Human Rights Violation Hearings — Newcastle — 1996-09-11

COMMISSIONER: And it just strikes me that you two people there today, Mr Ngcobo who is a Zulu, Mr Siyolo who is a Xhosa, you represent the best vision that we have of a new South Africa.  You've said that you were always friends, you never fought, you are still friends, and you both belong to the same organisation, which you joined to improve your conditions of employment, not because you were Zulus or Xhosas, and you can all lead us and show us a very good example of how people can live and work together.

COMMISSIONER: So we thank you both very, very much for coming in and telling us your story, and we are very glad that you could tell us your story together today.  It;s very important.  And we will do - as Mr Lax has said, we will try and follow up these events to try and help you and the people who were injured, and the families of the people who died in that incident.  Thank you very much for coming today.

COMMISSIONER: Mrs Mdlalose, we welcome you here this afternoon.  Thank you for being so patient.  You've waited all day to tell your story.  You come from the Blaauwbosch area, which is near Osizweni, and you have come to tell us about the assault and attempted murder of your son, Elliot, by members of the IFP, and that happened in April 1991.  Can you stand and take the oath before you tell us your story.

BELINDA MDLALOSE: (Sworn, States)   (Through Interpreter)

COMMISSIONER: You have somebody with you on the stage there.  Is that a relative of yours?

WITNESS:   It's Lena Mdlalose.  She is one of the people we were with, she is one of the victims.

COMMISSIONER: (Inaudible)

COMMISSIONER: As the Chairman had already thanked you, I also thank you for being so patient.  Do you have any children?

WITNESS:   Yes, I do.

COMMISSIONER: Could you please give us their names as well as their ages?

WITNESS:   I am not sure about their ages.  I am not very literate so I do not know much about the years.  Fortunately it's the last one whose years I know.

COMMISSIONER: What are they doing?  Are they at school or what?

WITNESS:   They are older than the one who got injured.  The one who got injured is the last-born.  I got him in 1969.

COMMISSIONER: This is a very painful situation that the children that God has given us for us to take pride in, and according to our culture we believe that children will always maintain us in our old age, and we always believe that they will bury us, and now that your hope, your only hope, that is your son, got injured in this manner.  So we would like you to relate to us as to how he got injured.

WITNESS:   My husband had just died in 1988, and I struggled after my husband died.  Then in 1991 I went to look for some work so that I could maintain my children.  And the elder ones were already staying all by themselves, they were no longer staying with me, and i was left with the four younger kids.  Then I came back during Easter because I was working at Hendrina.  Then my employer gave me permission to go home for my Easter holidays.  And when I got home there was apparently a party.  It was Baseka's party, who was born during Easter.  And my children said they were hungry, they had no food in the house, because they were expecting me to come the previous day so they slept without food.  My son, the one who got injured, was with another one who had just got a child and was no longer going to school.  I gave them some provisions that I had from my workplace and they went on to show out some of the guests who were at the party that day.  It was Baseka, as well as Mavuthuka.  They took these boys halfway and they went to B section, and on their way back from the B section, just close to the road, there was a family, a Khanya family.  That is at my uncle's place.  And now my youngest son was speaking to Mrs Khanya, but Mrs Khanya has now been deceased.  As they were still talking apparently the Mthambo boy had an altercation with the boy from Mr Zulu's place, and now when my boy was standing and talking to his granny at the Mthambo family the Zulu boy came with an iron rod and hit my son on the head with this iron rod, and he lost consciousness.  And Dumazile came out with a bucket of water to come and pour over my son, who had now fallen down.  And there is another woman who came to call me to tell me that my son had been killed by the boy from the Zulu family.  And I went out to go and investigate as to what had happened.  The very same woman who came to alert me had already been deceased by now.  I went to the scene.  I felt very tired, I did not want to go there, and just as I was about the approach the Khanya family I met Mavuthuza together with my son.  He was bleeding, but he was not bleeding profusely, it was just little drops of blood coming.  He was bleeding through the nose, he was not bleeding from the head where he had been hit.  I said I was going to my uncle's place to find out what was happening, and they told me that this boy was talking to the granny, and this boy who came with the iron rod hit my son.  And apparently this boy was a member of the IFP and my son was a member of the ANC.  I went back home, where I wanted to see what was happening to my son.  He was not bleeding through the wound on the head, but he was bleeding through the nose, and it was starting to get dark at that moment.  And I collected some money which I had in the house and I took him to the clinic.  He was having dizzy spells, and I took him to the clinic.  We got to the clinic at about 10, if I am not mistaken.  He could not walk.  He said he had a terrible headache and he could not walk properly.  The clinic is quite a distance.  It's a distance approximately from here to Livingstone.  When we got to the clinic they asked me as to why I had stayed with such an injured man for quite a long time.  Then they treated him.  They said they were going to call an ambulance which was going to take him to Nqutu.  Then at about 1 o'clock the ambulance came and he was taken to Nqutu.  We arrived at Nqutu at about 3 o'clock, and he was admitted at Nqutu and they asked me what had happened.  I related the story.  And at that time it seemed as if he was losing his mind.  He was confused, and he started vomiting.  And I told the nurses that he was vomiting.  They said he must go and wee, but he threw up.  They wanted me to show him as to what he had thrown up.  Up until morning I was there, and in the morning we left.  The following day I went back to the hospital at Nqutu.  He was very confused and he was still in tremendous pain.

COMMISSIONER: Did he get the doctors at Nqutu?

WITNESS:  Yes, he did.

COMMISSIONER: Are they the ones who transferred him to Durban?