Human Rights Violation Hearings — Witbank — 1997-06-05

DR RANDERA: Can I ask again is Beryl Harmse here?  No.  I would like to then call Nomasonto Kgalema.  Can I please ask individuals who are taking photographs, not to use their flash cameras as people are telling stories.  Thank you very much.  I want to welcome a number of groupings who are here to-day.  We have the Idamwasa Man and Women groupings here to-day.  Welcome to you. It stands for the Interdenominational African Ministers of South Africa.  We have Father Paul Johnson and Father Didier Demer.  Welcome.  Father Rodrigues from the Mpumulanga Council of Churches.  From the ANC Youth League, Temba Marabe and Lucas Ngodisi, the Deputy Chairperson and Deputy Secretary respectively.  From the ANC we have Peter Mnisi, Chairperson of the ANC in this area.  Welcome to all of you.  Mrs Kgalema, good morning and welcome.  Can you please introduce the person who is with you.

UNKNOWN: She is Swangela Kgalema, my daughter.

DR RANDERA: I welcome you daughter too.  Mrs Kgalema, you have also come to talk about a very painful ...  Can you hear me?  You're also taking us back to 1986 when your son Jabu was shot and has lived with a paralysis ever since.  Mr Hugh Lewin will be helping you but before I hand over to him, can you please stand to take the oath.  Mr Wynand Malan will help you.

MR MALAN: Mrs Kgalema, will you please stand and raise your right hand.  Do you swear that your story will contain the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and if so, just raise your hand and say,  so help me God.

UNKNOWN: (sworn states)

MR MALAN: Thank you very much.  You may sit down.

MR LEWIN: Mrs Kgalema, I would like to welcome you here to-day.  Thank you for coming and thank your daughter for coming with you.  You are Witbank, from the old location in Witbank?  What you'll be telling us about is the incident that took place in April 1988, 1986 sorry.  If you could please, in your own time and in your own words, tell us what happened.  Thank you.

UNKNOWN: On the sixth of April 1986 I was on my way from the Slagpale Butchery, I had sent Jabu to the shop to buy milk and bread.  After being in the house for a few minutes, I saw two children running, telling me that Jabu has been shot.  I left the house just to check where he was shot.  I met a car by the gate which was driven by a boy named Bafana.  He was talking to another person.  I told them not to get out of the car but to take me to the hospital.  When I arrived at the hospital he had been admitted.  He was then transferred to Colourform Hospital in Pretoria.  Two white policeman came there whilst we were still at the hospital.  Jabu was unconscious in hospital for five days.  Thereafter, he was brought home, already paralyzed.  He has been paralyzed for ten years.  For the whole of those ten years he has not been feeling well.  There was some things coming out of his nose.  In Mar '96 he died.  When we woke up in the morning, he was dead.  When we took him for the post-mortem I requested a paper but they told me that I should pay three hundred rand for that document, the document from the post-mortem.  That was all.  I didn't hear anything thereafter.

MR LEWIN: Ma Kgalema, could I ask a few questions please.  Just take your time, feel relaxed.  I know it must be very difficult.  Could you take us back to the time that he was shot and explain firstly, what was actually happening?  Why were the police on the streets at the time?

UNKNOWN: It was during the unrest when children were fighting in the streets.

MR LEWIN: What was the cause of the fights?  Do you know?

UNKNOWN: I don't know but it was during those times of unrest.

MR LEWIN: I think we need to, if we could just get absolutely clear, Jabu at that state must have been aged ten or eleven?

UNKNOWN: Yes, he was ten years old.  Policemen and soldiers were just roaming in the streets chasing the children around.  There was some random shooting.  I was also involved in those shootings.  I even have those scars from the bullet.

MR LEWIN: Can you hear all right through the earphones?

UNKNOWN: Yes.

MR LEWIN: Was there any particular point to the activity at that stage?  Where there any particular protests taking place at the time?

UNKNOWN: It's difficult to explain because I'm not so sure about it.

MR LEWIN: But I mean for a ten year old boy, he couldn't have been politically involved.  Would you agree on that?

UNKNOWN: He was not politically involved.  Actually, I had sent him to buy milk and bread.  When he got shot everything fell down so we cannot tell what was happening, what the police meant to do by shooting such a young child.

MR LEWIN: Do you know of other children who were shot at the time.

UNKNOWN: There are some but I'm not so sure of their ages.  There were some children that were shot during those years, '86 and many other years but I cannot remember them.  The problem is, I always concentrate on the pains that I have suffered so I've forgotten all about other children.

MR LEWIN: Were the other children be about the same age, or older?

UNKNOWN: They were bigger than Jabu.

MR LEWIN: And Jabu himself, what exactly were the injuries that he sustained?  You say he was shot twice?

UNKNOWN: He was shot in the head, above the eye and in the stomach.

MR LEWIN: And was it the second of the shots in the stomach that paralyzed him?

UNKNOWN: According to my observation the one that gave him problems was the gunshot in the head because he kept on bleeding from the nose.  Time and again he had to visit Verwoerd Hospital in Pretoria in order for them to drain him.

MR LEWIN: Was there any particular treatment that they gave him at the hospital?

UNKNOWN: Yes, he was given treatment.  They inserted pipes which drained blood from the nose.

MR LEWIN: Did they operate at all in the head?

UNKNOWN: I don't know because it was not explained to me.  When I asked whether the bullet was taken out, they told me it was at a delicate point.  If they tried to remove it, he would die.  Even after it was taken out I was not told whether it was taken out or whether they just left it in his head.

MR LEWIN: What happened to him at home in the ten years after that?  How did you look after him?

UNKNOWN: Those ten years were very difficult for him.  I had to take care of him on a full time basis because mentally he was affected and you could feel that his behaviour changed completely.  He was even stealing from people and then running in the streets.  I was powerless.  I didn't even have money to take him to the doctor but I tried my level best to give him the best treatment that I could.

MR LEWIN: How was he able to run in the streets if you say his left leg was paralyzed?

UNKNOWN: He was limping.  Actually his left arm and leg were paralyzed but he was able to walk.

MR LEWIN: Could I ask you, you handed in a documents here which was a letter from a lawyer which indicates that in July 1987, that's more than a year after the incident, you were trying to, or your husband was trying to lay some charges.  Could you give us details about that please?

UNKNOWN: When we came back from Verwoerd Hospital, my husband said we should go and see the lawyer.  We went there, trying to lay a claim because of the age of the child who was shot unnecessarily.  We had hoped that the lawyer would assist us or give us advice on what we should do.  They asked us to pay a deposit.  We withdrew it and came back.  He wrote us a letter telling us that he wants more money so we sent the amount of three hundred rand.  After sending that money we didn't understand what was happening because we didn't get any follow-up.  He didn't come back to us neither did we go to court, nor did he call us.  That's how the case came to an end until to-day.  We just accepted that those were the difficult times.  We just thought maybe, if you are a Black person your things don't go your own way, the correct way.