Amnesty Hearings — East London — 1997-03-18

HASSAN MALL: Yes, you are excused.
WITNESS EXCUSED
EAST LONDON HEARING	AMNESTY/E CAPE
MISS COLLETT	136	MR MPHAMBANE

MS COLLETT: Mr Chairman I would now like to ask Sekumbuso Mphambane to testify because he was the person who was present at the meeting that took the decision to kill the deceased in this matter.

SEKUMBUSO VICTOR MPHAMBANE: (sworn states)

MS COLLETT: Now Mr Mphambane, have you heard the evidence of your co-applicant in this matter?

SEKUMBUSO VICTOR MPHAMBANE: Yes I have heard the evidence.

MS COLLETT: Do you confirm that the evidence which he gave regarding the political situation as the ANC Youth League saw it in Ciskei is consistent with that of your opinion?

SEKUMBUSO VICTOR MPHAMBANE: Yes.

MS COLLETT: Were you a member of the ANC Youth League?

SEKUMBUSO VICTOR MPHAMBANE: Yes it is so.

MS COLLETT: Now was there a meeting that was held at a school in Gobozane Location on the 26th of April 1993?

SEKUMBUSO VICTOR MPHAMBANE: Yes Ma'am.

MS COLLETT: Were you present at that meeting?

SEKUMBUSO VICTOR MPHAMBANE: I was present.

MS COLLETT: Did that meeting take place after the incidents to which your co-applicant has testified regarding the houses of the Headmen, etc?

SEKUMBUSO VICTOR MPHAMBANE: Yes it is so.

MS COLLETT: What happened at that meeting?

SEKUMBUSO VICTOR MPHAMBANE: It was the 26th of April 1993.  The comrades of the ANC Youth League were from court.  They had been accused of arson.   As the youth of the ANC league we waited for them at school, ...(indistinct) school.   When our comrades arrived they gave us a report, according to the court cases.  They told us that the cases had been
EAST LONDON HEARING	AMNESTY/E CAPE
MISS COLLETT	137	MR MPHAMBANE
postponed.  After that we had our regular meeting on Mondays.  In the meeting we discussed Mrs Mphambane's issue.  The youth discussed this.   
	As we were discussing this issue the youth got excited about what the Chairperson was saying about Mrs Mphambane.  Apparently Mrs Mphambane had gone to a village called Bele.  She was trying to get assistance to overcome the ANC executives.  The youth discussed this issue.  
	As we were discussing this issue one of our comrades came.  He also became part of the meeting.  He told us that that afternoon he saw Mrs Mphambane going to Bele, but he did not see her coming back.  As we heard that report her son came in, Lukane Mphambane.  As he heard what was being said about his mother, and as he was aware of the decision that  would  be  taken  by the youth, he asked us that whatever  we  do  to  his mother, he said we can do anything to his mother but not to the house that belonged to his father.  The youth then decided that Mrs Mphambane must be killed.
	We then decided going to Mrs Mphambane, that evening.  It was before eight o'clock.   We got to her house and we did not find her, although the doors were opened we could see that she had escaped.   
	We then held a small meeting as the youth.  We decided that we must go back to school to sleep there.  We went as the youth back to school.  However, before we got to the school one of our comrades, Nqolo Mzitji(?) was saying that we should not sleep over at the school, because the police would find us and Mrs Mphambane must have gone to the police for refuge or perhaps had gone to call the ADM.   He then assured us that there were three rooms at his house
EAST LONDON HEARING	AMNESTY/E CAPE
MISS COLLETT	138	MR MPHAMBANE
that we would be able to sleep in.  We were very pleased because we were scared to sleep at the school, because the police would arrest us.	We then went to Nqolo Mzitji's house.  
	We got up in the morning, the next day, that was the 27th of April 1993.  We waited for a bus at the bus stop. We were looking for Mrs Mphambane at the bus because we thought that she would use the morning bus to go to the police to report us.  The bus arrived.  We asked the driver if we could go in to search.  He allowed us.  We could not find her in the bus.   
	We did, however, found one of our comrades, Sakomzi Bheqesi.  He was going to school.	We then made him get off the bus. We forced him to join the struggle because we too were missing out on school.   As a member he did not give us too much trouble.  He joined us.
	We then concluded that we must go to look for Mrs Mphambane at her house.  We then went to her house.  Not far from her house we saw her running towards the forest.  We ran after her.  It is not that we discussed that we would run after her.  We just spontaneously ran after her.   She ran with two of the children.
	When we got towards the top, because she was at the bottom her daughter Kanyiswa stopped, saying to her mother that she must not run away, she must stop, because the youth had arrived.  Her daughter said she must ask for forgiveness.  She did not listen.  She just kept on running.
I ran passed Kanyiswa because I was not chasing after her but after her mother.  As the youth I was the first one, one of the first ones to get to Mrs Mphambane.  I took stones because I saw the other members throwing stones at her.  
EAST LONDON HEARING	AMNESTY/E CAPE
MISS COLLETT	139	MR MPHAMBANE
I also picked up stones and started throwing them at her.   I then said to myself- she then said to me that I, as Victor's son was in the Youth and within the ANC.  She was surprised.  We continued to stone her.	
	We took her to yet more youths.  The other members then asked, where are we taking her because she was meant to be killed.  We continued to throw stones at her.  She fell on the ground.   The others arrived.  She was already on the ground. They continued to throw stones at her.  Some were beating her up on the head with canes.
	After that when we were sure that she died we left as the comrades, we left her body there.   
	We saw her children on the way.   They asked if we'd killed their mother.  We told them that we'd killed her and we then proceeded to ask which side they belonged to.  The daughter then said she is an ANC member.  Then she was asked to sing one song of the struggle.  She sang.
	We then went to the bus stop trying to catch the eight o'clock bus.  The bus was there at the bus stop.  There were people going to King Williamstown.   We asked everybody going to Cape Town to get off.  We said this bus belonged to the comrades and it is going to town.	Everybody got out of the bus.  We got on.  We did not pay.  This bus took us to King Williamstown.  We were not all able to fit into the bus.  There were so many of us.  Others were even on top of the bus.  Others got transport from around the village.
	When we got to town the bus driver, his name was Nzima Sinjokonja he closed the door.  He did not want to open the door for us.  He said he is going to tell his superiors that we got into the bus without paying.  
	As the other buses came, one of the windows was opened.  EAST LONDON HEARING	AMNESTY/E CAPE
MISS COLLETT	140	MR MPHAMBANE
We got out through the window, some of us.  I was one of the people who got out of the bus.  We went to the ANC offices at the Old Mutual in King Williamstown.  We then divulged all.   After that they gave us both a resting place and a hiding place because the police were roaming around King Williamstown.  We heard that those that were in the bus had been arrested.
	In the afternoon I left the comrades in the office.  I left for Cape Town, where my family stayed.  There was no other place I could go to.  I went to Cape Town that same day.
	Then in 1994 I was arrested over the same incident.
I was sentenced in 1995 on the 28th of February.  I was sentenced to nine years imprisonment, in Mdantsane Prison.
Thank you.

MS COLLETT: What was the purpose of going to the ANC office in King Williamstown to report this incident to them?

SEKUMBUSO VICTOR MPHAMBANE: We wanted them to know what we have done as members of the ANC Youth League.