Human Rights Violation Hearings — Queenstown — 1996-07-22

B MDINGI: Yes, they were his friends.  It became obvious that the person that they could not find was Andile and they  decided to go back in the direction of the house where they were the previous night and when they got to this place, they found that Andile was laying there, he had already passed away and they could see three bullet wounds.
 There was a neighbour that said that besides those bullets, there was something that he was probably stabbed with.
 People peeped while this thing was happening, but nobody could come out because of the situation at the time.
 And it was established that apart from the bullet wounds he was stabbed, because they came up to him and they handled him and it was obvious that he was dead, but there was nothing that could be done, because this vehicle was waiting and they decided that they would come back at a later stage and establish.
 They came to the house at about 7 am, this was Mundu Bartman, I think the second one was Archie, I cannot remember too well.

INTERPRETER: The interpretation will continue once the witness has regained her composure.

MR SANDI: You can take your time Ms Balakazi if there is something upsetting you at this point in time.  We will give you time to regain your composure and once you are ready to proceed, you may do so.

B MDINGI: When these children came to the house, I opened the door because my husband was still sleeping and the children were still small.  I was familiar with them because they came there often and I realised that they hadn't come
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for a social visit, but that they wanted us to sit down and talk.
 And I could see from their faces that something was wrong.  Without any delay they said that Sissie, Andile is dead, he was shot last night.  They came in and proceeded to tell me what happened.
 And we stayed in the same zone in NU 10 and we remembered that there was an incident the previous night, but we were so used to these incidents that it didn't faze us much. 
 My husband Mzwandile Mdingi got up and went with them by car and went to pick him up from where he was laying and took him to hospital so that a Doctor could certify him as being dead.
 From the hospital his corpse would then be taken to the  State mortuary in Mdantsane.

MR SANDI: Which hospital was that?

B MDINGI: Cecilia Maqiwane in  Mdantsane.  I must have taken approximately an hour making calls.  The first call was to my mother, because we must have received about three calls a day from my mother, because she was so worried because of Andile and what was happening in Mdantsane.
 After about an hour I must have, I thought of ways in which we could Andile's body, because it would now be in the hands of the police and I tried getting hold of Mr Siwisa, but nothing happened and I then myself, went to the hospital and found that they had gone to the State mortuary.
 My intention was to stop a post mortem being done by a police Doctor.  I was there and then reassured that if I was there by 8 o'clock while he was at the mortuary, I could stop that post mortem being done, and I couldn't do that.
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 On the morning on the 8th of September while people were gathering, police had started their harassment of the people because they did not want too many people gathering at a time and most of the people that they were looking for, were these students.
 And I remember that at some stage where there was a prayer service, there was a woman that was shot.  It was a prayer service for one of the victims in NU 9.
 And at that stage it was obvious that prayer services weren't allowed in Ciskei.  That morning I went to the police station and even though I got there at quarter to eight, I was told that if you have the nerve to go inside there, you can go in, but they have already started the post mortem on Andile, but just be warned that you may not like what you see.
 So I couldn't stop them proceeding with the post mortem.
 In my co-operation with Hintsa Siwisa, we could get the services of independent pathologists, but they only arrived on the Wednesday of that week.
 In that week I was very busy with preparations for the funeral and the Ciskei had made it clear that we will not bury Andile in Mdantsane, because our family felt that even though home was here in Queenstown, and also another region in Queenstown, a lot of people wanted him buried in Queenstown.
 Second week passed without us knowing how we were going to go about the funeral, because it was impossible to get a prayer meeting or anything like that, because the children were very traumatised by the police harassment.
 The most difficult task for me which also made it 
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impossible for me to entertain the fact that there was a death, was that these children who had survived, I had to make sure that they were looked after, because they couldn't sleep with their families.
 And not all houses supported them as far as transporting them and giving them a place to sleep, was concerned.  And you found that even where they slept, they couldn't sleep there for more than one night because after having slept at a place for one night, you would have to take them to another place.
 So in that two weeks we were busy preparing for a funeral which we didn't know whether it would take place and when and also taking care of these children.
 And even here in Queenstown when we heard that there was a possibility that if we could not bury him in Mdantsane, we would bury him here in Queenstown, harassment had increased, because since my father had passed away, my mother was the only one at home.
 Because my other brothers were at school.  And my attention was split between Mdantsane and Queenstown and I had to travel between the two.

MR SANDI: Without interrupting you Ms Balakazi, is the - while you were preparing for the funeral, did the police turn up at your house?

B MDINGI: Yes, the police would come to our house day and night.  There is something that I particularly cannot forget.  My second child was about 6 years old at the time and when the police would arrive, he would run next door.  You know I still get the picture of a mouse running away, you know even if the door was closed, a mouse would use the smallest bit of space to run out.
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 I still have a picture of how my child ran out under the fence to the neighbours, because he did not feel protected, he did not feel safe at home, even though he was with his parents, because of the situation at home at the time.
 I remember even the way they handled my father-in-law, Rex Mdingi.  When they asked who was running the service and he was saying that his colleagues who are all Priests were in charge of the service, but the handling which we received there was received by everyone, school children, church people, old people, everyone.
 Something else that continues to bother me about the time we were preparing for the funeral is the treatment of the media.  Particularly the Daily Despatch.  
 One particular article that was published, made it clear that an animal was shot.  And it just showed that they weren't sensitive and even when we objected, it was obvious that these articles had already found these people guilty, because you couldn't even go to the police with these articles objecting to it.  Because it was obvious you couldn't even complain to the police, because these articles were so defamatory.

MR SANDI: You mentioned that the newspaper, media in particular the Daily Despatch handled this matter in a very defamatory manner.  You said it was like they had already found people guilty.  What do you mean?