Human Rights Violation Hearings — Cape Town — 1997-06-09

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: So the initial attack, the first attack on your house, you are saying, was as a result of your activity as a political activist?

LENNOX SIGWELA: Yes, the other reason, there was some talk about my father was a councillor, when in fact he had never been a councillor.  Because he was invited by some people to be a councillor and we as children convinced him not to be engaged in that, and we said he should not take part in any of those things, and we are the ones who take part in politics, he should just concentrate on his church, he must not take any activities.  There was also some targeting of the councillors and I did hear that anyone who burns my house should expect that his house will also be burnt, because I told those people, saying that I would also go and buy their homes, because my father was never a councillor. So there was that kind of talk before my being shot.   And that is why we had to try and evict my grandmother and others from Crossroads.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: So it is while you were busy evicting and helping to move your granny and the other members in your house, when this attack on you happened?

LENNOX SIGWELA: Yes, that's when I got injured, that's when we were trying to cart some household things from my grandmother's place.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: Now you described seeing a police Hippo, one of these big police trucks and the people who got out of the Hippo, you were saying were Witdoeke.  So were there Witdoeke and policemen inside the Hippo?

LENNOX SIGWELA: Yes, there were some police amongst the Witdoeke, they were working together.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: So when they jumped out of the Hippo, the police shot at you and they jumped out and then came to attack you as well, the Witdoeke?

LENNOX SIGWELA: The police came out, carrying their guns, and then I decided to run. Then they left me.  Because I was in flames, because the shacks were burning.  Then I, as I was coming back, I was shot by one policeman who was next to the door of the Casspir and then those Witdoeke were chasing me, and caught up with me.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: I am interested in the flames.  How - so were there people shooting things from the Hippo that created a fire as well?

LENNOX SIGWELA: Yes, there is something that they use to shoot at the shacks, and when it landed on the shack it would ignite some fire. So that is what they had done and that is why I couldn't go through, because this shacks, I was surrounded by this burning shacks and they were the only other people.  So I had to go back and the only way I could escape is where they were.  And I was shot by a policeman who was at the back of the Casspir. And then these Witdoeke came and hacked me.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: What type of weapons did they have, the Witdoeke?

LENNOX SIGWELA: It was sabres, assegais, knobkieries, pangas, axes and sharp instruments, the so-called traditional weapons of the Xhosa.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: Yes, so it was all of those weapons that they had, that they used when they attacked you?

LENNOX SIGWELA: All those are there.  All those were weapons that were carried by this, and then each man had about four and they had some shawls which they were using to hide their faces.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: What happened to Bra Tom?

LENNOX SIGWELA: When I got the lift, Bra Tom didn't get into the car with me, because as I had said, he had already been arrested.  So he got a chance to run away.  So once I was taken by the car, he disappeared and I don't know where he disappeared to and I don't see him any more these days.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: So he wasn't attacked at that time?

LENNOX SIGWELA: He escaped because he was with them in the Hippo, but he found a chance to get out whilst they were coming to me.  I don't know whether they didn't leave with someone to look after him or whether they didn't have time. When they saw that I was up again, they wanted to come and finish me, and that is when he got a chance to run away. And that's how he escaped and when he took me into the car, he disappeared and I have never seen him since.  I don't see him. I think I last saw him in 1985. I don't see him very often.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: Lennox, let's talk a little bit about your injuries. You were shot in your neck, from behind.

LENNOX SIGWELA: Yes.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: Did the doctors explain to you what kind of injuries you have?

LENNOX SIGWELA: Yes, the doctors explained because I asked, the doctor explained my injuries. He said a bullet touched some nerve in the spinal chord.  He said I will never be able to walk because the nervous system, the injury is such that you won't walk, because the injuries on the upper part of your nervous spinal chord, that he said, even if you could walk on that day, you will walk never with manner, but you will never be able to work because you will be weak.  And he said you are lucky your arms are still working, because according to the injury, your arms should have been the first to be paralysed, you should be thankful that your arms are working, and then this arm was dislocated because it was hurt, and I didn't know how to use it, whilst I was in hospital. But they said it would go all right.  And they stitched it, and when they looked at it at the X-ray, they found the injury would heal, but still it is weak, I can't push my wheelchair, sometimes it is painful.  Even now that the doctor said it was very, very unlikely that I would walk, but it could take a very long time, and I would be weak.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: I notice that there is something wrong with your other leg as well.  What happened to - are both your legs fine - what happened to your other leg?

LENNOX SIGWELA: My other leg was amputated in October, last year. My legs were not injured, but there was a wound of a sharp instrument and then it was cleaned and stitched, but it seems as if something developed inside, inside that wound, and they couldn't band the leg and then I saw a lot on my knee and I was sent to day hospital at Guguletu. And when I asked them to - they told me they are going to treat me, but they couldn't. So I said I am losing weight because of this.  So I had to go to Conradie Hospital. I was very sick and it was clear that the leg was beyond repair. So I talked to the doctor and then explained to him and I had a letter from another doctor at the day hospital.  The doctor asked, so he admitted me for a while, took me to the X-ray, and they could see that damage was too far gone.  But it was very painful.  So about October they decided I should have it amputated and then I signed I agreed. I agreed.  They asked me if I would minded. I said no. Then they amputated it in October last year. I am still under the treatment of that doctor, even now.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: Because I think your story tells us also that apart from the initial injury, many people like yourself struggle for many, many years with rehabilitation, and that for many years you struggled to, not only just to overcome the initial injury but also the consequences of that injury and you are just telling us a little bit about how difficult it is to get rehabilitation.   Did you lay a claim and did you get any compensation or get any money as a result of your civil claim?

LENNOX SIGWELA: Yes, there was some compensation, I got when there was that American journalist who was killed at Crossroads. I can't remember but it could have been 1992, but the lawyers from the Legal Aid tried to get something for me, and that helped a lot.  I was already under the treatment of the hospital because of my health.  So I still spent another year in hospital. I was in hospital up to 1992.  Then there was some money from this lawyers.  When that money came I was in hospital, then I was found the money from the lawyers in August, to tell me how much they gave me.  They gave me an amount of 15 000.