Human Rights Violation Hearings — East London — 1996-04-17

BESSIE MDODA: I am Mrs Bessie Mdoda, the daughter of the Jede family in Gauteng, Mfulo North.  The whole family of mine were all political activists.  My grandfather or my uncle was the first victim to be shot by the Boers in Port
Elizabeth with the first defiance in the 50's.  My mother EAST LONDON  HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
2 MDODA
was also detained in John Vorster Square because she was also involved in the struggle.  In 1981 I was in detention in Transkei, I was in solitary confinement for three and a half months.  They wanted to get information, among other things.  The government was really in trouble. 
 I now want to come on the educational side. I matriculated in Gauteng and I joined Damelin, doing secretarial courses, and I did nursing. I did not go into the nursing field, but after completing, because I was beautiful, I took part in a beauty contest and I was Miss South Africa. I also went into a fashion show, then I got married, Xola was already born and I got married in Umtata as Mrs Mdoda. I married a professor from UNITRA. 
 I want to speak now about Xola. You know, most unfortunately, Xola was very involved in the 1976 riots.  He ran with his cousin from that area to Umtata to visit me. On their arrival it was discovered by the Boers that they are in Umtata and followed them. They couldn't carry on with their education anymore, and went to Lesotho and we requested Professor Njabula Ndebele to take care of them, to accommodate them, to see to it that they go to school, because they were now at the high school.  They were now in matric.
 We had good contact with them and even went to visit them.  At the end of 1979, we went to visit them, but when we arrived we were told that they left with a person called Chris Hani.  Nobody had any idea of their whereabouts.  Most unfortunately we never ever heard anything about them.  We were in that ...(indistinct), you know, going up and down asking, we didn't even know where to get Chris Hani. In 1990 I heard that Chris Hani is around town in Umtata.
EAST LONDON  HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
3 MDODA
 He was telling the families of these people that have died over the borders, some of them are still alive and would come back very soon. There was a rally organised at the stadium in Umtata, I went to it because I was anxious to hear something about Xola, because I already heard that he also skipped the country. Well I went to Umtata Stadium, I went to the stage where he sat with his wife, Dimpo, I asked him whether he was Chris Hani. "Mr Chris Hani, all the people have come back.  You have gone to the families of people who had come back, but you never came to our place".  And he asked me, "Who are you talking about?", I said, "No, I'm talking about Xola Jede".  He said, "No sister, I know him very well, he was a very brilliant boy.  We took him to schools where we were designing bombs, because we wanted him to be a nuclear physicist for our organisation, he was so bright. Don't worry, he is healthy, nothing is the matter with him."
 That was in 1990. "He's healthy, there is nothing about him, he is handling explosives, he will be the last to come back".  Well we stayed hoping that he would come. And I asked him further, "Chris, things are now quiet, why doesn't he contact us?" "Don't worry sister, he will contact you, I am going to Shell House at our head offices, and then I'll check in the computer to find out in which direction he is, so that if you want to contact him, you can freely do so."
 Well we waited patiently, Chris Hani never came to tell us, he never came to us to say whether he contacted the computer or not.  We went up and down around every corner to try and establish his whereabouts.  In 1992, I read a magazine, Works and Progress.  Chris Hani was talking about a mutiny that took place in their camps in Angola and EAST LONDON  HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
4 MDODA
he said 18 Chief Commanders of Umkonto weSizwe were removed because they were not following orders.  This made me very suspicious.  I thought, maybe Xola might be one of these people, because during that time when Chris Hani was telling me that he's still alive, he said to me Xola was now a chief commander of Umkonto.  
 Well I called Shell House every day, but I couldn't get hold of him. I left messages.  There was a certain gentleman who always answered these calls, I think he was called Mofukeng, then Mofukeng would say, he would pass the messages over to Chris Hani, but no reply, and I thought to myself that I'm just wasting my time here. So I went on and on asking everybody, because I wanted to understand where they are in Lesotho, where are the people that went with him the day Chris Hani came to fetch them?
 Then it was discovered that a certain Mr Galiki was also involved, he was in East London, and I asked one of Xola's cousins, Saki, to go to East London to find out about Xola. Galiki found Xola, and it was in 1992, I don't know whether they were still alive or not, but Galiki went over to America, Xola was coming down to settle his matters with the Boers.  
 After hearing that he was caught and he was sentenced to 10 years, I think that was now in 1992, and I said, "Ten years has gone by and no people are now in jail, just a moment, when he was sentenced to 10 years, where was he caught and where was he sentenced?"  He said he doesn't know exactly where he was caught, he doesn't know exactly where he was sentenced, he only knew one point, they were coming to South, to South Africa to engage the enemy, and then the other one went over to America. And he said 10 years was now EAST LONDON  HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
5 MDODA
over, and we shouldn't worry at all about this issue, because if there is a person who knows Xola, or knows anything about him, we should go to Chris Hani.  And he said, if Chris Hani tells us that he doesn't remember him anymore, we should tell him that Xola had a girl friend, who was beautiful called Pumula Dumasi from East London, then he would maybe remember.
