Human Rights Violation Hearings — Sebokeng — 1996-08-08

CHAIRPERSON: Can we settle down please.  Thank you for your patience.  Good morning Anna Madiemi Kheswa.

ANNA MADIEMI KHESWA: Good morning to you.

CHAIRPERSON: Who is going to testify on her behalf and several other friends, Joseph Mpotulo, Joyce, Malfred, Joseph Mosia and Godfrey Magumi.  Anna are you going to speak Sotho or Zulu?

ANNA MADIEMI KHESWA: Sotho.

CHAIRPERSON: Will you please stand up and take the oath.

ANNA MADIEMI KHESWA: (sworn states)

CHAIRPERSON: I am going to give Mr Tom Mantata the opportunity to lead you as you give your evidence.

MR MANTATA: You can continue with your evidence and tell us what happened on this particular day.

MS SEROKE: I think there is some confusion because we have changed the sequence of the witnesses.  Anna Kheswa will be led by Dr Randera.

DR RANDERA: Anna good afternoon to you and a warm welcome to you.  Thank you for coming today.  Anna you are going to tell us about what happened on the night of the 18th of April 1993.  If my memory serves me correctly that was the eve of the funeral for the late Chris Hani.

ANNA MADIEMI KHESWA: That's correct.

DR RANDERA: Will you please tell us what happened on that night.

ANNA MADIEMI KHESWA: I don't remember what the time was, but it was HRV/818 at/...
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at about 8:30.  We were sitting inside the house and we were watching TV.  It was Chris Hani's night vigil.  I was together with my three other friends as well as my two children, my two sons.  As we were watching TV they told me that they wanted to go and sleep because they were tired.  I took them into the bedroom to sleep.  As we were still watching TV I decided to go into the main bedroom and my friend had gone to the toilet.  After about a while we heard somebody forcing the door open and the door got open.  Some of them had actually closed their faces, they were also wearing handgloves.  They said they wanted money.  They pointed me with firearms in both ears.

DR RANDERA: Anna take your time.

ANNA MADIEMI KHESWA: They said they wanted money but I couldn't even identify them. Then I opened the drawers.  I took out money.  I even gave them the children's bank books.  Then they started kicking me and assaulting me and I fell on the passage.  From there I don't know what happened because I had fallen down by that time.  Then Joyce's head was just in front of me. They also shot her in the head.  They ransacked the house and they kept on shooting at that time. It looked as if they were in a hurry and I could hear that they were ransacking the place, they were opening my kist and they were taking some of the things that were in the kist.  I had been shot also.  And I woke up from the ground and I tried to listen as to whether they were still in the house.  I tried to look around and the person who was next to me was bleeding profusely.  I went into the dining room, I called everybody's name but nobody answered me.

DR RANDERA: Anna take your time.  Do you want to continue or do you want to stop?
HRV/818

ANNA MADIEMI KHESWA: /...
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ANNA MADIEMI KHESWA: I will carry on Sir.

DR RANDERA: Thank you Anna, you are very brave.

ANNA MADIEMI KHESWA: I went into the bedroom where I had put my children to sleep.  I called their names out but they did not reply.  I took their youngest child and I held him in my arms.  I just saw his nose bleeding.
 At that time I went out of the house screaming, I was very confused and people streamed into the yard to come and help me.  Now White policemen came and at the time they were from a house that was my neighbour and they had also killed people in that house.
 Before they went out they saw President Nelson Mandela's photo which was in the bedroom and they kicked it and they tore it into pieces.  Then they went out.  I don't know why they came into my place because they killed my children whilst they were asleep.  They also killed my friends.  I was fetched by an ambulance because I was also shot and I was taken to the hospital.

DR RANDERA: Anna is there anything else you want to add?

ANNA MADIEMI KHESWA: In my bedroom there were no possessions there was absolutely nothing except the plastic that had covered the mattress.  They had opened the kist and they took everything that was in there.  They even took my wristwatch whilst I was lying on the ground. I think they thought I was dead by then.

DR RANDERA: Anna again I can see how painful this is for you.  I don't want to increase your pain.  I just want to ask a few questions.  Can you just tell us how old were your children?

ANNA MADIEMI KHESWA: The eldest was nine and the other one was six.

DR RANDERA: And do you have any other children?
HRV/818

ANNA MADIEMI KHESWA: /...
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ANNA MADIEMI KHESWA: These were the only two children I had.  I do have another one which I got in 1995.

DR RANDERA: Thank you Anna.  Can you, I mean you say in your statement that people also stole from your house?

ANNA MADIEMI KHESWA: That's correct.

DR RANDERA: As painful as this question is can you tell us what you think, was it just purely a criminal attack on you, your family, your friends or was there some political motive behind this?

ANNA MADIEMI KHESWA: I don't think it was purely a criminal thing.  I think there was some motive behind.  Because the sixth house from my place they also attacked in the same manner that they did at my place.  And they seemed very angry about Nelson Mandela's portrait that was there and they were angry that we were watching Chris Hani's night vigil.

DR RANDERA: I know you say that the people had balaclavas and gloves on but yesterday when people were talking about something else, somebody said that they could tell the difference, could you say who these people were, even with their balaclavas?  What language were they speaking in?

ANNA MADIEMI KHESWA: I could not identify them. I just couldn't look at them because I was terrified and they didn't want us to face them.  Because when they pushed me they forced my head through the opposite direction.

DR RANDERA: Thank you Anna I don't have any more questions.

PROF MEIRING: Anna only one question.  You have come to the Truth Commission with your pain and it's difficult to imagine how large, how big that pain must be losing your children and your friends, what can the Truth Commission do to help you alleviate the pain?
HRV/818

ANNA MADIEMI KHESWA: /...
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ANNA MADIEMI KHESWA: I think my health has deteriorated ever since this incident took place.  I am very sickly.  I don't know what is wrong with me.  I was weighing 87 at that time but I've lost weight tremendously.  And even in that house that I'm staying there are so many bullet holes that reminds me of the incident.  When I go to the kitchen there are bullet holes as well as in the bathroom and I don't like staying there it's a bad reminder.  Even my children, there was no tombstone that was laid for them ever since they were buried.

DR RANDERA: Thank you Professor Meiring.

MR MANTATA: I am sorry I might be repeating some questions as I was not in yesterday.  The following day how many people would have been killed by this group of people with balaclavas?

ANNA MADIEMI KHESWA: I couldn't get the clear number but when I read the paper I heard that 19 people died on that day.

MR MANTATA: And did the community bury them as a group or had families to do the burial on their own severally?

ANNA MADIEMI KHESWA: What do you mean the nation or the community?

MR MANTATA: I mean the people of Sebokeng or the people around your street where six families were involved being killed by the same group seemingly because of the same pattern of approach or of entry into every house.

ANNA MADIEMI KHESWA: Yes.

MR MANTATA: And was this group ever known?