Human Rights Violation Hearings — Newcastle — 1996-09-11

WITNESS:   Yes, that is correct.  He stayed for two weeks in Durban - that is Nqutu, and they were trying to help him but they just could not help him.  They transferred him to Durban.  I am not sure whether it was Wentworth where he was taken to.  There he was operated on and they tried to drain the blood, because he had bled internally.  And I kept on phoning to hear as to his progress, and some other time I sent people to go and phone and find out as to how my son was, and I sent a neighbour.  His father also died in Durban, and when he was transferred to Durban I had some gut feeling that he was going to die there.  My neighbour helped me and went to phone, and they came back, they said he had lost consciousness, he had gone into a coma.  He was not speaking, he was not eating, and his eyes were closed.  I think I cried too much until I collapsed, because when I regained consciousness I was on the floor and the neighbours were surrounding me.  They gave me some tablets.  I felt slightly better at that time.  We phoned the following morning and they said he was at least looking, but he was not talking.  I kept on phoning the hospital, trying to get as to whether he was progressing or he was getting any better.  I never even went back to work thereafter.  Ever since my possessions have been left there.  I never went back to work.

COMMISSIONER: How do you make a living?

WITNESS:   I had left my child who had just given birth.

COMMISSIONER: Let me just disturb you now.  How do you earn a living?  Are you getting any pension?

WITNESS:   Yes, I am getting a pension, but it really cannot meet the expenses that I have.

COMMISSIONER: You pointed out in your statement that Elliot does not get any pension for his injuries.

WITNESS:   No, he is not getting it because he doesn't have an ID.  We are still trying to get him an ID, but it has not yet come back.  The doctors advised me to try and speed it up.

COMMISSIONER: What about the social workers, have you ever contacted them?

WITNESS:   Yes, I have, but there is absolutely nothing that they do.  They go to certain houses but they don't go to some of the houses.

COMMISSIONER: We will try to get in touch with the social workers before we leave this place, so that they can get in touch with you to speed up the ID application so that he can get some money or some compensation or disability grant for his injuries, because that's important for him to see doctors.  How is he at the moment?  Did you bring him with?

WITNESS:   No, he is not even at home.  He had gone to his sister's place at Hlobane.  His condition is very terrible, because at times he somehow faints and falls.  I think he is having some sort of fits, because he would start by shivering and shaking then he would fall down. Is he receiving any treatment?   ---   Yes, I have tried to go to doctors, but his condition still hasn't improved.  When I ran away from Mondlo and got to Newcastle I tried to see some doctors, as well as witch doctors, but his condition is still the same.  When this thing starts he looks like he is losing his mind, because he starts laughing hysterically, and then that indicates to me that he is going to start having these fits.

COMMISSIONER: What do the doctors say?  Is there any help that he can get from the doctors, or ... (incomplete)

WITNESS:   I do not think there's anything that can be done because I have been to Vryheid, I have been to Newcastle, and there's absolutely nothing that has helped so far.  He always falls, and the doctors always give him tablets as well as medicine.  That's all there is to it.  At times he gets these attacks even though he is taking tablets.  The situation sort of subsides and comes back once more.  At times the tablets just don't help.  These Inkatha people use muthi, and had he come to help my son at that moment probably my son would be better by now.

COMMISSIONER: Is he staying at Blaauwbosch, the one who attacked your son?

WITNESS:   No, he was staying at Mondlo.  At that time I was staying at Mondlo.  Now, after Elliot's story my house was attacked and burnt down.  Thereafter the Inkatha youth kept on attacking us, and they said they did not want to attend school with comrades.  And at times they would chase our children down the river.  They would always assault them from 1991 up to 1992, and in 1992 they started burning our houses, and that's when people started dying.  And at the shop they assaulted him on the hip, and somebody came to tell me that they had already assaulted my son.  I went to the shop to check as to what had happened.  He was lying on the floor, and the Inkatha women were singing and ululating.  We took him.  He couldn't walk.  We carried him home.  That was the second time now.  That's when he was - after he had been discharged from the hospital.  It was an Inkatha rally when the houses were being burnt and people were dying.  That's when I decided that I had to leave that place, because I was told that the Mdlalose family should go out of that place, it was no longer affected.  Jabulani was the chief of that particular place.

COMMISSIONER: Why did they say the chief was going to get into the houses?

WITNESS:   Because the chief had already run away.  He was staying in Johannesburg, and they had already burnt his house as well as his car, and his house was burnt down to ashes.

COMMISSIONER: What about Jabulani Mdlalose, who had burnt his house?

WITNESS:   It was the Inkatha youth when they came from the rally.

COMMISSIONER: Was he a member of Inkatha?

WITNESS:   No, he was not.  They said he was going to come back from Johannesburg and he was going to get into the houses.  I sent my daughter -my other son was working at Secunda at the mines, and I sent my daughter to go and ask for money, whatever amount of money, so that I can be able to move from that place.

COMMISSIONER: Presently where are you staying?

WITNESS:   I have erected a shack at Blaauwbosch, and this shack was not properly built.

COMMISSIONER: If we connect with the social workers how can we get in touch with you?

WITNESS:   They can get me if they can travel along the road to Osizweni.  There's a certain place called Itheku where it's a market, people are selling.  They cross the railway station.  There's a red house.  It's just ... (intervention)

COMMISSIONER: Who's the owner or the landlord there?

WITNESS:   I am not sure about his name, but I think it's Sonny Sibiya.  We are staying at the Sibiya site.  It's just in front of the bus stop.  There's absolutely no life there.  I am staying all by myself, and I have had so many diseases ever since these things happened.  I am staying with the youngest child who got asthma after the violence took place at Mondlo.  We were no longer sleeping inside the houses, we were sleeping in the gardens or outside, and that child was five months old at that time.

COMMISSIONER: What about Themba Zulu, who hit Elliot?  Was there any case that was held?

WITNESS:   We never reported the matter to the police because they said he had actually assaulted a comrade, so there was nothing that we could say to them.

COMMISSIONER: The ones who assaulted him the second time, were they identified?

WITNESS:   By the time we got there they had already run away.  He was on the floor and the Inkatha women were singing.

COMMISSIONER: We've heard your story.  This is a very terrible story that you've just told us.  I do not say that there are words enough that we can comfort or console you, but what I can promise you is that we will get in touch with the social workers so that he can get a disability grant to meet the medical expenses for your son.  What about yourself, how do you feel?  You have obviously been traumatised, and all this that has happened has traumatised you emotionally.  Are you going to any psychological doctors?