Human Rights Violation Hearings — Worcester — 1996-06-25

CASE NO: CT/00250

ADV POTGIETER: Ms Zweni I am going to ask you to stand as well and take the oath because we would like to ask you some questions too, I'll just administer the oath to you.
MALINGE ZWENI Duly sworn states

ADV POTGIETER: Thank you very much, you may be seated.  Ms Zweni perhaps we must speak to you first, because we've got the main statement from you in connection with the death of your father.  The evidence goes back to 1986 is that correct?

MR ZWENI: Yes it is correct.

ADV POTGIETER: And the incident happened in Zolani  township.

MR ZWENI: Yes at Ashton at Zolani.

ADV POTGIETER: And is it also correct that during his lifetime your father was a Councillor IN Zolani?

MR ZWENI: Yes my father was a Councillor in Zolani in 1985, also my father is one who is involved to take a part at Ashton  [indistinct] School at 1985.  And [intervention]

ADV POTGIETER: I am just going to interrupt you - just to help us, perhaps you can try and get closer to the microphone.

MR ZWENI: Okay.

ADV POTGIETER: And if you are going to give your evidence in English then it wouldn't be necessary for you to actually put on the headphones, then we can speak to each other directly.  Would you prefer to speak in English.

MR ZWENI: Sorry I - okay I will try to speak Xhosa.

ADV POTGIETER: Okay, but then you can still just sit a bit closer to the mike so that the audience can hear you and so that we can record what you are saying.

MR ZWENI: Okay.

ADV POTGIETER: Will you be able to follow me if I speak to you in English.

MR ZWENI: Yes you can speak with English.

ADV POTGIETER: And you can - you can answer in Xhosa if you want.

MR ZWENI: Yes if I - yes Ms Pumla Gobodo she try to translate with Xhosa.

ADV POTGIETER: Ja in fact perhaps - perhaps it's better for you to put on that headphones, just so that we don't have any  misunderstanding, just - ja I think that's better then we make sure that we do understand each other and we don't miss what we are saying, okay.  Are you hearing the translation again now.

MR ZWENI: Yes.

ADV POTGIETER: Okay, very good - very good.  Now we were talking about your father and you were saying that during his lifetime he was a Councillor in Zolani.  Do you want to just complete that and then you can tell us about the actual incident.

MR ZWENI: Of the people who spoke the other day no one mentioned that my father was someone who was involved in education in Ashton and Zwane and also involved in the struggle of residents through his involvement with the education.  We've heard mention of people who are called vigilantes or sell-outs/informers.  I myself was not directly aware of what the struggle meant at that time.  
 As time went on in the beginning of 1986, there was someone who came from Mazakene who said to me that I should tell my father the he (my father) was a sell-out, an informer and my father said, let that person come to me himself and tell me that himself.

ADV POTGIETER: Are you in a position to proceed.  You were still saying you were concerned about the safety of your father as a result of the situation in the township.

MR ZWENI: On the 25th of May 1980, in April 1986 my father came from work and didn't tell us at home where he was going.  On that day the situation was very bad in the township as far as I could see.  At the corners there were all sorts of people rushing around the township but we didn't know what they were there for.   They were quarrelling, there was confusion and there were groups wondering about in the streets.  That gave me an apprehensive feeling, I was very worried about that so I hurried home to see if my father was at home and I asked my sister if she would go to Masakene and look to see if she could find our father because he could die as many people had already said to us that he was an informer.  That's why we felt that his life was in danger.

ADV POTGIETER: Are you ready to proceed as you were saying that you were concerned about the safety of your father as a result of the situation in the township?

MR ZWENI: I wanted my sister to go and tell my father that things were bad here in the township and that he should not come back.  We felt that my father would be attacked.  I'd like people to perhaps ask me some questions before I continue.

ADV POTGIETER: Okay do you want me to assist you to take us through what happened that night.

MR ZWENI: I didn't know whether I should carry on and tell the whole story or just tell it in small parts.

ADV POTGIETER: No it's fine I think you can proceed - you can tell the story and when you finished if there is something that we want to ask you, we will ask it, but you tell the whole story, so you can proceed.

MR ZWENI: As I've said, my father was not at home at that time, he'd left us there and it was at night at about 8 o'clock in Ashton.  We didn't know where he had gone.  We'd last seen him at night but it was very bad in the township at that stage.  People were fighting but we didn't actually know what the cause of this confusion was.  It was dark, there no lights in the township and I was very worried for my father's safety on such a night.  My mother tried to send my sister who was born in 1972 to go and look to see if she could see where my father was as he might have been at his sister's place.  
 Koliwe went up to a place called Masakene and Koliwe found my father lying there in that place.  She came back and told my mother, she said she saw my father, I then went to see if I could find him and there he was, his jacket was torn by knife thrusts and axes.  There was a great scar on his face where he had been hacked with an axe.  A brick had been thrown at him and it was lying next to his head.  It was clear that they had just treated him mercilessly to try and overcome him.  
 After all that we decided to quickly try and get in touch with the police.  We told the other people at home that our father was there and that his left leg was broken and he could nothing.  Underneath him they people who had killed him had put a knife and also an old passbook, an old reference book.  I'd like to stop there at that point and see if anyone would like to ask any questions and my mother would like to say something.

ADV POTGIETER: Are you - are you able to proceed because we - I would -  can I - can I ask you some questions in order to complete your evidence, are you able to carry on?

MR ZWENI: You can ask questions if you like.

ADV POTGIETER: Okay, your father was obviously was killed in that incident when you found him in the street - lying in the street he was already dead, isn't it so?

MR ZWENI: We didn't know whether he'd actually been killed in Ashton or at the place or where he was actually found.  We thought it might have been criminals that had actually attacked him.  We didn't know whether he'd been killed somewhere else and just been left there by criminals.   Nothing was clear to us as to what had actually happened to him.  We didn't know where he'd been killed or who his murderers were.

ADV POTGIETER: Now subsequently did the police arrest anybody, did they charge anybody with the - with the incident?

MR ZWENI: There were four people who were arrested in connection with the murder of my father in Zolani in Ashton.

ADV POTGIETER: And you said earlier that at one stage there was an allegation that your father was an informer, an epiempie.  The people who were charged - the people who were charged with the - with the incident, do they come from any organisation - do they belong to any grouping in the township?

MR ZWENI: According to what I understand those people were the people who were involved in the struggle in the community.

ADV POTGIETER: Would it - would it be people who would be referred to as comrades?