 We met Chris Hani and he said there was no point to say it is Xola with a beautiful girlfriend, so we went on to find Xola to no avail.  We met people from Lesotho who knew about him but they would always suggest that we should ask Chris Hani. Each time Chris Hani saw me he would indeed run away from me, not appearing to want to meet me at all.  I didn't know why he was avoiding me, because at least Xola was from an activist family and we knew that when a child is involved in those dangerous missions it would be just lucky if he comes back alive.  So we expected anything, the only thing that worried us was the fact that we were not told by the ANC what happened.  
 This really haunted us for a long time, because it the ANC has recruited the children, we expect it to exercise care so that if there is something that happened, they should tell us as parents, or they should try some means of protecting them.  We waited staying in those times of troubles, repeatedly calling Shell House.  At some stage I being disappointed, went personally to Shell House.  There is a Mr Mofukeng who really helped you, you 
managed to talk to him. On my way to Shell House, Mr Mofukeng told me that they were busy searching.  (end of side A of tape 9) (side B of tape 9)  Mofukeng said to me that Chris managed to find out where Xola was.  It seems as  EAST LONDON  HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
6 MDODA
if he died in 1984  and the people from Shell House will come and report at Mfundo about Xola's death.
 Well I moved from Umtata that day, I went to Mufulo, there was an old woman called Mrs Mesima, she was together with an old man.  They arrived and told us that something really happened, Xola died in 1984. He was killed by the security forces at Soutpansberg.  I was really shocked, everybody was scared at home.  
 The main thing that shocked us was the fact that if he really passed away in 1984, why should Chris say to me, Xola was alive in 1990?  Because he was telling me about his wellbeing, he was the chief of staff and people were dependent on him.  Why didn't he know anything about the death of Xola, why didn't he tell us, and at the same time, it was mentioned that Xola was a chief commander, and I was told that these chief commanders work alone, they go freely?
 Then we asked Mrs Msimang, "Mrs Msimang, you say Xola was a hero?", "Yes". "You've seen your heroes, the security force?" "Yes".  "They'll try by all means to come to their houses to tell their parents what happened to them, now what kind of a hero are you referring to, while the hero was still sick, you didn't even show any sign?  At the same time, this chief commander, is he not together with a team, if he has to attend to some missions?
 Mrs Msimang said,"Yes the Chief is not alone but he is with a team. But I'm now telling you he was killed by the security forces". 
I asked, "Were they all wiped out by the security forces, not even one person in that whole team that was left behind?"
"No they didn't die all of them."
EAST LONDON  HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
7 MDODA
"Right, if they didn't die, all of them, what happened to the remaining ones, who are they really?"
"Oh no we'll start investigations to find out who was with him during that time, We'll come back to you and tell you everything".
"Alright, let us now ask a question? If the children go out on dangerous missions, is there no check point, action organisation, so that you check all the points?  Don't you monitor the movements of these children? Don't you look at the time frame, so that when they don't come back you would understand that maybe something might have happened to them?"
"Yes Mrs Mdoda, we have such things but here and there we had problems, okay?" 
"When this group with Xola went to their missions, you realise that the group never came back, any steps you took? Why do you reflect such great negligence?"
"No Mrs Mdoda, we were not negligent, we were actually being troubled by the spies from the System."
"Now tell me, do you think Xola was labelled a sell out because I heard that you killed many people them because you labelled them sell outs.  Was Xola a sell out, so that you even killed him or was he involved in the group of Angolans?"
No, Mrs Mdoda, he never became a spy.  He was a hero.  We will investigate this case and we'll come back to you to tell you what really happened."
 Up to this day they are still investigating. I have nothing to tell me what happened. I don't know how far they are with their investigations, but I keep on going to Shell House.  
EAST LONDON  HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
8 MDODA
 The other thing that troubles me, when I was in Johannesburg in March, I went to Shell House.  When I got there I started asking about the investigations and how far they are. I told them they ought now to have a death certificate, which I want. They took out their books and showed me their records.  In that cubicle on the 12th floor there were three people, two ladies and one old man. Mrs Msimanga also had a book and checked. The other old lady  checked and said, "Here, I know his names were Martin Xola Jebe".  She stated that his death was reported and it was in 1981.  Mrs Msimanga records showed that the death was reported in 1984. What does this make you think? This disturbed me very much, because it showed me that the ANC didn't care about its people.  The ANC was negligent.