Human Rights Violation Hearings — Duncan Village — 1996-09-23

MQONDENI WILMONT BOTTOMAN: When these boys ran away, I took the telephone and I phoned the police and I was told that there were no police and then I was just told that they will send the SADF to come and look at what was happening.

MR SANDI: Did the soldiers come?

MQONDENI WILMONT BOTTOMAN: No, they didn't come while the house was burning, but they came afterwards.

MR SANDI: What did they say when they came?  I will wait for you Mr Bottoman until you are ready to continue because I want this to be clear.  Can you continue Mr Bottoman?  In short, without talking about details when the soldiers arrived at your home, they wanted to know the owner of the house which was burning?

MQONDENI WILMONT BOTTOMAN: Yes.

MR SANDI: They also wanted to know where is the owner working?

MQONDENI WILMONT BOTTOMAN: Yes.

MR SANDI: Do you have anything to say concerning the soldiers?  What did they say and how did they handle this matter?

MQONDENI WILMONT BOTTOMAN: What I saw is that they didn't care.  They were just asking - they were asking while they were on their DUNCAN VILLAGE HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
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car, they didn't get out of the car.  That showed me that they didn't care about this.  That is why I dropped this, I didn't go to the police station, but we just went to the hospital on the next day.

MR SANDI: Thank you, Mr Bottoman.

BONGANI FINCA: Mr Bottoman, I would like to ask this question.  According to your views, what was the reason for the people to burn your house?

MQONDENI WILMONT BOTTOMAN: Apart from what was said on that day, people say that why should I have a big house and many cars, while others don't, that is what was, that is what people were saying around the township.

BONGANI FINCA: Did this happen only to you or were there any other people around Duncan Village which this happened to them?

MQONDENI WILMONT BOTTOMAN: Yes, other Councillors, their houses were also burnt and there was no connection between me and them.

BONGANI FINCA: As I was listening while you were answering the questions from Revd Xundu, was there any connection between these boys who were asking petrol from you and the burning of your house?

MQONDENI WILMONT BOTTOMAN: Yes, I think so, because I didn't give them petrol and after that there were stories.  Because I said I needed this to be investigated, I told them to go to ask from the people in the township of what happened and the answer was that while I was asking to one of them who were there, while I was asking the political organisations, one of them said that I should go and apologise to the comrades - those I didn't give the petrol and I said that I was not going to do that and he said to me a car can hit a person while he is on a pavement, so my case is like that.  They
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used that language to me, but I don't know where did he take this from.

MR SANDI: Were there any structures here in Duncan Village which were leading the struggle at that time?

MQONDENI WILMONT BOTTOMAN: I wouldn't say so because they were not allowed at that time.  So I wouldn't say there were structures or not.

MR SANDI: Thank you.

BONGANI FINCA: Thank you, Mr Bottoman and Mrs Bottoman for coming here in front of this Commission.  You would think that this is not important, but it is important to the Truth Commission for us to listen to the stories which you brought forward.
 They give us a full picture and this wouldn't be clear if people didn't come forward.  We were given this opportunity as a Commission to draw a picture, a clear picture of what was happening at that time which the Parliament gave us to investigate.  We were also given this task to give a full picture of the bad and good things which happened during the struggle period.
 I think your story shows clearly the activities people took in the struggle, some are involved because in a way which they were not supposed to be involved.  
 And the aim of the Act promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation is to say to this nation, this is what has happened to this nation.  These are the things that were done to each other and for this nation to say "never again must these things ever happen."
 Thank you for coming here in front of this Commission to give us the picture you gave us and the request you gave to this Commission, we will look into your request and Revd 
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Xundu have said, we cannot guarantee that we will respond, but the President will see what he can do.  I thank you, both of you.