Human Rights Violation Hearings — Durban — 1996-05-07

WITNESS:   There's a time when I went to stay at home in Kokstad in 1987.  I was selling some things there because I was unemployed at that stage.  So I got a telephone while I was still at home.  I was told that my sons Khumbulani and Musawenkosi, both of them I will not be able to see them again.  I took my two sisters from home, we came back here to Durban by car.  We arrived here at night.  We didn't find my child at home. We didn't find any of them at home.  We looked - for three days we were looking for them.  Two of them I did find, Musawenkosi and Sipho, but I couldn't find Khumbulani.  I looked for him.  I found him in some other house.  I don't know this house, but I know this house is at Umlazi.  I think it's at B Section, because that's where you cross Umfonkosi River.  That's where I found my child and I took him.  We came back.  We went home.  This thing continued, it didn't end there.  I remember one day I had not been at home and I was told that my children used to hide at 269 at KwaSabelo - 259.  These children used to hide there because they were running away from the police and the soldiers.  They used to harass them every night.  They would come twice or so.  One day I rushed at home.  They had assaulted my children, they even cut off their hairs.  They were so badly assaulted I didn't know what to do.  But what really hurt me on, one day when I arrived I found that these soldiers had been to my house again.  They left their torch.  They broke my flower vase.  It was a huge one, it used be on the coffee table.  The dining-room window frame had been broken and had fallen down, and the children were in pain, and moaning and groaning in their bedroom.  When I asked them what had happened they said that these policemen who usually come here to assault us, these police used to come at night at around half past 11 and take my children away.  There is a place that's a drive-in.  They used to take them there and assault them there.  They used to assault them there all the time, and after assaulting them, when they powerless, they used to take them to an Inkatha area and dump them there.  This would happen at night, maybe at half past one or so.  And they would leave them there and say, "Go now," at a place that is very far from home, where they had taken them.  They did this a number of times.  They came wearing Balaclavas.  They took all these three children and went to the Sabelos.  At Sabelo they took the child there called Mbongeni.  They said they must cover their heads with a shirt so that they hide their faces.  They sneaked them through in between houses.  They took them to far off places where they had left off the vans.  There was God's grace, because by the time they got nearer these vans ... (incomplete - end of Side A, Tape 4) ... when they were closer to the vans some police from Amanzimtoti came by.  They were with a detective who knew me.  He saw these children and asked them, "What is happening?  Why have you covered your heads, and you, you have also covered your heads?"  They said, "These children are UDF.  We are going to investigate about them."  And the detective said, "It's all right if you are going to investigate about them.  If I can just get your number so that I know who you are."  From there they left, and they took these children and they assaulted them as usual, and they dumped them at an Inkatha area round about the same usual time.  But these children, God saved them until they arrived at an ANC area.  And they asked to sleep at one family called the Zulus, because they could not longer walk until they arrived home.  I was very, very worried when they arrived in the morning.  I was very angry.  I took these children to Amanzimtoti Police Station.  When I arrived there the station commander there said I must make statements, and he took my children to Dr Mletsane at H Section, and they were taken to the doctor.  And on one day they asked them to come and identify those soldiers who had assaulted them, and the children pointed at these soldiers.  From there I made an interdict.  We went to Linda Zama.  She's the one who helped me, and we went to the judges and to the police.  That's where we got a court order that the soldiers should never ever come to my place.  That's when I got a little bit of rest.  But I didn't know that that was the end, that there was still going to be more trouble coming.  On the 14th of March 1988, when they established the ZP in KwaMakutha, it was quarter to five.  I was still asleep, because we couldn't sleep at night, we used to sleep during the day.  At night we will be on guard against Inkatha.  We used to alternate guarding, and we would put off the light and just guard.  We would keep on opening the curtains slightly and check if Inkatha wasn't coming.  But on that day, it was a Friday, the Inkatha came.  The Inkatha came.  They arrived to us on Friday in the afternoon.  Well, there was just a street separating us and Inkatha.  We used to fight just over crossing the road or walking on the street.  When we got out we heard that there was a woman from across who came out, and she said, "Amaqabane, you are going to die."  When we got out on that day we heard the ululating.  There was ululating at that time.  When there was this ululating, and then the Inkatha boys were coming.  When these boys came they were singing.  They used to say, "We are going shoot Musa."  Musa was my son.  They said, "We are going to stab Ndoda."  Ndoda was another friend's child who was my comrade.  We were together with him.  He was just a child.  When they arrived I got up.  I went to tell the children that, "Did you hear that they are coming?"  The children said, "Yes, we can see them."  When they arrived at our place then they started fighting.  There were gunshots because they were armed, there was lots of firearms.  There was somebody who remained behind, or he remained behind but he just came through in between houses.  His name was Zindela, surname.  When he came the children got very angry.  They beat him up.  Another one that I remember he took a knife and stabbed him.  I cried a lot because it was the first time I saw my child taking a knife and stabbing somebody.  I cried because this violence taught our children to kill, because Inkatha was attacking us.  At that time these boys left and fell on the other house at Mbela's house.  This was the Inkatha house.  This woman who was ululating during this time when these boys were coming she started crying when this boy was stabbed.  That's when I asked, "What's happening?  Why has ululating turned to crying?  You were just ululating right now, now you are crying again."  She cried.  She stopped the soldiers.  She stopped the soldiers.  The soldiers had just come in at that time.  They asked what had happened.  I told them that we had been attacked by Inkatha and they asked me what had happened.  I said to them Inkatha had attacked us because they were excited, they were installing the SPs(?).  It wasn't for the first time that they attacked us.  They had attacked us one day until we called the police from Amanzimtoti.

JOYCE NOMVUYA MSISAZWE: If I may interrupt you there.  Forgive me for doing that.  You have told us about very serious harassment by many people, but could you tell us what happened when your son, Khumbulani Dlamini, in 1990 - what happened there?