Amnesty Hearings — Boksburg — 1999-02-22

BEKI XABA: We then proceeded and we saw the people who were toyi-toying and I approached them and the street was barricaded with drums and a whole assortment of things.  And I would say that I was known quite well by the youth in the township.  I got off the vehicle and went to a group of people to enquire as to what was happening, and they fully explained to me that they were trying to stop the IFP from burying their Umhlembwe, and I said to them are they, are you referreing to the Khumalo funeral and they said that's indeed so, and I enquired as to why they were stopping this because this person was a resident of the township, and they said no her husband is involved in the killing of people in the township.  And I said, look this is bad, because this person has to be buried today.  Would you like it if you are not given a chance to bury your own, and that didn't help.
	And then I went back to the car and told my brother-in-law that look it's bad, we would have to go back, and inform the indunas.  I must say that my brother-in-law was the one who was older than myself and therefore had the authority to communicate to indunas.  We then thought that it would be better to inform the indunas and the police, but then my brother-in-law suggested that we would not able to readily get indunas, and he suggested that we speak to the police.  And them we went to Myame where we found Mr Wessel and other police.  I then went to Wessel because my brother-in-law could not communicate with him in English.  I spoke to him and told him that we have come across a situation, and to avoid the spilling of blood we would have to try another route between the two streets, Khumalo and Ngaki.  Indeed Mr Wessel promised us that there would be no conflict, he would try to bring in soldiers as well as the police, or the stability unit, and he said that we were no longer going to use the designated route, which was Khumalo Street.  
	We thanked him and we drove back, and on our way along a place called Madlala, and I said to my brother-in-law maybe you should go to the funerals to monitor the situation, and as I was talking to him it occurred to me that we experienced a similar problem in 1991, and I felt bad about  that, and I then said to my brother-in-law look I am not going to do what I wanted to do earlier on, I will rather attend the funeral instead.  And he said to me, listen, you will drive my car, it's parked over there and there are people inside.  I will take your vehicle and use it, because I will not go to the funeral.  And I said to him, that being the case, it's okay, and I wanted to know from him who were in the car, and he said there are certain men whom you don't know, and he said it's okay, I'll meet you in church.  And the funeral procession proceeded through Khumalo Street.  I trusted that everything was okay because the police and the soldiers were present.  We would not experience what we experienced before.  And we proceeded.
	I was in front of the vehicle that was carrying the corpse, and next to me was a United Nations vehicle that was being driven by a white person.  We proceededwith no problem.  I only anticipated a problem when we reached shops at Ngaki.  I've just forgotten the name of the street, that is where we found people standing on either side of the road carrying stones.  We drove past these people and there were no bad remarks coming from these people, but then I had a feeling that something might happen, but as we proceeded on nothing happened until we reached a spot where we were attacked for the first time.  
	And when we crossed the street the funeral was, the funeral procession was continuing with Amabuto following from behind, and it's one white man who stopped me and he said, "...Please stop because it looks like some people have been shot from behind."  And I asked him as to whether these people were within my group, and he said yes, one is injured.  
	And we were ordered to sit down to pay respect and we indeed sat down to pay respect, and I parked my car on the side of the road.  And later on they said we can continue.  We then proceeded on.  I was also in front and we came across a certain Mokoena Street, if I'm not mistaken, near a stadium, that's where I met a group of Amabuto who had come from Qwesini and Boiafuti, and I hoped that they had no problem with the route that they took.  We then went on, but I must say that this one United Nations guy was always next to me as we were travelling, and I was always with the people in this vehicle.  
	We went on and I must say that I came across a certain place where I really experienced problems.   The road was barricaded and there was no exit or escape route, and I said to these men please let us get off the vehicle to remove the barricade, and they said no, we might be shot.  And I said to them if that will happen, let it be, we have to bury this person.  Yes, these men were brave enough to agree with me, and they got off the vehicle, and this one white guy was also brave enough to assist us in removing the stones and all the barricade.  And as we were removing the stones one white guy who was quite hefty, in the company of a black guy who were coming from the township.  One of them was wearing a brown overall, and this white man was wearing a jean and a shirt, I cannot remember the colour of the shirt of course, and he said, he passed very disturbing remarks.  It was very difficult, I did not talk back, but I realised that things were now bad and these men were saying today is the final day, and that on its own told me or suggested to me that things were bad.  Because one could realise that a fight could break out at any time.  	And there had come also this taxi vehicle, or taxi squad patrol vehicle, and unfortunately there were soldiers who were on either side of the road, walking parallel with the funeral procession.  The soldiers are the ones who tried to solve the problem, and at the same time Mafulela Mlaba came along, coming from the opposite direction and he stopped at the road and he said that my brother-in-law wanted to see me, he wanted me to bring back the vehicle, and I said to him I will come.  I just said to him, brother I will come, it's okay, and I said to him I wanted to see what was happening because at the same time we were trying to remove the barricade from the road.  Four to five minutes must have elapsed and Mr Mlaba came back again, and this time he reprimanded me saying that my brother wanted the vehicle, and I asked him where my own vehicle was, and he said he didn't know, and at that very same time I told these other men to come along.
	I left the funeral and rushed to where I was being called.  It was not quite a distance from where we were, but then one could not see the place from a distance because one had to go through a bend, and as I drove past the bend I could see the three vehicles that were parked there, one of which was facing Polla Park, and there was also these police vehicle on the spot."

MR DRAHT: Just a moment there, what vehicle did you drive then?

BEKI XABA: I was using this old model Cressida, the one that belongs to my brother-in-law.

MR DRAHT: Okay.