Human Rights Violation Hearings — Port Shepstone — 1996-08-13

COMMISSIONER: Can you hear me and understand me, Mrs Memela?

MRS MEMELA: Yes.

COMMISSIONER: You have come - it says you came yesterday from the Murchison area, and, like those witnesses who told terrible stories and sad stories to us, you have come to tell us the story of the death of your husband, Elliot Memela.

MRS MEMELA: Yes.

COMMISSIONER: And your son, Nelson Memela, who were both killed in December 1991.  Before you tell us that story can you please stand and take the oath.
HILDA NONSIKELELO MEMELA

DR MAGWAZA: I greet you, Mrs Memela.  We are grateful for your presence here.  I will say that you are one of the people who have lost so much.  You have lost your husband, you've lost your son in one month.  This is so bad.  We know that you are going through hard times even as you are seated there.  We will just ask for Almighty God to give you strength so you may relate to us your story.  Before we get into the story I would like for you to tell us briefly and concisely about your family, and how old was your son and your husband when they died, and how many children do you have now.

WITNESS:   My husband died at 42 years old.  I have one child by the name of Emmanuel Nkosinathi.

DR MAGWAZA: This means you had two children.  Now is only one left?

WITNESS:   Yes.

DR MAGWAZA: I will just also want to ask that where you were residing it looks like it was a place where there were some meetings or organisation going on.

WITNESS:   Yes, there were two meetings, two organisations, Macawu(?) and Inkatha.

DR MAGWAZA: Is that the area which had the combination of the two?

WITNESS:   Yes.

DR MAGWAZA: According to you were you also members?

WITNESS:   Yes, we eventually became members because of the circumstances.

DR MAGWAZA: Go on and tell us which organisation you belonged to.

WITNESS:   Because my son was Qabane we also as a result of that became Qabane members along with the father.

DR MAGWAZA: Thank you, Mrs Memela.  Maybe you'll want to tell us what happened to your husband in December 1991.

WITNESS:   In December 1991 in the morning of that day he had already left on Thursday.  It was the 5th.  I was not feeling well that day.  I was relaxing in my lounge.  I was there, and we also had a helper who was working.  She was just coming to help me in the fields at around 10 in the morning.  I heard the telephone ring and I got hold of the telephone.  I spoke through and those were the colleagues at work.  They said they don't see him, where is he?  The last time they saw him it was Thursday.  I said to them they shall go and ask from the location where we used to reside in Ekwezi.

DR MAGWAZA: I will just want to say something.  Were you not living together?

WITNESS:   No.  He will just come to visit or something.  He used to come because he had a car.  One day he would go to the location where they were working.  I received the telephone and they said he was not around.  After a few minutes, as I was relaxing - I had said to those whom I said they shall go and look for him in the location, I asked them to call me back, but they never called me back.  After some time, after one, my sister, who was working at the hospital in Murchison came, and I told her the story and she said to me she will go and ask for permission from the hospital and go and look at the location, especially that Bhekani was also there.  My sister left, went to the hospital and asked for permission to leave, and she went to Harding.  When she got there she found Bhekani, and Bhekani apparently was coming back home to tell us, to give us the report that the father was missing.  After quite some time they came, my sister and Bhekani.  They told me that they cannot locate Memela.  Even at work he's not known and he's not there.  After some time my parents came, the Nzimande family, to find out what was happening.  In the morning of Saturday we came back and hired a kombi and we went to Harding.  When we got to Harding we went to the mortuary.  We could not find him.  We went to the courts, we could not find him.  We went to the police, we could not find him, and they promised to help us search for him.  On Sunday afternoon -because he went missing on Thursday, then on Sunday afternoon we had heard nothing.  Bhekani said to me, "Mum, let's just go and find out from the people.  The people in the neighbourhood probably could help us and tell us the whereabouts of my father."  And as we were leaving the house the telephone rang, and we quickly ran back to get the telephone.  The telephone message told us to go to Harding, and when we went to Harding, when we arrived in Harding they said, "Memela is in the mortuary, but you are not allowed to see him, the way he is so brutally injured."  Truly we stayed in Harding, and after some time we left, we went back home and reported the matter that Memela has left us, has died.  And at Harding it was said that he cannot be kept for quite some time in the mortuary because he was brutally injured.  (Pause)

DR MAGWAZA: Take your time.

WITNESS:   We went back home, and when we got home we waited for the funeral day.  We were told that he will arrive at 12 and we won't be allowed to look at him because he was so brutally injured.  Even when he got home we could not see him.  This is a painful thing, you know, not to be allowed to look at your husband until he was buried without us seeing and looking at him.

DR MAGWAZA: It looks like this has left such a wound in your heart.

WITNESS:   Yes.  yes, I have such a broken heart because I never saw him.  We only heard that he was so injured we could not even see him.

DR MAGWAZA: Let me just go back.  At the time when the telephone message came to tell you, who called you?

WITNESS:   It was one guy who was his co-worker at Port Shepstone.

DR MAGWAZA: Did you ever find out how he got to know about his death?  I mean Mr Gary, the one who called.

WITNESS:   No, it was from the office, we got the message from the office when we were leaving on Monday.

DR MAGWAZA: Mr Gary called to tell you that Memela was not there.

WITNESS:   Yes.

DR MAGWAZA: And then from the office they also called you to tell you that he was dead.  Would you happen to know who gave you that call?

WITNESS:   No, I don't know because I am not the one who received the message.

DR MAGWAZA: One other thing I would like to ask.  Did you by any way get the idea of how he was killed or were there any people who witnessed his death?

WITNESS:   No one witnessed, especially from the family.  Even his brothers never saw him, because he just arrived in the coffin and that was it.

DR MAGWAZA: I mean regarding his death.  How did he die?  That's my question.  Who killed him, if you happen to know?

WITNESS:  All right.  The police said there were people who arrived in the morning and asked has Memela left.  They said yes, and apparently those people waited there by the gate for Memela until late in the afternoon, because it looks like when he got there he got off the car and he met those people, and he went to them smiling and laughing because he knew those people apparently.  And the police said, "I was going to tell him that don't go to those people," because when Memela was talking to those people the other person went to tell some others who were hiding in the bush to tell them that, "Here's Memela, he has arrived," Just when the police was going to tell Memela not to go he could not because the person was just there already to Memela to tell him.

DR MAGWAZA: Do you still remember the police?

WITNESS:   No.  I just happened to - I just used to see the police, I don't know the police as such.

DR MAGWAZA: Did you ever gain any knowledge of some kind where he was found?

WITNESS:   Yes.  He was recovered in the bush after four days at around four, half past four.  He was found on the fourth day.