Human Rights Violation Hearings — Newcastle — 1996-09-12

WITNESS:   They said they were killing a wizard's dog.  I saved that dog because the previous owner was going to kill the dog because it was suffering from rabies.  And the police, after I had saved that dog, wanted me to sell them this dog, and this dog was so close to me.  We had a special relationship.  Then on the 19th that is when I was attacked by the ANC early in the morning whilst I was on my way to work.  Chris Hani was going to be buried on that day, and they had blocked the roads and they said we were not supposed to go to work.  At that time I still had my car.  I drove my car, and along the way when I was at Osizweni - because I saw the road was full of glass.  As I was still waiting there somebody threw a stone at me and I ducked.  It broke the window.  That was the day on which Hani was being buried.  I was attacked by ANC members.  We made attempts and we went to see some priests so that we could reach a resolution, leaders of the ANC as well as leaders of Inkatha.  There was an ANC leader, Makhosini Hadebe.  He was removed from his seat because they said he did not know how to lead people, so he will not be able to continue with his job.  And we could not continue with the peace meeting because at night, just before we were going to go to the meeting, we heard the sound of gunfire and we decided that it was no longer safe to go to the meeting.  We abandoned the plans of going to the meeting.  At that time Inkatha was suspected of colluding with the police. We were in contrast with what the ANC was doing, boycotting classes as well as work, embarking on go-slows.  We did not want to do the very same things that the ANC was doing because we wanted to go to work.  They never asked us.  They used to direct us and tell us that we are supposed to do this and that.  So this is what caused the whole violence because we did not want to listen to them.  We used to contact the police, and we told the superiors at the police station that we needed to be protected whenever the ANC was putting barricades on the roads so that we could not go to work.  The police used to help us remove those barricades.  These are the things that made people believe that police were colluding with us, because they were helping us remove the barricades so that we could go to work.  Some of the things that disturbed me were that when we were told about the attack on Inkatha members, as Mr Twala, who was also attacked, and people who attempted to bomb his house were arrested - VV Nkabinde, Ngubeni's house, Mthethwa's house.  Makhosane Mdlalose's shop was burnt.  Mr Mkhize was shot.  The children of Inkatha members, Thulani Buthelezi from Osizweni, was killed because he was in the Inkatha Youth League, and they said they were killing Gatsha's dog.  They were killed by members of the ANC.  Mr Khubeka, who was next to Zenzele, was killed.  These are the things that we wanted to prevent.  But when we look at this critically, Dr T F Mdlalose came to my place after I had been attacked.  I never heard him saying that I should retaliate, but he encouraged me to accept the situation as it was.  Buthelezi had told us that we were going to be attacked, and he told us that we were going to be killed for all those things that we were doing.  And at that time we thought that he was joking, but when it happened in reality we realised that Buthelezi is a man of his words.  Whatever he says does happen, because we were being killed.  Even now the members of Inkatha are being killed at present.  That is a very well known fact, but I am not going to delve on that at the moment.  What I am saying is Gatsha Buthelezi has never encouraged us to be violent.  I remember we were fighting with whites because we wanted Ingwavuma, and some people in Johannesburg said Buthelezi was delaying the progress because he wanted to negotiate most of the time.  Now what I am saying, such a leader is a leader who is helping us.  He is restraining us from doing bad things and encouraging violence.

MR LAX: (Inaudible)  ... you've given us quite a picture of what things were like in your area.  You're now moving on to broader political issues, and I have certainly given you enough of a platform so far to say some of those issues, but if you could tell us a little bit about what you lost.  You said you had a vehicle.  What vehicle was that?

WITNESS:   It was a Toyota Corolla.  The registration number was NN 17074.

MR LAX: What model, what year?

WITNESS:   It was a 1984 model.

MR LAX: In terms of your house, did you lose everything in the house?

WITNESS:   I lost blankets, as well as children's clothes.

MR LAX: (Inaudible) ... list there with you of people that you know about who had their homes destroyed, or who were burnt, or lost people and so on.  Can you make that list available to us so we can follow up?

WITNESS:   No, I do not have the list, but I can try to get hold of it.  I do not have the list at present.

MR LAX: (Inaudible) ... appreciate if you could please let us have a copy of that list so we could follow up some of those instances.  Since this attack on your house have you been back to your home that you were living in?  Have you been back there?  Where are you living at the moment?

WITNESS:   I am staying at house No 8.

MR LAX: (Inaudible) ... back there?  Is this a different house from that?

WITNESS:   I am staying to where I got refuge.

MR LAX: (Inaudible) ... you old house that was destroyed?

WITNESS:   No, I never went back to my previous house.

MR LAX: Did you own that house?

WITNESS:   It was not mine, it was Mr Mthethwa's house.

MR LAX: (Inaudible) ... opened a case at Newcastle Police Station, and you gave us the CR number.  Was there ever any court case to follow up on that?

WITNESS:   No, there was  /no case.

MR LAX: no case.

MR LAX: (Inaudible) ... prosecuted for that?

WITNESS:   No, nobody was prosecuted.

MR LAX: Did you recognise any of the people who were attacking your home or burning your vehicle?

WITNESS:   It was at night and I could not see any of them.  It was a group of youths, so I could not identify them.

MR LAX: I hear you.  You've said that this has affected your family very badly, and your family are very emotional about this issue.

WITNESS:   Yes, it did traumatise my family, because when they went to my mother's place they did not get me.  They went there at night and I wasn't there, and I was coming back from Johannesburg because we had organised a rally in Pretoria.  At that time when I came back my mother cried when she heard gunfire, and that I was being attacked.  They went to house No 8, that is my house, and when I came back I saw a number of people, white people as well as black people, who told me that there was a lot of gunfire there.  And there is a certain policeman who saved my life, because he never pointed my house as to where my house - or which one was my house.  And I thanked him for having saved my life.  But my family was severely traumatised, and they asked me what I was getting from Inkatha, because I was busy with Inkatha and I was being attacked day in and day out.  I said to her, "Inkatha to me is like going to church and being a member of the parish."

MR LAX: Have your family had any counselling, have you had any counselling to try and help you deal with these issues?

WITNESS:   No, I never got any counselling.

MR LAX: Do you think you would benefit from some help, some

MR LAX: counselling

MR LAX: counselling of that description?

WITNESS:   I think that can

MR LAX: help if we can be compensated.  Even if we are not compensated it doesn't really matter.  God will answer.

MR LAX: Thank you, Mr Buthelezi, I hand back to the Chair.