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

BONGANI FINCA: We thank every one.  We think that the community of Duncan Village are time conscious, they respect time and we find them seated already.  We thank you for that.  We are now going to ask Mr Joe Jordan to give his submission to this Commission on behalf of the ANC.
 And he has asked that he should portray a picture of the incidents that lead to this massacre in Duncan Village.
 I am going to give him about 15 minutes to do his submission and thereafter we shall go back to listening to the evidence of the witnesses who were directly affected who are the main people so over to you Mr Jordan.
 We now hand over to Mr Jordan.  I see by his submission is in English.  You are aware that the vast majority of the people in the audience will require you to accommodate them one way or the other in making your submission so that they can follow it.  Thank you very much.  We welcome you and we give time over to you.

MR JORDAN: Thank you Chairperson, leaders of the various organisations, mothers and fathers, families present here today and the victims as well.
 This is going to be a submission of the ANC and its alliances.  As mentioned earlier this submission has been 
written in English, but I'm nog going to read it in English.  I am going to say it in Xhoza and it is quite lengthy but I am going to be brief as much as possible.
DUNCAN VILLAGE HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
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 I won't start from the day of the incident which is in 1985, I will start off by telling about the incidents prior to this which lead to this actual occurrence.
 The life in Duncan Village was a very difficult time.  Most people in Duncan Village were aware of this and this people originally came from West bank, Tsolo and the surrounding areas which have now been declared as Coloured areas.
 That is where these people came from and then they were placed in Duncan Village.  This was due to the laws of oppression and discrimination and these people were removed forcefully without their consent.
 The main weapon that was used by the Government was the Law of Section 10 which was laws by the Local Government authority at the time whereby if people had visitors who were not residents of the Duncan Village, they had to go to the police station to go and obtain a 24 hours permit so as to be in Duncan Village for 24 hours.
 That is when members of the same family had to pay the lodgers' permit and if they failed to do so, they would be raided by the Council police, because they would say they were not supposed to live with their parents.
 As soon as they were beyond the age of 18, they had to leave their families.
 This went on and people were being used and the community police were also used.  There were also hostels specifically the D-hostel which was fenced and whenever the men in the hostel had visitors who were females, these women would be raided at two o'clock in the morning and we used to watch all this seeing the women jumping over  fences being chased by the police out of the hostel.
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 And this is what hurt the community of Duncan Village and people were hurt by most of these.
 Whilst looking at all this, it came about that there was a plan that Duncan Village was going to be removed to Mtansani and this was not going to be done amicably.
 There is an area called Ndwedwe where we would be told a day before we were taken away in trucks and removed to Mtansani.
 People in Duncan Village were aware of this because it had happened earlier.  Because when they were removed to Twonzana, they were taken to some unfinished houses so they were compelled to move to Mtansani once, then it when trouble started.
 Because people resisted this and then the policemen were used to force the people to move.  The most hateful situation was when people were being chased, old people, mothers, fathers being chased out of the location.
 I can quote an incident where we are now told of people who are like Carl Lewis and this is how people used to run at the time.
 Running away from this laws of their past.  This is a situation that was very bad because people were forced to pay more rent, there were people who were living in one roomed places, two roomed houses and all this people had been told that they were going to occupy this houses for 12 years and thereafter they would own the houses.
 But this did not happened, they were compelled to pay R5-00 as rent.  In the hostel people had to pay R35-00 for the bed and they could not have any visitors from their 
families.  And this rent increased.
 There were also no other facilities and services that 
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these people were enjoying at the time despite all these payments.
 And this was a bit to boost the revenue so as to pay the workers there.  Some people were made to pay for nothing.
 Considering now how people got accommodation, this was very painful because whenever the men died in a family, the women would be told that she had no right to occupy that house and she had to be evicted.
 These are the circumstances that surrounded the build-up of the tension in Duncan Village at the time.  If one was a female or had children and wanted accommodation, the only alternative for that person was to fall in love with one of the officers so as to be able to get accommodation.
 And they were compelled to love people even if they were not emotionally involved, so as to get this accommodation that they so much needed.

BONGANI FINCA: We as the Commission, we know that all the things that are being said here remind the people of the oppression that they went through and therefore the people would like to make an indication that what Mr Jordan is saying is the truth, but we have a request as a Commission that we should respect this hearing by - even if we feel exited, we may not show this and we should contain ourselves so that Mr Jordan should give his submission freely and with respect as required by this hearing.
 I am therefore going to ask people who may be having some comments, to hold their horses so that we don't find ourselves in a situation which is like that of a riot and we should honour this Commission, I thank you for that.  Could you proceed Mr Jordan?
DUNCAN VILLAGE HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
 
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