Human Rights Violation Hearings — Pretoria — 1996-08-14

JOHANNAH VILIE SKHOSANA: These Comrades that were at KwaNdebele in 1986 left.  They ran away because there was the Mbokodo that wanted to kill them so they ran away, fled for their lives and just a few young ones remained behind, but the leaders left.  The others remained behind.  The leaders went to Mamelodi and went to ask for assistance for what was happening at KwaNdebele, but they never got along with my brother and my brother would say that are these the ones that ran away from KwaNdebele.  They need to be disciplined.  So I was told just let it be and my uncle came to fetch me and we came to sit here, but, I mean, there was nothing more we could do because they ran away because the Mbokodo was wanting to kill the Comrades and the Comrades were fighting with Mbokodo and so forth.

THOMAS MANTHATA: I thought they could have come back after 1990 or after 1994.

JOHANNAH VILIE SKHOSANA: Who are you referring to?

THOMAS MANTHATA: That is the ANC youth leaders.

JOHANNAH VILIE SKHOSANA: The Comrades never came back because they
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left and we left it there and it just started, they just came back recently.

THOMAS MANTHATA: No further questions.

JOHANNAH VILIE SKHOSANA: Something else I want to say is that I want these people that killed these children to be sentenced to jail so that I can find inner peace because they disrupted my whole life and I would never find peace unless they were sentenced to jail because they destroyed my house and my life and everything.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much.  We understand that this is very painful to you because even your younger brother was killed there and the other eight guys, but that thing that the people who are your relatives since these killings happened is no longer there.  We trust that the Commission will reveal and we are trying to find out who did, who the perpetrators are and we trust that, also, you, that tempers will not flare, that you will not allow this to ill blood to come between you again that caused this terrible deed to happen in the past.  We trust that the Commission's work thereto will be able to bring about peace, at least attempt to bring about peace between all of you because the work that we have been, the task that we have been delegated by the President that the Commission should try and work towards unity and reconciliation of our land and even if we hear that there were people that have been hurt, we pray that people will be able to reconcile and that there will be peace in our land when people know the truth.  Even your request that the perpetrators be brought to book and be justified is something that we are going to include in our report which we are going to lay before the President and request that Ma Skhosana should obtain some sort of
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assistance so that perhaps you could see what could be done for him in order to have his house fixed and so forth.  It is just that we are going to make these recommendations.  We by ourselves have not got the authority to do that, but we will make these recommendations in our report to the President.  
 We will be asking all of you as people who have to live in one house that there will be some kind of oil that can be soothed over your wounds, but we thank you for having come forward to tell your story today.  Thank you very much.
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