Amnesty Hearings — Pietermaritzburg — 1997-07-30

SISI KHAMPEPE: When you went back did you not anticipate or realise that you could meet with some kind of resistance from the IFP supporters who were, at that stage, the only people who were staying at Gengeshe?

MANDLENKOSI T POSWA: We expected that to happen, that they might attack us, because we knew they were staying there, those IFP members.

SISI KHAMPEPE: Thank you.

INTERPRETER: The speaker's mike is not on.

CHAIRPERSON: Mr Poswa, it appears from the post mortem reports, which were prepared for your trial, that most of the people were shot.  You remember that?

MANDLENKOSI T POSWA: I will agree with that statement even if I did not saw, see that some of them were shot or not, but I knew that some were shot.  I know how many there were and there were those who were stabbed with spears.

CHAIRPERSON: It seems that quite a lot of them, quite a number of them, in addition to being shot, were stabbed with spears or cut with bush knives.  Is that so?  After they had fallen down did people come and stab them?

MANDLENKOSI T POSWA: That is correct.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.

MOKOTEDI MPSHE: Mr Chairman, can I just clarify just one aspect.  Thank you.
FURTHER CROSS-EXAMINATION BY ADVOCATE MPSHE

MOKOTEDI MPSHE: Mr Poswa, on the names that you have referred to by you on page 48, I note that there is a Becker Poswa, the deceased, there is another too Lebona Poswa.  Are they not your relatives?

MANDLENKOSI T POSWA: Becker Poswa, he was a brother and a very good brother of mine.  Unfortunately, he was an IFP and I was an ANC.  That is why we had the conflict.

MOKOTEDI MPSHE: So you were divided by the political affiliation?

MANDLENKOSI T POSWA: We have different fathers, but I will say he is a real brother even if we had some family ceremonies, you have to be invited.

MOKOTEDI MPSHE: What is the relationship between yourself now and Becker Poswa's family?

MANDLENKOSI T POSWA: I do not know very much, because I am still in prison, but my brothers who are outside and my children, they are saying they have a peaceful relationship.  They even visit each other and live together.

MOKOTEDI MPSHE: And I can take it that you are also in a position to, if you are released, if you meet them to go back to them and to get engaged in some kind of reconciliation with them?  You prepared to do that?

MANDLENKOSI T POSWA: Yes, I will have to continue where they are from now.  I also wanted to add Indaba Zimboeza Poswa came twice to me in prison.  We shake, we shook hands and he said, he asked for forgiveness that his son has killed my son and that we were also affected by the political situation and this what created this.  This was not suppose to have happened and that he is sorry about it.  We shook hands and he also gave me money and food.
NO FURTHER QUESTIONS BY ADVOCATE MPSHE

CHAIRPERSON: So would you say that this, these two groups are now reconciled or in the process of reconciling to one another?

MANDLENKOSI T POSWA: I think they have reconciled, from what I know, because I heard it a long time ago that they live together and have reconciled and I have not heard that there is any among them who want to do anything bad, because they are now living together.

SISI KHAMPEPE: Does that mean, Mr Poswa, that your family has now gone back to Gengeshe?

MANDLENKOSI T POSWA: Even if my family have not fully returned to Gengeshe, my mother and her other children are back in Gengeshe.  My, could have been there at this time.  Unfortunately, they do not have a place to stay, because my house was burnt down.

SISI KHAMPEPE: Are those who have been able to build something for themselves, have been accepted by the alleged IFP members who remained at Gengeshe and there are no longer conflicts between the two groups?

MANDLENKOSI T POSWA: After the 26th of 1992, the IFP people moved out of Gengeshe.  They went to a place called Patenie.  So, it was only an empty area, like, there was nothing.  There was nobody staying in that area.  During 1994 the ANC supporters went back to the area and they also asked the IFP members to come back.  The IFP members refused to come back to Gengeshe and they continued staying at Patenie.  So, all the ANC members are back to Gengeshe and they are still waiting for the IFP people to return.  IFP people do go there, but they have not returned to stay.

SISI KHAMPEPE: So, we can say that these people are reconciling?  I mean the two parties.

MANDLENKOSI T POSWA: Yes, that is correct.

SISI KHAMPEPE: We appreciate it if it is like that, because it is a painful situation where people have been born in same family are to be divided because of this.

CHAIRPERSON: Any re-examination?

MR WILLS: No re-examination Mr Chairperson.