Human Rights Violation Hearings — Queenstown — 1996-07-22

BONGANI FINCA: Is there any questions?  I would like us to give the other witness, I know that we are supposed to give
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the other witnesses a chance, but I have just a few brief questions, and I would just like you to enlighten me on one or two issues.   It is clear from what we hear from your evidence that the issue about toilets was quite a big issue here in Queenstown.   The fact that people wanted toilets.  Can you just very briefly give us some insight into what was happening.  What was toilet facilities like in Queenstown at that time?

B MDINGI: There were no toilets.  Our houses did not have toilets inside, we used to use public toilets and they said that they were going to fight for that, so that each yard could at least have a toilet in the yard, so that it was not necessary for us to use the public toilets.
 As someone who grew up here in Queenstown, when I think about it, I find that ... (tape ends) ... were public toilets, maybe about three toilets which would serve more than one street.

BONGANI FINCA: We might get back to that question when we go through more statements.  Balakazi, in your evidence you said that during very painful stage of the death of your brother, you were very traumatised by a biased report that was published in the Daily Despatch.  I would like to hear from you why you think the press manipulated that story?  And do you think there was an attempt to manipulate the minds of the people through that story?

B MDINGI: Definitely.

BONGANI FINCA: Could you please expand on that a bit.

B MDINGI: In my experience if you want to publish something in the press, the way in which they made it difficult to accept your story, I am going to give you an example about something that is currently affecting my work circumstances
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in Cape Town.  An example which was used by a Brian O'Connell who is the Superintendent of Education is Cape Town.
 Because Cape Town has many teachers and the student population is either White or Coloured, Cape Town  at this moment is facing a situation where teachers have to be either retrenched or redeployed, and if people remember, they did see that in the papers that teachers were marching in protest against that because their schools were full, because there were more teachers than students.
 Whereas this is not the case in our schools.  And when he spoke about the pain of not being able to communicate and resolve the issue amongst teachers and parents and students, he said that he had spent a lot of time in interviews in radio stations and newspapers and the television and trying to get them to listen to what he has to say.
 And apparently this was a story in which they did not have enough interest in it and that was the attitude then.  There was no interest from the media in what you had to say, because even the bit of news that you had to say, you had to prove to them that it was interesting, because otherwise they wouldn't take it and you had to say who your source was and they would come from an angle which made it obvious that they were representing the interest of the police and the killers and not the interest of the people.

BONGANI FINCA: That's a very interesting statement, not only from the past but also from the present.    Nomakaya and your daughter, Balakazi, we thank you for this very painful story that you have come to tell before us today about the killing of your son and the subsequent trauma which was added to you by the Daily Despatch.
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 We have noted that.  But what we want to say to you is that in spite of the trauma you survived, we salute you.
 You are here today to tell your story at a time you could not tell it, those who attempted to tell it on your behalf, decided to distort it to suit their ends.
 And that is something that we are noting and we would want to pursue.
 We will pursue your requests as far as the investigation is concerned, but for now we salute you and we thank you for coming before the Commission.