Human Rights Violation Hearings — Durban — 1996-08-28

WITNESS:   This took place at Umlazi Cinema.  I said to the soldiers, "I am the leader of these people that you "see in front of you.  They respect me.  To prove that they respect me I am the one who invited all of them to come and gather at this place.  Also tell me who is the leader, who is responsible for you here?  I want to talk to your leader, not to talk to the whole lot."  They finally pointed the leader.  I went to the leader, confronted the leader, and I spoke to him.  I said, "I am leading this group and you are leading this group, so please talk to your soldiers not to come to us and disturb us, and I will also talk to my people not to disturb you."  It looked like we agreed to this.  After a while, as we were carrying on praying and worshipping, the pastor who was in the charge of the sermon, S A Khumalo, left, and as he was marching out of the hall hell broke loose.  We just heard shootings.  Tear-gas was sprayed.  Cars were damaged outside.  My car spent two days at that area because it was completely damaged.  After that, as an MC one came to me to whisper, telling me that, "No, the Inkatha is around, has come now, but don't announce this to the people.  Let's just say it's police, because people are so scared of Inkatha.  Let's just say it's police."  I could not lie, but I did not say who they were, who those people were standing at the door.  What I am saying to you leads to the burning of my house.  What was most painful, when the cinema was sprayed with tear-gas, and people could just smell tear-gas all over, one will just jump from up there down here.  You know I watched this happening.  Professor Fatima was seated next to me.  We had no ways even ourselves to escape from the situation they way it was.  This Indian lady who was next to me was shivering.  I also felt I should die.  She was our guest speaker at our prayer meeting.  After that I saw them coming, and they opened - the door burst open and they stomped inside.  I feel I am obliged to give the names of the people, because we are here to ventilate and tell the truth.  I don't know what will happen after I tell you the names, but I don't care.  Let what happens happen.  When they came in Wellington Sabela was leading.  He had guns, two guns on the side - both sides, two on each side.  There was one who held the gun in this position, pointing at people.  They came in.  I hugged this Indian lady seated next to me so she could not panic.  "There's nothing that will happen to you.  Please keep calm.  Just tell yourself God is there and God is in control, He will help.  Just tell yourself this, that God will make a plan."  What was most painfully is that those people who were jumping from up there down here died, and people - and those people shoved assegais through the people and people died in that cinema.  After a short while I decided to take Professor Fatima to just hide behind the curtains.  I will go to these people, because you can see a person after he has been shoved with an assegai that she or he is so much in pains.  Maybe I could help.  I tried to rush to those people who have been shoved with assegais to try and give some help.  And Professor Fatima did hide and I went down to try and enlist some help to these people.  Bheka Shezi, who was an attorney, did help in a large extent as well to save the souls of those who were already stabbed.  After a short while there were comments on the newspapers, and untrue.  There were just false statements saying they were people who were unknown, what this and what this.  That irritated me so much, that there should be some people who will go to give statements to the newspapers that were not true, and lying about people.  I explained this thing.  I went to the newspaper and I explained to them exactly what happened and what took place.  As I explained, even as I am explaining to you now, the results were telephones after telephones, which were threatening my health, my life, that I will die, I will be killed.  Those telephones were so many, one after another, threatening me and even saying all sorts of things, vulgar languages, so that each time when the telephone ring I will be sceptical of going to answer the telephone.  I will say, "Don't answer the telephone because I know those are threats."  What was surprising, the police who were known as Security Branch were visiting my house all the time, more than three times a day, coming to harass people who were living with me.  Medical students at Wentworth will come at my place to just look at what's happening at my place, and they were arrested at the end.  Those was arrested, those medical students, asking them, "What do you want here?  Is this your problem, or what?"  They could come and search and take anything that they felt like taking.  Even a stick they could take.  When we went to bury Mrs Nxenge I was one of the prominent speakers, and when I was coming home after the funeral from Khoza I got home so tired.  I could not even put on my pyjamas to sleep the way I was so tired after driving that long distance.  I just slept in the clothes I was wearing.  At about half past two I was so scared severely it just felt like the heaven was just falling up my roof, my house.  You know, it was so bright at home.  The house was burning.  Kids were crying.  The house was in flames.  I woke up, I did not even know where the door was.  I did not know where I was and what was happening.  It looked and it seemed to me like the house was moving.  I could see flames all over.  After that, now that my mind was collected, I said, "Okay."  That's when the flames were just moving around.  This is why I thought it was the house moving.  