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

MRS ZOKWE: They were asking him about the training that took place in Angola, and in East Germany.  They asked him everything and also about the origin and asked him how did they get on to the struggle?

MR NTSEBEZA: It became clear at the time that when he went in and out of jail, it was clear that something was going to happen to him, is that so?

MRS ZOKWE: Yes it is so.

MR NTSEBEZA: I'd like you to explain to the people and give an account of what happened to him before this fateful day came.  I want you to start from the time when he was in Butterworth, where there was a combi with dark windows.

MRS ZOKWE: On a Saturday, he helped me to go and buy some groceries at Butterworth.  When he was conversing with the others next to the post office there was this car with black tinted windows and he was taken along and detained in Umtata Prison.

MR NTSEBEZA: If Sithembile was not there, with whom was he staying?  Who stated something to you which you have not yet said?

MRS ZOKWE: I believe that he could never have escaped this ...(indistinct).

MR NTSEBEZA: What did he say when Sithembile was taken away?

MRS ZOKWE: He said, "My colleague, please tell my mother that I've been taken away".

MR NTSEBEZA: What happened again?

MRS ZOKWE: Thereafter he was released because there was nothing that he was arrested for.

MR NTSEBEZA: What was the aim?

MRS ZOKWE: I believe that they wanted to kill him.
EAST LONDON  HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
7 N.ZOKWE

MR NTSEBEZA: What is the second incident that you can give us an account about, just state what happened?

MRS ZOKWE: This youth would never sit down without doing anything.  He would say, "I cannot stay even a half a day, he said he becomes blocked mentally", because he doesn't want to say anything besides the struggle.
there was Miss Mquazima who was their director in the Ciskei agency.  She is now in Kingwilliamstown.  She came to me now and said, she's employed.
 The other day he came and told me that he was employed for the first time.  After a time I was given a company car and then I felt that I should pay this off so that it could belong to him.  It ended up unchanged and it still remained the company car. On a certain weekend Sithembile was at home, his colleague Thamsha Noncaba is not here. It came to notice that the car in which he was leaving was covered by bullets, it was beyond repairs.  This happened at Dadamba Village.  It was clear that the people were aiming to kill him.

MR NTSEBEZA: So the person who they were aiming at was Sithembile?

MRS ZOKWE: Yes it was, because they thought it was him who was driving the car, because they knew that he used to drive it.

MR NTSEBEZA: Let's hear the third incident or event.

MRS ZOKWE: Shortly thereafter, Sithembile was supposed to have come back from his place of employment.  He didn't come back as we expected.  The only thing that we could find was that on a Thursday he didn't come back.  I was with Dumisa the lawyer and there was a call from Chicken Lickin, it was from one of my daughters, and told Themba that Sithembile is EAST LONDON  HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
8 N.ZOKWE
in hospital and that he was injured by bullets.  Fortunately, I went to the hospital. I went to the company on a Monday because I had a premonition, because I said I dreamed that this child of mine was looking into death's eyes, and I think this was the second premonition on a Tuesday because I dreamed the same dream again.
 So I rushed to the police station at Umtata with Mr Vabasa.  We went again to the hospital and we were able to find a statement about him.  After that Mr Stofile came in.  The police came in and we had already got a statement.

MR NTSEBEZA: Why was he there?

MRS ZOKWE: He was taken from a hotel, he was working with Nklosile Ncoba, his friend, they were taken from the hotel.

MR NTSEBEZA: Is that this time when he was grabbed by Sergeant Solom?

MRS ZOKWE: Yes it is.

MR NTSEBEZA: He was at the security branch at the time?

MRS ZOKWE: Yes he was.

MR NTSEBEZA: Did he come to him armed with a revolver?

MRS ZOKWE: Yes.

MR NTSEBEZA: They took him unceremoniously and they removed him and they killed him over the river named Ngolo?  They left him thinking that they killed him, is that so?

MRS ZOKWE: Yes it is so.

MR NTSEBEZA: Who picked him up or identified him?

MRS ZOKWE: I could say it was God and the birds.

MR NTSEBEZA: What happened at that time?  I know that you have a statement in connection with this?

MRS ZOKWE: It just happened that coincidentally, after the struggle which was taking place there, he stood up and he went there. He saw the people working on the road, and when
EAST LONDON  HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
9 N.ZOKWE
he was there, Mr Dlamini who was there, he came in and tried to help him. When he was still busy this day, we were with the lawyers and then Dlamini came in with a letter which I would never give to anybody.  I will take it to court. This letter was bloody and there was written, "My home is at Namakwe, my mother is Maduma.  When somebody gets my body, I should not be buried in the fields".  It was on the 7th of August.

MR NTSEBEZA: Is it true that when he gave the statement, he says, when he was taken from this car, one of took a machine gun and just shot him point blank?

MRS ZOKWE: Yes it is so.  He said he doesn't know how he was able to escape from this.

MR NTSEBEZA: You know even the second time or the following time when he died, there was a so called clerk man, and you were informed that there were wounds on his head that were really the same as he was shot by Ncolo?

MRS ZOKWE: Yes it's that way.

MR NTSEBEZA: Mrs Zokwe, we now proceed to the day in January 1988, that is on the day when Sithembile was killed at his home by the police.  Most of the story that happened at your house, we'll hear the rest from your daughter.  I want you to relate to us now.  Can you please start with the first day you met Sithembile, tell the Commission the things you talked about the time you arrived at your house. You were now being stopped, that you will never enter your house because it was now occupied by the police.

MRS ZOKWE: On that day Truth Commission, I was from the wholesale, I met him when he was on his way to town.  He was together with my grandchildren.  You know he was putting them on his shoulders, there was one grand child of mine who EAST LONDON  HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
10 N.ZOKWE
went with me together to town. This was the third time now, Commissioner, the lawyers have hidden him somewhere, that as after the time I went to Angola. then the lawyers said to me that I was not supposed to know where he was.  You know this child was troublesome, he also had this feeling that he wants to reach home, he only came home after Christmas, this was now the first time.  He saw me and he gave me a hug, he said "mum, I thank God, because I wanted to speak to you personally, I want to make a will, I want to write a letter that you really brought me into this world, you gave me life and out of that I got education". I want to thank the brain that he had, because after passing his standard 10, he said, "My father was killed by apartheid when I was doing standard 10.  Now today if I thank you Mum, I put a crown on your head for helping me while I was in hospital.  Police thought there is nothing that I have, nothing left behind, then you forced to take me, you took a risk and you wanted to show that you cared".

MR NTSEBEZA: Was it that time after he was shot by Gozo?  Did he go to the brain specialists in East London?

MRS ZOKWE: Yes, the police didn't want to give him a visa to get out.  Well it was on that day and he said to me,"Mum these police are not going to save me.  I want to tell you something, Mum, please help me, don't disappoint me, accept anything that will happen".  He said, "Today these police are not going to save me at all".