Human Rights Violation Hearings — King William's Town — 1997-05-12

MR MNYAPE: I have one pain and my request is that what happened in Masele is enigma, because you would give a statement to the police, but the case would not go any further.  I suffered a lot.  As a result I did not think that today I would still be alive, because in my life I was never arrested.  I was a child and the boy, I was never arrested.  We were Xhosa boys, we were fighting all the time, but I was never arrested. I then became a man and this was a very painful to me.  My child was run over by the hippo, by the soldiers of the Government.  The person who was driving the hippo was Henna Nagaai.  He was the one who killed my son.  ... we were put in a sack and buried.  We could not bury him properly as a result of the Gqoza regime.  He oppressed us. I suffer
from insomnia as a result of this.  This is how I am.  Okay, I will call a spade a spade.  I cannot digress from this evidence.  My child was murdered.  I went from attorney to attorney.  I had one question, does a person, a human being, murdered and there is no case.  I gave up after a while.  There was full evidence.  I also had clear evidence as my house was also destroyed.  
 I went to East London.  A white man, Thomas, as a legal representative he said I must bring another witness.  I went to Port Elizabeth.  I was trying to find a man who had run away from Puti.  I found this man, Mr Mbambam.  I asked him and he gave me as much evidence as he could.  They were used by Puti to attack people, people who did not want to join the ADM.  I then told him that he said that he was one of the people who were sent through by Puti to attack peoples' homes.  They attacked my home, Mputu's home and another home.  From the third home they stole alcohol and they drank it, they got drunk.  They got to that house, they said that there were soldiers, four of them.  They took the alcohol, went to Puti's and drank.  I gave the Tamacha Police evidence, because there were bullets found in my home.  They said that it was a R4 rifle that shot the bullets.  It was then clear exactly who it was that had been shooting, but there was no case.

ADV SANDI: Thank you for your evidence, Sir, because it is clear that you yourself investigated as well.  After you have finished, there are men, we have an Investigative Team.  We request that you give all the evidence that you can about the man who was a member of the ADM from Port Elizabeth so that they can help.  Thank you.  I will hand over to the Chairperson.  Maybe my colleagues have some questions.

CHAIRPERSON: Mr Mnyape, you said that the hippo driver you actually knew.  Do you have his name?

MR MNYAPE: Well, his name will be with the Tamacha Police, because he was involved in the whole case.

CHAIRPERSON: I did not get the reason why this case was not taken up by the police.

MR MNYAPE: There was a statement and a case, but, and as I went there trying to get the details so that I could get all the evidence for the Commission today they said that my case had been erased from their records.

CHAIRPERSON: Which police station is this?

MR MNYAPE: Tamacha Police Station.

CHAIRPERSON: Who did you talk to, who was the police that said your case had been erased?

MR MNYAPE: They just wrote, I have the paper with me, where they wrote the numbers of the dockets.

CHAIRPERSON: According to this document the case had been dropped on the fifth of October 1993.  Do you know anything about the case being withdrawn?

MR MNYAPE: No, we did not withdraw the case.

CHAIRPERSON: Also the case of the 27th of September was withdrawn.  Your house being attacked, that was withdrawn as well.  Who do you think withdrew the cases?

MR MNYAPE: They did it themselves, because I did not withdraw the cases.

CHAIRPERSON: Who was representing you?

MR MNYAPE: Charles.

CHAIRPERSON: Who is Charles?

MR MNYAPE: Tabata, Smith Tabata.

CHAIRPERSON: Let us not take any more of your time, Mr and Mrs Mnyape.  Thank you very much.  We are very familiar with the Masele Village especially during the struggle.  Also, the contribution that the villagers made to the struggle for liberation.  Thank you for having come here to give evidence before the Commission.  I know, especially Mr Mnyape, this is very close to your heart and it still hurts.  We are not people, as men who cry in public like this.  This reflects that you still hurt from the past wounds.  We, as a Commission, promise that we are going to investigate the matter.  We are coming to the end of the Commission.  We would like to talk to the attorneys that were representing you, talk to the police station at Tamacha so that it is clear what happened, because a person dying is a serious matter.  A person cannot just die like a dog.  Thank you.