Amnesty Hearings — East London — 1998-04-01

DUMISANI NCAMAZANA: When we arrived we slept at African Tjabane.  We awoke on Friday and prepared everything.  We ate, prepared our arms.  After we were finished we put them in a bag, we left going to the Highway taxi rank.  That is where we were to get a car in order to go to Da Gama.
	We went there, we got at the highway.  We had embarked a taxi which was station wagon, an Opel Rekord.  That was according to our appointment with the driver who was supposed to take us to Mount Ruth.  We left and went with the car.  
	Along the way next, about in Mount Ruth we told the driver to stop, he stopped,  I disembarked because I was sitting just behind him.  After I had disembarked guns were drawn against him inside and he was told to disembark.  I too pointed a gun at him next to him outside, told him to climb out.  Truly he climbed out of his car.  
	After that we told our own driver to come round and take the wheel of the car to drive.  When we got inside we found that our driver cannot get this car started.  We then shouted to the original driver of the car to come back to come and start his own car because he was not far off.  He returned, he started his car.  
	Our unit commander then told him he must drive us, he must go with us to Da Gama.  He went to Da Gama with us.  When we got to about near the gate of Da Gama we saw the bus we were supposed to attack going into the gate and that was then to be the loss because that was not according to our plans.  
	The commander told the driver to turn the car around, the driver did that and we went back.  He did not go into the gate at Mdantsane, he told him to go straight.  He passed because we were now going - because our plans were, after we had attacked that bus when we were retreating, because the time of this bus and the car, the kombi carrying the kids were kind of coinciding.  
	We were supposed to attack the bus and then meet the kombi of the kids, school kids, along the road and we would do the same, attack it.  We missed the bus.  As we were now hoping for the kombi, when we got to that place where we were supposed to attack it, we discovered that it had already passed that place.  Because we were supposed to get it where is was supposed to stop because it was going to come via the freeway, via Nahoon Dam.  	With cars following it coming about from Fort Jackson, we noted that we could not shoot it and that's how we missed that target because our car had been problematic as it didn't want to start.  Due to anger the late Africa Kid disembarked very angrily.   
	At the time there was an oncoming car about in the same road with the car, it was a kombi Volkswagen and there were two white people in the front.  He shot this oncoming kombi, doing his own thing.  At that time that kombi was in motion.  
	As the kombi was now passing and turning quite near us, as it did not go a long way.  When it was turning a black man who was at the back of that kombi jumped off.  As we were going in the same direction of that kombi Africa was following this car but we were not trying to follow him, we were trying to escape.  He also got into the car and we left.  We left with that same driver.  We went to Mdantsane to NU6.  
	When we got there he wanted to give us all his day's taxi money.  We did not want to accept his money, we simply paid him R20 because we had used his car.  That is how we departed and left him.  We got to 6 at Mdantsane, to a squatter camp that was there to meet other comrades who were staying there.  It was comrade Africa TNT who knew them better.  
	When we got there to that African we stayed.  He prepared food for us and we ate.  We stayed there until dusk.  After that at about 7 o'clock late if I'm not mistaken, we left with the intention of getting another car in order to carry on according to the missions we were supposed to carry out.  We went to highway, we got there and embarked on a kombi that was going to 14 here in Mdantsane.  
	In this kombi everybody was getting down along the way.  We were hoping to be the last people to disembark from this kombi.  After everybody had left when it was to turn back, going back, because we too were supposed to disembark ...[end of tape] ...[inaudible] we told him to give us his keys and leave.  He did not want to listen, he simply drove on.  There was another kombi coming in front.  
	As far as I can see he was trying to show the one coming, oncoming car that he was in trouble because the kombi we were on, he drove it straight into the one oncoming and the driver of the oncoming kombi, trying to duck and dive away from this one so that we would avoid a collision.  
	After he had passed our driver left our car and ran away, he ran away with the key, running towards this other kombi.  We also disembarked and left that kombi there moving on its own.  We ran into 14 here in Mdantsane.  After we had gone into 14 through the houses, we saw a Sierra station wagon going to a shebeen there at 14 Mdantsane.  
	We decided at the time that it's better that we get that station wagon so that we can carrying on with our work.  We went to that shebeen, I was the first to go inside, walking with the late Luvuyo and other Africans followed behind us.   
	After we entered we did not stand a long time inside the yard, it did not take more than 5 ...[indistinct] we took our guns out and gathered everybody inside the yard.  And inside there was a lot of people, full with people drinking.  We took all those people outside, we took them inside.  
	They were packed inside the lounge of the shebeeen, all of them were at the lounge of the shebeen, packed there.  I was left outside.  If I remember well I was with African Tjabane who was standing next to the door next to the stairs in the shebeen.   I was looking at the gate to see people coming in and out.  
	The driver, the late African Luvuyo, the TNT and the late Kid went inside.  They screamed, asking for the driver of the car that had just gone in.  Ultimately they found the driver and demanded the keys.  He gave them the keys.  The late Kid saw a policeman he could identify there inside and he thought that we must leave the driver of the car, we must move with him.  We left with him to protect ourselves.  
	We left facing, going to King William's Town.  When we were about Bellin at the bridge of Bellin we moved over, we turned about on top of the bridge and we went back to Mdantsane.  No, we just faced Mdantsane and then decided that driver must disembark and we left him there, we left.  
	We went to Mdantsane, we go a garage at Highway, we poured petrol into the car and after getting the petrol we left going for Highgate.  When we passed Highgate, because we were supposed to look at the Highgate hotel, we then were going to go and make a turn at the East London bar at the station.  When we passed the Highgate we noted that it was packed full.  
	The driver said - commander instructed the driver when we were about at Cambridge at the station of the train, that he must turn back, we must not go to the East London station bar.  The driver turned the car back and we went back to Highgate.  We were forced to use the rifle grenade at the hotel because when we looked we noted that we could not disembark because there were many cars outside.  
	I was instructed to use the rifle grenade because I was the one holding an R4 and this rifle grenade had to be used using an R4 rifle.  Truly I quickly prepared this and pointed to the door with the intention of shooting the lights on top, those big lights, in order when it hits those lights it can explode against those lights.  
	When I was pulling the trigger, I do not know what the driver was doing, the car shook, I do not know what he did, and I then disturbed.  Everything did not go according to plan, the rifle grenade hit the wall and then we ran away with our car.