Human Rights Violation Hearings — Venda — 1996-10-03

THOMAS MANTHATA: Mr Musekwa, who is with you on your side?

MR MUSEKWA: I am the only one here, the people I was supposed to have brought, are not here.

THOMAS MANTHATA: And this would have been?  Who would have been with you?

MR MUSEKWA: I should have brought my sister and also my first born.

THOMAS MANTHATA: I guess they are at work, that is why they couldn't make it?

MR MUSEKWA: Yes.

THOMAS MANTHATA: Could you please just relax first, can you just tell us about yourself.  Your activity and who you are right now, what are you doing?

MR MUSEKWA: Right here, I come from (indistinct), there is talk about the fact that the youth are saying this which one elderly lady said (indistinct).  The van arrived, when it arrived - the youth said they didn't want a car.
 When Ramandela left to (indistinct) office, he said the youth wanted to burn the van and the police had to come back with guns.
 The police came back with a motor car.  When they went in, the youth, it was just hullabaloo and they ran away.  When I wash when it was nine o'clock, eight o'clock it ended there and people were arrested.  Some spread and my son came back and he approached my sister and he left with Segada
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Marode to the nearest  cafe dealing to (indistinct)
 When they came back, there was a policeman waiting right on the yard where he stayed and pointed at him on the side.
 He killed him using a gun, just right through the head and my sister went through and wrapped him on her dress and told me that my child was shot.  I came out on my vest on sandals and I fell.  On the pointed at the van and said it is (indistinct) and they said they wanted to fetch the son to the hospital before he died.
 Ramadigela was there, Pathela was there, they asked us as to where we were taking him and we said Elim Hospital and on arriving there, I was shedding tears, I shed tears and he was quite far.
 They were treating him.  The van arrived and the pointed at him and they asked me as to what standard he was and I said standard nine.
 Are you getting that?  I pointed at my finger.  The nurse arrived, calling me and she said the child had died and said you must search this child, take off the shoes, the watch and when we were in Elim, the one who shot - they were sending him to Vehem, just right at the same time, to Vehem.
 The following morning it was still a tough situation when people were sent to jail.  The second week people were getting arrested and the cases, we told those people as to why they are not concentrating on my child's death and they are concentrating on the people who are still alive, and they said, no your case is not going to be held here, but the other people, we are going to deal with that.
 When the policeman arrived he said when this son died, I was not there.  When I arrived at Haramancha, I learnt 
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that at Haravilla that somebody had been killed, shot dead.
 Another police said okay, fine, if people are saying that (indistinct) and that is where you are going to get these three White people who are going to investigate the very same case.
 Those people, those White people are going to investigate, that is where I went there to present the case.  After having done that, those three Whites used to transport me because my - I was staying quite far and they said to me your case is - if that case is going to (indistinct), you are going to be called in court.
 And it came here in Sebatsa and I came here three times.  The fourth day, the very same policeman was standing on the box, and I was on the other side, he had bribed the White man, the lawyer.  The lawyer who was White, said to me this son of yours was not killed by this policeman.
 I said, okay, how do you say that because you have bribed this man.  What have you come here to say then?   And they said all right, if you are saying that we are going to arrest you, we are going to detain you and I said yes, do it now.
 Send me, detain me.  If you do that, I know all the person who sent me, who killed my son is going to account in heaven.  Are you listening to that?
 I am not through yet, my heart painfully angered and his mother also got sick because of those things.  We are not free that way, but there are a lot here that expired since then.
 We are not free at all.  We are still thinking, we are reliving the past, but the same policeman is still working.  But when he shot my son, now he has been promoted, he's got 
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stripes and my son is dead, buried and dead.

THOMAS MANTHATA: Is this policeman who killed?

MR MUSEKWA: The policeman that I am talking about is Rovele.

THOMAS MANTHATA: You talked about a situation where a shop was being burnt down and then there was confusion and your son got killed in the process.  Was this being done by students at that time or by the youth?

MR MUSEKWA: The students were doing that and where it occurred, the very same Rovele that I talk of, he was boarding on the neighbourhood and it was just next to the road, that's where it happened.

THOMAS MANTHATA: Whose shop was it?

MR MUSEKWA: Are you referring to the burnt shop?

THOMAS MANTHATA: The burnt shop.

MR MUSEKWA: I couldn't get that, can you repeat please?

THOMAS MANTHATA: Whose shop was it, that is the shop that was burnt, to whom did it belong?

MR MUSEKWA: The burnt shop at my place, I don't know exactly, I haven't heard of that, but I was born and bred there, I am now an old man, I don't know of it.

THOMAS MANTHATA: Would you say your wife and or your children could know the owner of the shop that was burnt down?

MR MUSEKWA: Well, maybe those ones - my children might know.  Maybe they know.  I was at work then, I was working.  This is where I used to work - are you able to see me?  Spoorweg.  Spoorweg, can you see this one?

THOMAS MANTHATA: Thank you.  Thank you.  So you were able to get the child back for burial, am I correct?

MR MUSEKWA: ; Yes.  And even the day he was buried, the other son who is a soldier belonging to Ramashana regime,
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the soldiers came and they were pledging solidarity there, they were called there to go there with guns and I denied that he should not be killed, shot dead.
 During the evening at my place, I had to stand up and said look, this people all this people who are here, at a funeral, I don't even want to see anybody making noise because otherwise we are going to see somebody dead here.  You must just keep quiet, maintain silence because I think the situation will be volatile. 
 We realised that somebody might say something different and then again they got a lot of guns.  Are you listening to that.  We buried our kid and that was quite well.
 Then we settle at home.   At (indistinct) we went to court four times, four times, they were just lingering, just beating around the bush, beating around the bush.
 The very same court that I'm talking of, around which is here at Sebatsa number 1 court, just facing the other side, number 1,  went three times.  The fourth time this boy called Marobene Sqatiqa, with whom my son was, I don't know whether he was bribed or whatever, this is where this lawyer was found, and he could not appear and we searched all over, we couldn't get him.  Are you listening to that?

THOMAS MANTHATA: Who was the White lawyer?  What is the name of the White lawyer?