Human Rights Violation Hearings — Johannesburg — 1996-05-02

MRS MLANGENI: He asked them how he looked and they affirmed that he looked very smart. He left for work and I heard that after he had done what he had been called for, he took the parcel and put it in the back and phoned his wife to come and they would go and watch a movie.  After the movie, when they returned home, they went to their room.
 I was very sick at that time and did not even know what I was suffering from.  I saw  my daughter-in-law rushing in and just said, Bheki. I asked her what was wrong with him but she just said, Mama, Bheki at the garage! I was surprised wondering what this garage story was about, and couldn't hear anything, feeling very ill.  When I came out they held me and asked me please not to go into there.   I just skipped through their legs and went in.  I found Bheki in pieces, bits of him on the curtains, pieces of him and his brains all over. That was the end of Bheki.
 But another thing there at home, we are all sick, angry and unhappy people.  Nobody is working, we're suffering.

YASMINE SOOKA: Mama, thank you for telling us your story. I want to ask you a few questions if you don't mind. How many children do you have?

MRS MLANGENI: I had five children, Bheki has gone, there are four of them, they're all married and they have got their own houses.  There are only two who are staying with me who are not working.

YASMINE SOOKA: Mama who supported Bheki when he went to university?

MR LUKHELE: Me.

MRS MLANGENI: ...(indistinct) the three children that Bheki had.

MRS MLANGENI: The main thing that I'm worried about, because these children used to come to us for money that I did not have, to such an extent that when I see them I just feel like running away and hiding myself because I know they are coming to request for financial assistance and I don't have it.  These children's mothers are married and they are living with their grandmothers, just grannies like me living on pensions.

YASMINE SOOKA: Sepati, can I ask you to tell us about your life with Bheki and about what actually happened because you were with Bheki when the headphones exploded.

MRS S MLANGENI: I met Bheki in 1984.  There was something at the amphitheatre, Bishop Tutu was receiving his Nobel Peace Prize.  Because he was very active in these things we went together with him and we decided to go to the amphitheatre, that's where I first met him.  After having a child with him we fell in love and it led to our marriage. We were just boyfriend and girlfriend, there was an age difference between the two of us.  He was a bit older than me and he had knowledge and was involved in school activities and in an organisation that was taking place in the township. I received a lot of information and knowledge from him because he was quite clear. During that time I can say I was ignorant.  I knew exactly what was happening, I knew the organisation Sofasonke but I wasn't clear about anything.  He was explaining to us in details the issue of Sin...(indistinct), the boycotters and he indicated to me how they got involved in politics.  That's where I realised that he knew exactly what he was doing and he told me that before one became a comrade one started first by boycotting.
People see things, they get hurt and they get evicted from their houses and they see dirty children in the streets, that's where the practice of boycotting started.
 Well we went on in our relationship.  He was now studying at Wits.  We were in love and he was detained in 1985.  I was pregnant at that time.  As I've already said, I didn't understand quite well what was happening.  He arrived on a Sunday evening and he said to me that the police were after him and that it might happen that we would be arrested and that he would see me on Monday if we were lucky but in the event of being arrested he would leave everything with his mother.  He told me that he would bring money since I was pregnant at that time.
 I received a message from my mom that Bheki had been detained.  My parents were already Christians and did not believe anything about politics.  They wanted me to leave Bheki, and did not quite grasp what was happening.  In this detention we had problems because I couldn't see him as we were not yet married at that time and I couldn't be regarded as his fiancee.  He eventually made applications and arranged it so that I managed to see him at Sun City.  I gave birth while he was still in jail.  
 He managed through the DPSC to organise that my child should get a grant.  My mother used to fetch the moneys from the grant and after a year he was released and I had a hope that we were going to lead a normal life. In June there was a state of emergency and they had to run away.  I was going out with a person who was not settled and I couldn't maintain myself.  He said to me that he was going to skip the country but he would try to arrange everything and I must say that he was a provider in everything.  He knew that I was his girlfriend and he always gave me something to help and maintain the child.
 After his release I went to study at Wits University where on my arrival I did not have examination pads or books, but he used to buy me books from the money that he received as a bursary. He used to show me that it was more than love, he was like a brother and a friend to me.  He used to explain to me how university life was and he said to me that I shouldn't just rush into it, the most important thing was to study and look back to where I came from.  I was from a very poor family just as much as he was, I got married to a poor man in 1990 on the 9th and at our wedding he paid labola in February and March and when he finished paying it, he was staying with his mother and I was also staying at my parents' home, until we got married. Even when we got married things were a bit confused.  He said that it was such a long time since he had paid labola, but I didn't want to stay with him until I got married so we just made an informal thing and got married, and then there was a wedding celebration.
 After marriage I stayed with Bheki for two months feeling very happy for having got married and was looking forward to being a married woman like other married women after having suffered for a long time and the person that I had loved for all these years was not settled, because after the organisations were unbanned, I thought everything will now be over.
 This thing continued, I thought the political struggle would be over but he continued.  There was no civic in Jabulani and he started the civic there.  He started the ANC there where there was nothing before that and he became the organisation's chairperson.  With regard to school issues there was a branch called the SOWETO Coordinating Committee, and Bheki was one of the founders.  In everything he did he did not do for personal gain but for the benefit of the community.

YASMINE SOOKA: It's very clear that Bheki spent most of his life in Civic and community activities, but could you tell us a bit about what actually happened to him and the time when he was part of the investigation and part of the Harms Commission?  Did he tell you anything about the work he was doing?

MRS S MLANGENI: Yes he did tell me about what he was doing. Although I didn't understand how things were linking up, during that time I was doing articles,  he said there was somebody who had revealed about all the atrocities against the people and during that Harms Commission when they tried to investigate and find out the truth of what had actually happened about those people who died mysteriously.

YASMINE SOOKA: ...(indistinct) completed your university education?

MRS S MLANGENI: I didn't finish my studies at university.

YASMINE SOOKA: ...(indistinct) the day that you received the parcel from London?