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

MRS GCABASHE: Early in the morning, as the children were preparing to go to school, I heard a shout from a mountain.  They were asking whether Xolani is at home, and one of my children said, "I am still going to look for him," and then later he came back to say he is not around at home.  And then they told us that we should go to the mountain to search.  When I get out they told me that I should take a blanket, and then I went back to the house to get a blanket.  And I thought maybe something bad has happened.  I took out a bath and poured some water to wash.  I took this blanket and followed the other people as they were running towards the mountain.  When I arrived at the scene I realised that my son was lying on the ground and he was dead.  I tried to turn him and took off his shoes.  The others said I must sit down, and the people started arriving.  While I was sitting on the ground my brother-in-law went to call the police.  He was accompanied by other men whom I don't remember.  People were crying, but I was confused, I wasn't even crying.  When the police arrived my brother-in-law was just walking around picking some cartridges on the ground where he was killed, and then he showed these cartridges to a policeman by the name of Khumalo, but he said these would not assist them because they don't have the numbers.  The policeman called the young boys who were standing by and he asked them where were they from together with Xolani, and they told him that they went to attend a meeting, an ANC meeting in that area.  They said while they were coming back from the meeting they were shot.  It was becoming dark and they couldn't see the person who was shooting at them.  They were just chanting and going home.  "We scattered at the time of the shooting and we didn't know where the others ran to.  We ran to our homes and we didn't know that Xolani has been shot dead.  We just heard the next morning when he was found that he was shot dead."  The police took the body away and we went back home.  Then we started calling relatives to tell them about the death.  The first one to call was Sipho Vezi and other people.  Then they came back home and we started making preparations for the funeral.  That was on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Then on Thursday my brother said they were going to the meeting with ANC where they will arrange for police to come and guard the house during the funeral because we are afraid.  Then on the day of the funeral they brought the cops back.  After the funeral there were many people.  There were children from different schools.  They came with buses.  There were so many people.  As I said, after the funeral my brother-in-law, Sipho, took his in-laws into a car to take them back home because it was late.  He took his child who was three years old.  It took a long time and he didn't come back, and we were starting to worry as to what had happened to him.  As we were sitting down confused, not knowing what was happening, some people came running to report that there had been some shooting.  We get confused because he didn't come back.  Then another person came to tell us Sipho has been shot, and we asked who shot him.  They said he has been shot by Chief Kawulengweni Mkhize.  He was accompanied by his brother and his son.  We asked what happened when he was shot.  He asked the attackers what he had done.  They just followed him and shot him, and he fall on the road, and they came back and stabbed him with some spears.  When we asked whether he was dead they refused to tell the truth, saying that he didn't did, but that was a lie because he really died.  And we asked where is the little child.  One of my brothers-in-law started running towards the place.  We heard that Sipho's wife was travelling in another car.  After Sipho's wife had arrived they just discovered that Sipho is dead and he was lying on the road.  After that time we heard that the other one has been killed too.

MRS GCABASHE: Who is this one?

WITNESS:   This is Malachius Vezi.  So many things happened at the same time.  After we discovered that Malachius has been shot ... (intervention)

MRS GCABASHE: What happened to Malachius?  Did he survive the shooting?

WITNESS:   We didn't know at that time whether he survived or not.  After some time he came to be with us.  The chief at that area said we have to leave the area because he's coming to burn down our houses.  When Sipho's wife arrived we could not believe what had happened, and then we waited until the next morning.  People arrived and they were surprised that Sipho has been shot dead, and they said we mustn't go anywhere, and then we had to stay at home the whole day.

MRS GCABASHE: Who is this person having family at Umlazi?

WITNESS:   It's Sipho's wife.  At about half past two in the evening we asked people to take us by their cars out of the place, and people refused to take us and they said we have to come to the road to get the car.  But it was difficult to get there because we have to pass the place where Sipho was killed.  While we were still sitting there we heard a group of people singing the Inkatha songs.  This was an Inkatha stronghold, and we have already heard that they were coming to burn us.  We got out of the house together with my mother-in-law and my husband, and my husband was very confused at the time, and we started running away.  We couldn't even lock the houses, we were just holding a lamp and we were running away.  We didn't know which way to take.  We ran up the hill and we decided to go to my family where I were born.  We didn't know how to reach the place, we just have to run up the hill, and these people could see us running.  When they arrived at home they could see that there was no longer anybody there, they could only see the stock and the houses, and when they looked up the hill they could see us, and they were shouting, "There are the people we are looking for."  And we continued to run.  They ran so fast I got so tired I sit down.  They waited for me, but I catch up with them.  We started running and get into the bushes.  We get inside, there was mud, and we hide there.  Then we heard a car passing.  We ran out of the bushes and went to another place.  We were running through the bushes, we couldn't use the roads or the paths.  And then we ran to the family, where we didn't use the gate, we have to come from the back yard to get into the house and hide.

MRS GCABASHE: Did they follow you?  Were they running after you?

WITNESS:   Yes, they were running after us.  They were driving a car.  We could only hear the sound of an engine, but we couldn't see the car.  When we were in the house my mother came to greet us.  They had already heard the news that we have been attacked.  After some time people came to ask whether we were not in the home, and my mother refused, telling them that there were no people in this house.  In the evening we were preparing to sleep.  I was so tired myself.  While we were still sitting there Malachius arrived.  He had bandaged his hand.  We didn't know whether he was still alive or not, but it happened that he arrived, and he said to us our house is burning.  He said when he reached to a neighbour's house he was told that we ran away, and he was told that he must also run away because the people are coming to search for our relatives, so they might find him.  Therefore he started running, following us.  At home my father tried to arrange a transport for us to run away, but most of the people refused to give us their cars.  Later the next morning we got a car and we ran to Umlazi location.  And we stayed at Umlazi.

MRS GCABASHE: Are you still staying at Umlazi?

WITNESS:   Yes, we are still staying there.

MRS GCABASHE: Let's go back a bit.  You said you find some cartridges which were used.  Did you ever get an answer as to which kind of gun was used?