Human Rights Violation Hearings — Durban — 1996-08-30

DR RANDERA: It was actually from 1987.  My son was attending school at Umbuzana, and his name was Sifiso.  He was from Umathiwe, and when he got to Umbuzana in the middle of the year, whilst he was still attending school, there was a certain kombi that used to come to his school, and it used to follow them, together with his friends Fano and Mbuso and another group of youths.  And they used to ask them whether they were still continuing in that school, because members of the UDF were not accepted at that school.  And they denied this, they said they were not affiliated to any political organisation.  And these people told them that they should go back to where they belong because they were not accepted.  Each time there were certain people who used to come to their school, and they would call them, say they wanted to talk to them, until they got a certain hole through which they used to escape whenever these people came to their school.  And these people used to accost them and ask them about being members of the UDF, and they kept on denying these claims.  And at some stage the drivers of this car wanted to take them and put them into the car, and they related the matter to us that there was this car which kept on chasing them.  I said it was towards the end of the year, and he was going to change the school the following year, so he should continue for that particular year.  And in the neighbourhood there was a certainly family called the Dlamini family.  They made a meeting and they said all male children should go to that meeting.  We refused our children permission to go there.  We said we did not have any weapons, and we were told that they had a lot of weapons, they would not run short of weapons.  All we should do, we should send our sons there.  And thereafter we kept on being checked on by the members of Inkatha, because they were telling us that we had sons and we did not want to send them to the meetings of Inkatha.  And we ended up sleeping in the garden now because they always used to come, especially in the middle of the night.  At times we would sleep in the garden, wake up the following morning, get into the house and wash, go to work, and the children would go to school.  In the evening we would come back, have supper, and go and sleep in the garden.  On a particular day two buses came, and we heard people saying the Inkatha had arrived, and we went back into the garden where we used to sleep.  My husband said he was now tired of running away and he would sleep in the house.  He would run away when he heard them coming.  I saw them coming and I ran into the house.  I knocked on the window to warn my husband that the Inkatha people had come.  I knocked violently on the window, and my husband woke up and he ran into the garden.  We hid ourselves there.  Life went on like that, because we used to sleep in the garden.  We decided to go and look for a certain place called Congo, and we took our clothes with and we went to look for a shack.  We hired a shack, and this shack was a one-roomed shack.  We just wanted to be safe so that we could not sleep outside any more.  And at that time we believed that at the shacks we would not be known as to where we came from.  We stayed there, and the family was quite big for a shack.  And each time we went back home we would be told that there was a certain car that was moving around asking as to our whereabouts.  And at that time I had taken Sifiso to Impendle, and I was left with two girls and Sithembiso, who was very young at that time.  We stayed at those shacks, and we experienced problems because they were stealing at the shacks and they were breaking into the shack.   And we went to ask as to what the situation was like.  Apparently it looked calm at that stage, and we decided to go back to our house.  We went back together with the children, and we stayed there, and it was in 1989 by then.  We stayed for quite a short while and we realised that it looked as if the situation was calm and it was safer later on.  And I brought Sifiso, because each time Sifiso came back people would come and ask about him, that he had come, and I would always deny that he was there.  Then on a particular night in 1989 we heard a knock.  It was 11.00 pm in the evening.  But we were still somehow scared.  We heard somebody knocking at the door at 11 o'clock, and I could gather that these people were many.  It was not only one person.  My husband wanted to go and open the door, but I restrained him and I told my husband that I should be the one to open the door.  I went to open the door.  When I got to the door I saw a certain man.  His name is Mr Sibiya.  I saw Mr Sibiya.  He had a big gun, as well as an assegai and a knobkerrie.  We greeted Sibiya, and my husband also greeted Sibiya.  And Sibiya took only two steps towards us in the dining-room, and at some stage he put down his weapons and he said, "Sithole, I do not want to get into your house with weapons."  At that time we were scared because the children were asleep, but we felt - we suspected something and we asked him as to what he wanted.  He told us that we should not be scared, he had come to look for Fano, and Fano was my son's friend and he was also suspected of being a member of the UDF.  