any wishes or requests which you want to put forward before this Commission.

WITNESS:   What I would like this Commission to do - I don't know whether they can find  these people to did this but I would like the Commission to investigate and find out what happened, what did we do.  What I would like from this Commission is that I don't have a house.  Where I'm staying, it's been destroyed.

PROF MAGWAZA:  Again I would also like to know about the children who are still young and they aren't in school.  Is there anything that we can do?

WITNESS:   No, there's nothing that I can do to take these children to school because I couldn't afford it after my husband died.  My money is enough to buy food, not to take the children to school.

PROF MAGWAZA: We've heard your requests, Mrs Simelane, we can help you concerning your health because we've made contacts with the Department of Health so that they help people like you.  Another thing, in connection with the children, we take your request - we're going to pass this report to the President and he's the one who's going to decide what help he'll give to you.  Thank you very much.  I'll pass it to the Chairperson.