Human Rights Violation Hearings — Nelspruit — 1996-09-05

CHAIRPERSON: Mr Shongwe, I would like to welcome you before this Commission.  I would ask you to introduce us the lady who is with you.

MR D F SHONGWE: The person I am with is my mother.

CHAIRPERSON: I welcome you, Mrs Shongwe.  This job that you are doing, it is very well that you accompanied your son to come forward. I would Derick to tell us his testimony, to feel free and tell us everything. I would like Mr Malan to help you and lead you for your testimony.

DERICK FRANK SHONGWE: ;  (Duly sworn, states).

CHAIRPERSON: As usual, one of the Commissioners will assist you and lead you in your testimony.

MR LEWIN: Morning, Mr Shongwe.  We are very pleased that you could come, thank you for coming.  Could I just ask, before you tell the story about your brother, where is it that you live?

MR D F SHONGWE: Msogwaba area.

MR LEWIN: Could you tell us where that is, whereabouts?

MR D F SHONGWE: It is at Pienaar, next to Kandithan(?).

MR LEWIN: Thank you very much. You are going to tell us what happened or you are going to tell us about your brother.  If you could please do so in your own time and in your own words.  This was in December 1991.  Please continue.  Thank you.
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MR D F SHONGWE: I would like to apologise what I have written in the statement, it says 1991, it is not 1991, it is 1990, December.
 My brother was together with other boys that he used to stay with.  In 1990 on a Sunday, they disappeared.  We went asking people because we could not find where they were.  We continued looking for them, until in February 1991 we received a letter and this letter had no address.  We didn't know where it was coming from.  We found this letter from one house in that family, one girl disappeared as well. It was at the Langamaswe family. 
 In that letter was written that they left.  That letter was written when they were at Lusaka and they were transferred to Uganda. We didn't receive any other letter except for that one.
 We were also scared at home.  We didn't keep that letter.  After we read that letter we burnt it, because we were scared of the police. 
 After that letter we stayed and we were hoping that he was going to come back.  We waited and he could not come back. But one boy came back in 1992. His name is Pieter, his surname is Clome.  He came back and we asked him where was my brother. He told us that they were not in the same place.  He was in Tanzania and my brother was in Uganda. We kept quiet.
 In 1993 lots of them came back, but my brother didn't come back.  There was no one from all those people who came. We waited until 1994.  
 My mother went to the ANC offices in Nelspruit.  She went there to try and find out what happened or to find out if they know him.  She could not get any explanation.  My 
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mother went to the ANC offices to find out and they told her that they will come back to explain everything, but no one came.
 My mother and myself are still waiting now.  We still want to find out what really happened to my brother, if he is still alive or not. We need some explanation.
 Thank you.

MR LEWIN: Thank you, Mr Shongwe. Could I just ask a few questions to help us to try and help you.
 Your brother's full names are Vusi Lawrence Shongwe. Is that right?

MR D F SHONGWE: Yes, he is.

MR LEWIN: Could you just tell us how old he is or how old he was when he disappeared.

MR D F SHONGWE: When he disappeared he was 16 years old.

MR LEWIN: That was in 1990, you say?

MR D F SHONGWE: Yes, it was in 1990.

MR LEWIN: How old are you now?

MR D F SHONGWE: I am 19 years old.

MR LEWIN: And how many others are you in the family?

MR D F SHONGWE: We are three.

MR LEWIN: When your brother Vusi left, you say he left with friends.  You mentioned their names.  Now you give three names for the people whom he left with.  That is Eric Ngobola, Peter Nklu and Christoper Nolambo. Now they have all come back, have they?

MR D F SHONGWE: Yes, they came back.

MR LEWIN: Without any news of Vusi?

MR D F SHONGWE: No, when we asked them they don't even want to come closer to us.  They don't want questions from us.  We are now enemies to them.
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MR LEWIN: Why is that?

MR D F SHONGWE: We don't know.  All we can see is that they don't want to give us some explanations.

MR LEWIN: Can you tell us a little bit more about that, I mean when they first came back, were they unfriendly or did they only become unfriendly when you asked questions about Vusi?

MR D F SHONGWE: When they came we were good to each other, and kind to each other, but as time goes on, when we were trying to ask them questions, they didn't want to explain to us.

MR LEWIN: Did you gather from them that at least Christoper, Eric and Vusi were together first in Lusaka and then in Uganda?

MR D F SHONGWE: Yes, and they said they were together.   But they didn't want to explain more whether they were not together or together all the time.

MR LEWIN: Would it be possible for us to contact them, do you think?

MR D F SHONGWE: I can't tell that. If you can locate them, maybe they will talk to you.

MR LEWIN: There is another thing that interests me in your testimony. We are talking here about a time when the ANC was no longer banned. We are talking about post-February 1990.  Are we not?

MR D F SHONGWE: Yes.

MR LEWIN: You say of that time that you were so scared of the police that you actually destroyed the letter from Lusaka. Could you explain that to us?

MR D F SHONGWE: Yes, we destroyed that letter because we were still scared, because even the exiles were still scared NELSPRUIT HEARING TRC/MPUMULANGA
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of the police and they didn't want the people to know that they were Umkontho people.  So we were also scared.  When we received that letter, after we read it, we destroyed it.

MR LEWIN: Were you also yourself involved in Umkontho?

MR D F SHONGWE: No, I wasn't.

MR LEWIN: The enquiries which you have made, particularly your mother's enquiries two years ago, in 1994, here in Nelspruit, you had no response whatsoever to those enquiries?

MR D F SHONGWE: No, we didn't go to the police.

MR LEWIN: In Nelspruit?

MR D F SHONGWE: Yes, we went to the ANC offices.

MR LEWIN: Do you know whether any enquiries have made at the ANC head office in Johannesburg?

MR D F SHONGWE: No, because no one came back to explain anything to us.

MR D F SHONGWE: Could I ask another question about Vusi. You say he was 16.  That is very, very young. Could you tell us what he was like?  Did he ever discuss with you what it meant to be a member of the Youth League and why he was a member of the Youth League, and in fact, why he was leaving?

MR D F SHONGWE: No, he didn't explain anything to me.   He didn't tell me if he was planning to leave. We only discovered after they left.

MR LEWIN: So you had no idea that he might leave?

MR D F SHONGWE: No, I didn't have any idea.

MR LEWIN: Why do you think it would have been necessary after February 1990, with the leaders being released from prison and being returned, being allowed back into the country. Why do you think it would have been necessary for young people like Vusi to go off and still be trained?
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MR D F SHONGWE: I don't know, because no one explained to us except that they were ANC Youth League people, and I don't know anything.

MR LEWIN: Thank you very much, Mr Shongwe, I will pass you back to the Chair.  Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: We thank you very much, Mr Shongwe. I would like to ask other Commissioners to ask you some questions.

MR MALAN: Mr Shongwe, the letter that you received, that you talked about, from Lusaka. Was that letter written by Vusi?  Did you recognise his handwriting?

MR D F SHONGWE: Yes.