On the day that Sibiya had come Sifiso was at home on that day, and he was going to go back to the rural areas the following morning, and they were hiding in the bedroom at that time together with his friend Fano.  He said that he knew that Fano was at our place, but my husband said Fano is not there, but in reality he was there but we had hidden him.  And they said they wanted Fano, and they had seen that Fano had come to our place.  My husband denied that Fano was around, and Sibiya said, "It is fine if he is not there," and we told him that they had gone to the rural areas, and we denied that Fano was around.  We said Fano had gone with his mother to his mother's workplace.  Sibiya then took his weapons and he decided to go out.  I closed the door.  Just as Sibiya was getting out I peeped through the curtain in the dining-room to see as to who he was with. And Sibiya did not fight when he came, he just said he was looking for Fano, and when I peeped through the curtain I saw so many people surrounding our house.  They were even more than the people who are in this hall today.  All of them were having guns and weapons, as well as knobkerries.  I stood there in the dining-room and I looked through the curtains, and I heard Sibiya talking at the door.  And this person asked as to why Sibiya did not kill Sithole, and he said he was not going to kill Sithole because he was sent to go and ask for the key so that they would get a way of killing Sithole.  The others said they would not kill my husband because Sibiya had failed to kill my husband.  He said he was not directed to kill Sithole, but he was directed to look for the boys, and they said Sibiya was selling them out.  And they said to him he was an ANC member, why did he not want to kill Sithole.  Had he shot Sithole, Sithole would probably have told them where the boys were.  I once more opened the door because I did not feel safe.  I went into the bedroom.  I told them that they must take a different direction.  They must get underneath the bed and we were going to sit on top of the bed.  We wanted to hide them.  And these people went away.  They were followed by a certain car, a kombi, but I am not sure of the colour of the kombi.  I could not even see the registration plate, because I did see that it was the kombi that the boys had told me about.  They went around a certain corner, an we had already heard them asking Sibiya as to why he did not kill my husband.  At 5 o'clock the following morning I told them to pack and go without even washing.  I accompanied them.  I gave Fano some money to go because his mother was not around.  I gave him money and told him he should go with my son to the rural areas.  Then on the following day I phoned to inquire as to whether they had arrived.  It was confirmed that they had arrived.  After about a week after Sifiso as well as his friend had gone we saw certain people passing in front of my house at about 11, and they kept on saying they had seen Mr Sithole's house before.  And I was listening to them at that time, and I told my husband that we should go and hide, they would not kill the children, they would have mercy on the children.  We hid ourselves underneath a peach tree.  That's correct.hey went past, they never got into the yard up until they went to Sibiya's place.  They were so many.  It was a large group.  Then on the following week very late at night, at about 11 - my husband was working night shift, and whenever he was  working night shift I used to sleep with the children.  Dudu was sleeping with me, and we slept in one room because we were scared.  And we heard some footsteps outside, but nobody was knocking or coming in.  At about half past 11 I could hear the sound of shattering glass.  That was in the bedroom.  My child's uniform was hanging there, and I could hear something hitting me, and I asked myself as to what had taken the uniform from its hanging place.  I woke the children and we put the lights on.  I picked the uniform up and I put it into the wardrobe.  Then I decided to get dressed, and we stayed there.  I was dressed during the night.  At about 1.00 am, at dawn, I saw a gun, the front of a gun, pointing at our heads, and I heard them say, "We have now come.  You think you are brilliant."  I looked at this person.  He was very dark.  I had never ever seen him before.  He said we thought we were clever.  I realised that this was a gun I threw myself down and I lied flat on the floor, and I directed my children to lie down on the floor.  Some of them got underneath the bed.  Now the bedroom was opened.  They started firing at us.  He shot for the second time, and when he shot for the third time we started screaming.  We could hear some gunshots at the dining-room door, and we decided to scream and not go in that direction.  They kept on shooting through the window, and after some time there was quiet and we thought they had gone.  And thereafter we heard Mr Blose screaming and saying they should come and help us because we might probably be dead.  I could hear them when they were talking.  And the neighbours gathered.  Thereafter I decided to take my daughter, Dudu, and when I went into the dining-room I saw that by now it was dawn,  /and there