Human Rights Violation Hearings — Ladybrand — 1997-06-26

WITNESS:   I think he is in the leadership position.  He is the leader of that little group of the ANC, and I think he is hijacking the township.  That is why I have mentioned that I do not know what kind of politics is he involved in.  Can I - I just want to say something.  I won't mention the name of the MEC who promised to come to Mukaleng, and he promised to bring a six-man delegation to attend to the conflict in Mukaleng.  Until today the promise has never been fulfilled.  Now, that MEC left the then portfolio and went to the other one, and this task was supposed to be attended by this new MEC.  Now, it seems to me that the ANC's stand is rotten in the province.  I am not politically inclined, but what I can say is this person himself wants to know politics, but he is a vampire.

CHAIRPERSON: (Inaudible) ... you should make personal insults against people.  We have given notice to him about allegations that have been made against him, and it's not the correct place now to trade insults with somebody.  But we can see that there are strong feelings about

CHAIRPERSON: /Mr Mohlome,

CHAIRPERSON: Mr Mohlome, and strong allegations made against him, and perhaps the best thing for you to do, and those who feel like you, is to take this up with the provincial leadership of the ANC to see whether some sort of peace committee cannot be established in Ficksburg to bring the people together.

WITNESS:   How do I put this forward really, because I have just explained we've been discussing the ANC office of Mukaleng.  I am not insulting, but I am giving you my feelings, and he is up there.  He knows deep down in his heart.  I do not despise him, I do not humiliate him, but I hate what he did to my mother.  That is my mother.  I have to fight what this land did to me.  Now, what we are talking her about the ANC, they ANC failed.  I can talk about the deceased, the late Mr Sibutelo.  I had to rush to Bloemfontein to meet the late Mr Sibutelo to tell him about the situation here in Ficksburg.  I realised that revenge was not the good thing.  I am talking here of something that happened to me.  This man uses somebody else's power and makes it his own, and this is wrong.

CHAIRPERSON: Mr Setene, is there some last thing you want to say, because we must wrap this up now?

WITNESS:   I have just one last thing to say.  I am requesting the TRC please do investigate this case and let the ANC know, inform it that it should come to Ficksburg.  They should inform Pius and the other members that they are coming, because the people of Mukaleng share no interest in his leadership at all.  We have told ourselves as the members of the local government that we are not going to provide our support because he is a snake and he is involved ... (intervention) (Inaudible) ... not to make insults in public like that.  We're not allowed to permit people to do that.  We know that you feel very strongly about the incident, and we thank you for your evidence.   ---   I also thank you.  Pius confessed in the presence of us all while we were at the hotel that he did all this, and enough evidence came up, and I will leave you with this document so that you have enough evidence.  And other people were also present.  I want to be really ... (intervention)

CHAIRPERSON: Mr Setene, we will take those documents from you.  It's - we can't make any comment or any findings on this issue.  Obviously we haven't heard Mr Setene's side of the story.  We've heard a lot of evidence from - sorry, Mr Mohlome's side of the story, and it will be necessary to see if we can get that side of the story, and we will certainly request that our investigators take up this issue.  In fact they have already started to take up this issue, and we will bring this to the attention of the provincial leadership of the ANC.  So, we thank you very, very much for coming in.  It's obviously something which is burning inside the lives of many people in that part of Ficksburg where you come from, and it is in the public interest that this sort of thing should be sorted out as soon as possible.  And it's completely wrong that something like this, which started up in 1993, should still be continuing in 1997, four years later.  We all believed that in 1994 we had achieved an era of peace and democracy, and it's wrong that these things should still be plaguing communities like yours, so thank you very much for coming in and telling us that very difficult story.

CHAIRPERSON: /CHAIRPERSON