Special Hearings — Children's Hearings — 1997-05-14

DR MAGWAZA: I will be very brief now. In the beginning   I did acknowledge our Government for showing a strong commitment to upholding   the rights of the children, including that one of participation, and that we   are here today because of that right for participation. Yet to a large extent   we still feel that children are accorded a very low, marginal status in society.
English is on channel two.
I was saying that the very fact that we have very few adults   today here, that's a strong message that we still don't take the children seriously.   We know in this region that thousands of children have been violated, that the   children need our support as adults. With all good intentions from adults sometimes   we experience problems, not being aware that are children are invisible witnesses.   Sometimes we fail to notice trauma in our own children. At other times we don't   even believe that children they can grieve and mourn if they lose their parents   and care-givers. Children, especially very young ones, are sometimes paralysed   by trauma. They might not even have skills to communicate their trauma. How   many times have we seen sad eyes locked in frozen expressions, but being unable   to express themselves? Children do suffer in silence. 
We, as adults, sometimes we keep a conspiracy of silence around   the suffering of children because it's too painful for us to deal with it, or   simply because we don't
 /have
have skills. But if we, as adults, we cannot face the suffering   of children, how are we going to help them to heal and forgive? 
The society at large can sometimes be harsh to children. Children   have been criminalised, treated as criminals, when in fact they are traumatised.   Some of the children have been thrown into streets by violence. We only see   them as problems to us. Sometimes we stigmatise these children, we don't treat   them as normal people.
We also have youth who have fought for this country, whom we   need to acknowledge and reaffirm. Some of them have lost opportunities for lifetime.   Yet despite all that pain and suffering our children here are very resilient   and strong. We have seen this morning how strong our children are. Children   are our future generation. They represent South Africa's most critical national   asset, therefore today we want to share their invaluable experiences, and we   would like to hear their voices. Thank you very much.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Professor Magwaza. I think just   so we can finally sort out all the technical problems we've decided to break   for tea now. The tea people are ready upstairs. We will take a 15 minute tea   break, and if you could all be back in the hall please at quarter past 11. We   have lost some time, so we would like to try and proceed promptly. Thank you.
HEARING ADJOURNS
/
ON RESUMPTION
ON RESUMPTION

CHAIRPERSON: We will be having two witnesses from yesterday,   Thokozani Shelembe from Inanda, and Moses Zulu from Bhambayi. They will be talking   about the evidence that they heard yesterday of the various children who spoke   in groups. If we can just swear them each in please.

THOKOZANI SHELEMBE: and

MOSES ZULU: (Sworn, State)

CHAIRPERSON: I would suggest that you put on the headphones.   The Zulu is on channel 3. Can you hear the Zulu now? Okay. If you can then proceed   please.

WITNESS: I would like to greet the Commission, or the Chairman of this Commission,   and to greet everyone who is here today. My name is Thokozani Shelembe. I am   from Inanda. As you can all remember that KwaZulu-Natal is one province which   was ahead in violence in all the provinces, as we all know that the police were   not helping this, and we know like Hlangezi area, where the IFP members were   harassing people and police were doing nothing about this.

INTERPRETER: Could the speaker speak a little bit slower   please.

CHAIRPERSON: If you could just speak a little bit slower   please, because the translator's translating at the same time as you are talking.

WITNESS: I was referring to how the police used to ignore or to protect the society,   and instead of doing this they were the ones who were perpetrating these activities.   Police didn't help the society. Members of UDF ran away from their houses, and   one day one member of the UDF wanted to visit his home, and when he was on his   way going home he met police and he

CHAIRPERSON: /thought

CHAIRPERSON: thought he was secured or safe, but then he was shot by the   police. Today he is paralysed, he is using walking sticks. And in schools we   were harassed. Our houses were burnt down before our eyes. We couldn't even   concentrate in classes, we couldn't listen to teachers. Even if we tried to   concentrate in class behind us houses were burnt down. We were supposed to leave   school and go and take care of our siblings, younger siblings, and grandmothers   and grandfathers. And all this happened before police eyes, and in fact they   were the ones who were doing these things. We can't put blame on them. They   were not working, they were doing these things because they needed money, they   needed something to provide for their families. Because our houses were burnt   we couldn't meet with our families. Until today the youth of KwaZulu-Natal can't   meet eye to eye with the police. We're asking the Government that he or she   must build houses for orphanage so that we take care of the orphans. We don't   have houses. Our parents have no money to take us to school or to further our   education. We ask the Government that they should provide employment for those   people who are not working. If all these things can be attended to we won't   face any criminality in KwaZulu-Natal. Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Thokozani. You mentioned a person that was paralysed.

WITNESS: Yes, there is one.

CHAIRPERSON: What's the name of that person, just for our records?

WITNESS: His   name is Wonder. He was staying at KwaNdengezi.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. All right, if you could then, Moses, tell us and   give us your report please. If you will please just press the red button in   front of you. Thank

CHAIRPERSON: /you. ---

CHAIRPERSON: you.