I had so much difficulty that I had never experienced before.  I tried to run around, because I could hear kids were screaming, crying in the house.  Even myself I was burning, I was in fire.  By the God Almighty we could manage to escape this excruciating experiences.  I was there, remaining in the house.  I had lost my conscious, my mind, I could not think right, but finally we managed to escape this.  And my wife thought about a hose pipe, and they used the hose pipe to calm the flame.  They connected the hose pipe to the kitchen tap, and that's how we managed to escape the situation.  This was so painful, and it was such an excruciating experience.  After this there was just that part of the house which was no so much burnt.  One part of the house was severely burnt, and the other was not so much burnt.  When we were approaching the door, running away, we saw the kombi just parked by.  They did not shoot.  When they saw us coming out they just drove off.  Let me say this, Mr Chairman.  I just left something that is so important.  Just before the house got burnt, after those telephone calls, after I had already explained that what happened, I did get the response, which came from a person who was so respected, is such a prominent figure in the community, even internationally.  That person that I will use his name here.  There's a person who's being respected internationally by the name of OD Dhlomo, who was the secretary-general of Inkatha at the time.  OD was respected, but what I say today is that OD Dhlomo's hands are in blood.  That's what we are saying, us as an ANC, because after my statement OD Dhlomo appeared on television, commenting on the television, responding and answering me from the television, national television.  OD Dhlomo was saying, "We do hear and understand that David Sibonono Gasa, who says it was Inkatha which attacked the cinema.  We do not know that David Gasa and what leads him to say that.  He has a nerve to say that, coming from Umlazi and knowing very well that the Umlazi is predominantly Inkatha, and he speaks generally that it's Inkatha.  Doesn't he know that Inkatha will get irritated and agitated from this?  Doesn't he know that Inkatha will be devastated, and after that the Inkatha - lo and behold where will he run to, because Inkatha will take control?"  Indeed Inkatha did get irritated and devastated as he said, and when Inkatha got irritated, lo and behold, it decided that Gasa should be killed, and the Qabane members should be killed.  Our children died in numbers, thousands.  My house was the very first one to burn.  Yes indeed the Inkatha got devastated.  You know it will be children ranging around 14 or 12 years going to attend the funerals, because older people will not go to any funeral because of fearing Inkatha.  You know the kids will be so brave to attend the funerals because they knew they could run as fast as their feet could carry them, more than older people, so older people will be keeping to themselves now because of what OD Dhlomo said.  Now I would like to make mention of this.  Well, I went to hide, but I went back to Umlazi, and as I was still there at Umlazi my wife - maybe I should say that I don't have my wife today because of what Inkatha did, because from that day - it was on the 12th when my house got burnt, in August in 1985.  On the 23rd of August 1985 they came during the day.  Now they were fuming.  They came during the day, not even at night.  They were so many in number.  They were in a bus, Putco bus, and also in a truck.  I had already escaped the previous day.  They came on Saturday, and I had already escaped on Friday because I already heard from hearsay that something is going to happen here.  They found my wife and my mother-in-law, who was old and ill at the time.  They came and they sprinkled petrol around the premises and in the house.  Also that very Sabela.  People were watching.  You know, this sounds like a myth, and this really happened.  After they have done that they burnt my house.  What a big house, what a beautiful house that they burnt, that took me so much to build.  You know I will be arrested and be released, and go back and build my house.  You know this is what it took for me to build my house.  I could be arrested, and after being released I could go on and carry on with extending the house.  Now my wife and my mother-in-law - my mother-in-law spent about two months after that incident and died.  My wife was in pieces - was so ill up to the point when she died.  This day my wife is late.  You know I still think that my wife will be still alive had it not been of OD Dhlomo's comment on the national television.  Oh, I am forgetting something here.  This concerns me direct.  I am someone who is peaceful, and that's my nature, that's just how I am, but since that time when you touch me I move.  You know, I am that kind of a person who will be just so irritated.  Touches, move.  You don't touch me because I blow out of proportion.  I am completely changed from what I used to be before.  I have even said to myself maybe it's because I spent so much time in prison, and the times I will be in solitary confinement, those probably resulted to what I am now.  You know, I could not even laugh.  I will just play around with ants.  Those are my friends.  I will take the towel and just beat up on the fly, and play around with the fly in the end.  That was the game I was playing whilst I was in the solitary confinement.  And then laugh out of this.  Two full years going through that.  Now I get to a point where I say probably as a result of that this is why I am what I am today.  But this has created so much wounds. What I have gone and what I have been through, the atrocities that I have been through caused me to be what I am today.