Human Rights Violation Hearings — Nelspruit — 1996-09-05

MRS NGOMANE: The case of this event, because this event included members of the community and the comrades. So there were many people involved.  What I can say is that only three people were charged, even although many people from the community were there.  Only three people were charged, my husband and these two other comrades.  I have never seen my husband going to any comrade meeting or anything whatsoever.

YASMINE SOOKA: But the men that were killed were comrades?

MRS NGOMANE: No, they were adult people, males.

YASMINE SOOKA: Was the community angry with you and your family because they thought your husband had been involved?
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MRS NGOMANE: No, they were not.  Because they knew the truth.  They knew that we didn't know anything.

YASMINE SOOKA: Thank you, Mamma.  Mr Ngomane, can I ask you, when you were sentenced by the magistrate, did the magistrate not actually tell you that you are being sentenced for this or this, did he not mention that you were being sentenced for?

MR NGOMANE: The magistrate said to us that we are murderers, but when I asked they could not tell me. These other two accepted that they did the things, but I did not do anything.

YASMINE SOOKA: Did they have a lawyer?

MR NGOMANE: They contacted Poswa Jabula & Partners. In fact, I was the one who went there for that.

YASMINE SOOKA: Was there a lawyer present in court?

MR NGOMANE: Yes, there was.

YASMINE SOOKA: The name?

MR NGOMANE: (Indistinct).

YASMINE SOOKA: You, however, did not have a lawyer.  Did the lawyer act for you or only for the comrades?

MR NGOMANE: All of us. The comrades explained to the lawyer that they didn't know why I was together with them, because they knew their case, but with me they didn't know why I was there.

YASMINE SOOKA: When he explained that, did he ask for your trial to be separated from that of the comrades?

MR NGOMANE: No.

YASMINE SOOKA: Thank you, Mr Ngomane.

CHAIRPERSON: I would like to ask a few questions.  Mr Ngomane, you said you were sentenced to prison and then afterwards you couldn't finish your sentence. Do you know
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what sentence was given to you?

MR NGOMANE: Six years.

CHAIRPERSON: And how long did you stay in jail?

MR NGOMANE: (No audible reply).

CHAIRPERSON: Do you think the statement that you signed bound you that you were the one of the people that you killed or burnt those people?

MR NGOMANE: I think so, because before they made me sign they asked me and I explained everything to them. It might be or it might not.

CHAIRPERSON: If you say they asked you, what exactly did they ask?  Did they ask you if you are the one of the people who killed people or not?

MR NGOMANE: No, when I went to court, all I knew is that I was going to come back, because I had committed no crime.

CHAIRPERSON: The last thing that I would like you to verify, is that when you were praying, will you please forgive me, you said like Simon, you wished that your name should be washed or cleansed. Would you please explain to us?

MR NGOMANE: I don't know how, but what I realy want to do is I would really like to cleanse my name and I am glad today because we have the Truth and Reconcilation and I am here before it, and I am trying to do that as well.

CHAIRPERSON: When you asked to be cleansed, are you asking to be cleansed from killing or that you never killed, do you want people to know that you never killed?

MR NGOMANE: Yes.

CHAIRPERSON: We thank you very much.  As we have said that after this we would like you to go to see Dupele so that you could forward your statement, because some of the evidence
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that you have given here, we don't have it on our statements.  We will continue and investigate your story. I would also like to say that during the struggle, lots of things happened. Sometimes even the people that were oppressed themselves turned against one another, to the extent of killing one another, disliking one another. But we are also glad that you at least tried to do something, you went to the people, you saw them, you tried to talk about the trouble and you tried to reconcile.   We thank you for that.
 We thank you very much.
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