Human Rights Violation Hearings — East London — 1997-06-10

BONGANI FINCA: We welcome you Naledi we're going to request that Reverend Xundu swears you in.

REV XUNDU: Thank you Mr Chairperson.  Is the lady next to you going to speak as well?

MRS GUSH-NKULA: Yes.

REV XUNDU: What is her name?

MRS GUSH-NKULA: ............. Gush.

REV XUNDU: Thank you.  Can I swear them in.

MRS NALEDI SITANDIWE ABIGAIL GUSH-NKULA: (sworn states)

REV XUNDU: Thank you.

MRS GUSH-NKULA: (sworn states)

BONGANI FINCA: We're going to hand over to Tiny Maya to lead you in evidence.

MS MAYA: Thank you Mr Chairperson.  We greet you Mrs Nkula, I'm going to start with  you because your evidence is documented before us.  You're going to talk about Thembelihle Arnold Gush who was shot and died on the eleventh of February in 1990 at Vulindlele Police Station, is that correct?

MRS GUSH-NKULA: Yes.

MS MAYA: Please tell us more about Thembelihle who was he how was he shot and when.

MRS GUSH-NKULA: Thembelihle was my brother.  I was born after him.  It was on a Sunday the eleventh when Mr Mandela was released.  He left home to go to church because he was in the choir and my parents were going to follow.  He said that if he comes back late from the church it will be because he's joined the marches.  When my parents got to church they did not see him but they were not concerned because he'd said he'd join the marches if they were there.  They came back from church.  My parents stay at NU 13 and I stay at NU 7.  I was going to watch our President's release on TV.  Just before I started watching the programme my mother phoned me saying that our grandfather phoned and said that he'd heard that Thembelihle had been shot.  My husband was there and he went to hospital.  He said he was going to see him at the hospital.  I was with a friend so I stayed behind.  I thought he'd come back and tell us what happened.  An hour later I got a telephone call from Thembisa who stays at NU 13 asking if I'm Lithle's sister and I said yes.  He said he's from Makiwane Hospital and he'd taken my brother to the hospital.  He'd been shot next to our house.  He was taken into a van which took him to Makiwane Hospital.  When he phoned me he said that they'd left him at Makiwane Hospital.  I was with my friend and my little child and I got a bit impatient.  We went straight to the hospital.  There were a whole lot of soldiers and it was difficult to get in but eventually we did.  We went in, they said they don't know anything about my brother and we asked if we could peruse the admission register but apparently it had been said that nobody could look at the Admissions Register.  We asked around but apparently nobody had seen him.  One of the nurses said that we must go to Frere Hospital to check there but nobody knew anything about my brother.
 Eventually I saw an Admissions Clerk who knew me and knew my brother as well.  He said that he saw people going in but he didn't see my brother.  That was at about seven o'clock.  I went back to the Makiwane Hospital and I asked for an Admissions Register but there was none.   I went home back home just to switch on the lights and lock.  Just after I got home I got another call and they said I must go home because they'd found my brother.  My husband and I missed each other on the way.  There was a rumour at Makiwane Hospital that nobody was allowed to go in because there were apparently corpses there and no-one should see them.  This is what my husband was told.  OnE of the nurses said to him that he'd seen some of the corpses but he hadn't seen my brother.  My husband wasn't given any Admissions Register either.  He went to a nurse that he saw who had the keys to this room.  When he got there, there were about four or five other corpses and he identified my brother.  He then went home and told my family.  
 That was the eleventh of February on the Sunday and on the twelfth we went to Makiwane Hospital.  Strangely enough  Makiwane Hospital knew nothing about these corpses.   We went to the police station at Unit 1 and they knew nothing about this either.   My husband re-iterated that he saw my brother's corpse.  Somebody said we must go to West Bank because the corpses that were at Makiwane Hospital were transferred to West Bank.  As we arrived at West Bank a police van arrived as well.  There was a pathologist who worked there where the police were.  He showed us the corpse and we identified my brother.  He had a hole on his forehead as well as at the back of his head.  Apparently the bullet went into the back of his head and came out of his forehead.  There was a paper on his thumb with unknown written on it.  That was on the Monday.  
 A policeman Mamo, the Mdantsane knows him.  He came to my house and said that he'd heard that my brother had been shot and he advised us to go and lay charges.  Before the sun set on the very same day the police came.  We were called to the police station at N.U. 12.  I went there with my parents.  The late Mr Zebe was sent from Bisho and he was there to open a docket.  We were puzzled because we had not yet gone to the police but Bisho already knew that there was this man who had been shot and a docket about this case should be opened.  They asked us what had happened and we told them that we did not know.  A lot of people came to us from the celebration and told us that people were marching from N.U. 12.  A white Opel that I had seen driven by the police that day stopped and started shooting around the stadium and then this car went towards the police station.  This car was driving around the crowds.  They stopped and opened the doors and starting shooting.  This is when my brother got shot around the police station.  The policemen in the car were named.  Should I name them?

MS MAYA: Yes.

MRS GUSH-NKULA: The two policemen's names were Sitile Gole and Madikane whose first name I don't know.  These were the names.  That is how my brother passed away.  He'd been wearing a suit and he had a bible and a hymn book because he was going to church.  He'd changed at my uncle's place therefore we got these back.  We could not bury him the next week-end because we had to wait for my mother's sisters from Zimbabwe and Botswana.
 On the Monday of the year he died he was doing his third year at Gobusane.  He worked for ten years at the MBSA and he'd gone back to school.  It was his last year at Gobusane.  The Gobusane students came to us on Monday the twelfth.   This white Kadett was there.  People pointed out and identified the car.  This car had no window at the back, I think it was CB or CA I don't remember well.  The school children dispersed and that was that.  However from the twelfth to the twenty fourth when we buried my brother the streets behind us and just ahead of us was full of police and soldiers.  
 On the twenty third as we were going to bury my brother on the twenty fourth we were called to the police station at Unit 12.  We went there and spoke to some man.  I can't remember his name.  I think it was the Station Commander but it was the highest man in status there.  He asked where we were going to bury my brother and we said we were going to use the church at N.U. 3 and they said we could not use the church at N.U. 3 because people are going to be incited.  We had to use a stadium or a church from N.U. 3 and then use the nearest graveyard.

MS MAYA: Could we assist each other here?  Did you bury peacefully?