Human Rights Violation Hearings — Uitenhage — 1996-08-26

CHAIRPERSON: Are you both going to take the oath.

MS MXOLI: Yes, we are.

NOMBUYISELO BEAUTY MXOLI: (Sworn duly states).

CHAIRPERSON: What is the name of your companion?

MS MXOLI: Eunice Manye.

EUNICE MANYE: (Sworn duly states).

CHAIRPERSON: Nombuyiselo Beauty Moxoli and your sister, we welcome you to this Commission. You have come to give testimony on the death after the disappearance of Vuyani Nojayiti Mxoli. We are then going to hand you over to Reverend Xundu who is going to lead you by asking questions that this Commission would like to forward to you. We therefore ask that you should reply very clearly and as much as you know and tell us the truth according to what you know. Over to you Reverend. Thank you Mr Chairman.

REV XUNDU: Firstly, Nonbuyiselo. I would like to ask where do you live?

MS MXOLI: I live in 11377 at Site.

REV XUNDU: What is your clan name?

MS MXOLI: I am Manzo    Mxoli. . . . (inaudible)

REV XUNDU: At Site, could you tell us your activities as a resident and what type of work you do?

MS MXOLI: I grew up there and I went to school at Ngingza but I am now working.

REV XUNDU: How related are you to Vuyani?

MS MXOLI: I am his sister.

REV XUNDU: Now you say Vuyani was a COSAS activist?

MS MXOLI: Yes.

REV XUNDU: Was he perhaps a chairman or just an ordinary member?

MS MXOLI: He was an SRC member at Mtzontsundu.

REV XUNDU: On this day or at this time, you say a certain  Nkululeko came and called him, now can you tell us more about this incident?

MS MXOLI: At about 5 o'clock on a Friday 1985, I can't tell the date, Nkululeko came who was a friend to him, I don't know whether they were in the same school but Nkululeko was working already. He took my brother away and they said they were going home. I asked them not to come back late because I was aware that the Boers were after him.
 I went to bed and I thought perhaps he had spent the night at home, then early in the morning there was a knock at the door. Because I had my own place, he had come to stay with me because the Boers were after him. So there was a woman who knocked at the door and I opened and she had a hat that belonged to Vuyani her hand. I asked her what she wanted. She took me and went to a certain street nearby.

REV XUNDU: Do you still remember the name of this woman?

MS MXOLI: No, I don't remember her name.

REV XUNDU: Was it a person you knew.

MS MXOLI: Yes, I knew her because we lived in the same street. So as we were entering this house, there was a big dog and it wasn't easy to get in because the dog was vicious, so we went round the house. It was very difficult to get there and I found Vuyani lying on his stomach. He was dressed in a school uniform in a grey trouser and a white shirt.
 He was dressed in a white shirt and he was lying on his tummy and his hands were placed on the back of his body. Looking at him, I spotted some holes, a lot of holes if they were made by bullets, then I couldn't look at him any further. I went to call my brothers at home.

REV XUNDU: So, as you could see the hands placed at the back. Were they tied.

MS MXOLI: No. It was as if they had untied the belt and the trousers were down on the knees. I asked this woman why she did not come to call me at night.
 The neighbours came out and I could see in this passage that in this house this woman had not heard what had happened. It was as if someone had been guarding my brother. Even the neighbours confirmed that they had heard all what was happening, but they were scared to go out of the house as Vuyani was sleeping he was sleeping next to this woman who had come to call me.

REV XUNDU: But this woman did not come to call you.

MS MXOLI: No. So when my brothers came they took Vuyani's body and turned it and they saw some bullet holes all over his body and they ran for an ambulance but police came before and they took photos of the body so they took Vuyani.
 After they had left, Nkululeko came crying in the company of his mother and I asked him why he did not informed me that Vuyani had been shot.
 Nkululeko is the one who fetched Vuyani from home, so I asked him and he said he had been very scared to come and tell me. Then my mother had said that Nkululeko should sleep, so we left them.

REV XUNDU: Now, what other evidence did Nkulukeko have about this incident. What did he actually say?

MS MXOLI: He said they were standing in the street and then there was shooting. Vuyani was standing somewhere with the girlfriend and he ran away.
 So we went home and after that whilst we were sitting with my mother, policemen came asking for Vuyani's clothes because they wanted to identify the bullet holes. They took the clothes with them and before the funeral they asked us to come to Liskraans and asked whether we had not heard who had shot Vuyani and we said we did not know then the police promised that they were going to investigate.

REV XUNDU: Was there any inquest about this death?

MS MXOLI: Just before his funeral.

REV XUNDU: Was there any inquest by the police trying to investigate and to find out what had caused the death of Vuyani.

MS MXOLI: Sis Lucy knows about it.

CHAIRPERSON: Could you give over to her to explain to us about this matter. Just before you give an explanation, just tell us how related you are to this family.

MS MANYI: Yes, I am related to them.

REV XUNDU: Now, could you tell us further as to whether there was any inquest or any investigation as to what was the cause of the death?

MS MANYI: If I were to begin from the time there were these problems, I would say, after the shooting of Vuyani Mxoli we were taking by policemen to a mortuary and the family members were visited by two white policemen and were at the charge office at the time and Beauty was there.

REV XUNDU: Do you know these policemen?

MS MANYI: No, but one was a white policemen from Le Granse. Then they asked whether we were the people related to Vuyani and we said yes.
 They left us for about 30 minutes and then they came back and they said I should go with them to go and identify Vuyani's body. When we got to this dark place where the corpses were, who were just thrown callously and Vuyani's corpse was underneath. They left me there.
 I started praying because it was my first experience with such a lot of corpses and I then identified and they came back and they asked whether I had not seen him, I said no and ultimately I got his body underneath the other corpses. There was one white man in charge of the mortuary who said are you sure, then, I said yes, I am sure.
 They took the body and they asked for the undertaker, then I said it was going to be Head Bush. They took us into a motor car and they drove us to Le Granse. They asked us who had shot this boy. We said we did not know, then they said go and look for that person. 
 They wanted to go with us to go and get his clothes so that they could be able to identify what were the types of bullets that shot him dead.

REV XUNDU: Now, when you got there, was there a death certificate you received.

MS MANYI: No. Up to now we never received any certificate. They took us, they followed in hippos to our house and they demanded that we should give them the clothes that he was wearing at the time he was shot. Those policemen took those clothes up to date.

REV XUNDU: Was there any other thing, some information as to how he had died.

MS MANYI: The following year I received a letter from the Messenger of the Court and there was a white man who said to me, who showed two photographs to me and one was that of Vuyani Mxoli and then he asked whether we had not found out who had killed him and they said they were still investigating. So I went away.

REV XUNDU: Now we go back to the day of the funeral. Now, the policemen were they showing any interest that they could be perhaps be implicated in the death of this boy.