Human Rights Violation Hearings — Alexandra — 1996-10-29

MRS MATLANA: It was during 1986 February, it was five in the morning.   I was at home and there were some young youths who came to my house asking people to get out of their houses and one of my sons who was about 12 years, about to be 13, was also taken out of the house to accompany the young men.  After they had gone for some time he is the kind of son who like food so if he doesn't get tea or some food I get worried because he didn't eat breakfast from the
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morning and I was worried as to why he is not coming back to have breakfast.  Therefore I decided to go to my sister who was staying at 5th Avenue.  I left my home and I went straight to 5th Avenue.  When I passed one corner at 24th Avenue I found that one child was shot in the yard and they were pulling this child.  On the road there was a very big rock.  He was pulled by white police.  He was not yet dead.  Then when they arrived at the rock they pulled him up and they hit him against the rock.  We were standing by trying to find out to identify the child.  Unfortunately they chased us away.  We passed the place but when we looked back we could see police arriving and they were becoming many in number.  The police whom I know were Mr Mtebi, Sindana was one of them and this Sindana was a friend to my uncle, Piet Maseko.  I passed that police.  As I was passing going to my sister they took this child of mine and when I arrived at my sister and told her that they have killed a young child on a rock and explained that I didn't know to whom the child belonged, my sister told me that I don't have to worry because I don't know where the child comes from.  And I told her that I am looking for my son because he didn't come for breakfast.  My sister told me that you don't have to worry about that, children just go around, running around the streets because police are chasing them.  Just sit down and relax, maybe he ran back home.  And I said to her how could that happen.  Bongani can't run, I know he likes food, he should be home by now.  I was not satisfied.  I told my sister that maybe one of the child who was killed on the way it might be my child because I couldn't recognise the child.  My sister just said I mustn't worry.  Therefore I went back home.  When I arrived at home I asked his sisters whether he
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came back and they said no he had not yet arrived.  I told them how I saw the police killing a young child, hitting him against a rock.  However, the way they hit him I couldn't identify the body so I don't know whose child it was.  They said to me don't think that was Bongani, we hope that he is still alive wherever he is.  He might still be running around the streets.  I wasn't happy, I couldn't sleep.  It was the 17th February and it was a Monday, 1986.  It was the 17th.  When I woke up in the morning about five o'clock Bongani hadn't come back home.  Therefore I went straight to Alexandra clinic to enquire maybe if he was injured or sent to the clinic but however when I arrived at the clinic they tried to search their records and they couldn't find my child's name.  However, on the 18th I went back home.  Thereafter I went to (indistinct) police station.  When I arrived at the police station I asked them about the whereabouts of my son.  The police were just walking up and down, they didn't even listen to me.  I just stood there confused.  However, one policeman, a Xhosa-speaking policeman, asked me what am I looking for.  I told him I am looking for my child because I saw him the previous morning and he didn't come back home.  And he asked me how old he was, I told him he is 12 years and he was about to be 13.  They opened on their records and they couldn't find his name.  The police told me that most of the children are not there because some of them were hit with iron bullets and one of them has been sent to Khotso House, you might find him in Khotso House, just go there and check and he said if I don't find my child at Khotso House I had better go to the government mortuary.  I left the place and went to the company where his father worked and explained his
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disappearance and I told them that the Hippos were running around the township, people saw the Hippo running down to the bushes.  I didn't know what it was carrying.  Maybe my child was also carried in the Hippo. His father gave me the money so I travelled to the government mortuary.  I took a taxi and I asked this driver to take me to the government mortuary. I didn't go to Khotso House.  The taxi driver told the occupants of the taxi that I was asking him to take me to the government mortuary and they agreed that he can take me to the mortuary.  Therefore they took me to the government mortuary.  When I arrived there I found that there was a queue.  I stood in the queue and then one of the people there came to me and asked me what am I looking for.  I told them that I am looking for my son.  They asked me where is your son from, I told them I am from Alexandra.  They asked how old was my son.  I told them he was 12.  He said Mommy we have seen one child but we don't think - there is one child here but we don't think he is 12 years old because he came alone, he was carried in a Hippo, he came alone and he is from Alexandra.  I don't know whether this is the one that you are looking for.  And I told them mine is 12 years old but he is short and they asked me are you strong enough to come and identify your child.  I said yes I can.  Therefore they took me into the mortuary.  I found so many bodies lying on the ground.  This one of mine was sitting on top of the plank and they asked me is this your child, I said yes I found this is my child. I said Bongani you left me behind.  And they said to me since you have identified the body it is okay and they asked me the name and I told them it is Bongani Madlana.  They gave me his number.  They gave me a letter, they told me to go and sit
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outside.  They wrote me two letters.  They said that one of the letters is mine and they asked me do you have a mortuary and then they gave me another letter to take to the police station and the other one you keep it and they said if you hand this letter over to the police station they will give you another one.  I left the place and went back to his father's work place and told him about Bongani's death.  And then his employers gave him the time to come with me to go to the mortuary.  However, we went back to the office, probably this is the police station and we found Mr Mtebi. He took the letter and he said is this the child that was killed at number 24.  That is where I found out that the child that I saw being hit against the rock was my child.  Therefore we gave statements.  After giving statements we went back on burying our child and after the funeral I got a letter saying that I must come to court.  We didn't go to court exactly but we went to private offices and there was Mtebi and the other white policeman who was handling the case. And they asked me what happened to your child and I told them that I don't know anything.  I told them I just found my son in the mortuary and there is nothing that I know as to what happened.  And they asked me whether you can show us about the leaders of these children who were running around the streets and I told them I don't know them.  From that time we left the office they never came back to me to tell me as to what had happened to my child.  However, later this white policeman wrote a letter, he gave his name in the letter and said you sent me some letters.  However, he never sent letters to me.  After some time, about two weeks passed.  They called us to Randburg.  When we arrived in Randburg they took out photos, they shot him - the shot
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shows him holding a whisky in his hand.  However, we couldn't find that but on the photos we don't know when they took the photos and he was holding this half a jack which was a petrol bomb.  This worries me a lot because these people who killed my son it means that the police knew him and they knew me and they had to take him alone to a government mortuary.  As it happened that most children died and their parents couldn't find them.  They took him to the mortuary alone because they knew me.