Human Rights Violation Hearings — East London — 1997-06-12

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you June.  Closer to Ms Funeka Voyiya.  May I lead you with questions Mam.  Your story is similar to Mrs Damane's one.  It is about yourself, what happened to you in October 1985 at Duncan Village.  Is that so.

FUNEKA VOYIYA: Yes Mam.

CHAIRPERSON: You were also pregnant at that time.  Will you briefly tell us what happened.

FUNEKA VOYIYA: Thank you Mam.  In October 1985 I was pregnant, nine months pregnant.

CHAIRPERSON: Please lift up your voice.

FUNEKA VOYIYA: I did not feel well.  It was as if my contractions were starting.  Our toilets were quite far from the house, because it was a communal toilet.  I went for the first time to the loo.  The second time I went there were a whole lot of soldiers in the township, in and out of our houses.  If we were cooking they would take the food and eat it.  They did anything they liked to do.  It was like I was going to give birth, because it was, I was due to give birth at that time.  There were three soldiers towards the toilet.  The three were facing me.  I went to the loo.  I saw them even the first time around.  Just before I got to the loo, I was not feeling well.  I would hold on, I held onto the toilet door.
 I heard, I felt something on my stomach, a bang.  Then I fell down.  I do not know what happened after that.  The soldier had apparently shot at me.  The two were standing and the one was sitting down.  I think it is the one that is sitting down that had shot me.  It is the neighbours that took me.  They tried to get an ambulance.  I was taken to hospital.  I stayed in hospital for six months, because the bullet shot me through the child to my back.  The problem was that there was a whole lot of damage inside of me.  They were treating my insides and I had a problem with my back as well.

CHAIRPERSON: What happened to the baby that you were carrying?

FUNEKA VOYIYA: I did not notice anything on the first and second day.  On the third day the doctor told me that my child had died.  On the third day they explained to me that I had lost my child.  They asked me if I wanted to see the child.  It was a girl.  I said, doctor, I do not have a daughter.  I do not know, is there hope, will I ever get another child.  The doctor said it was ...

CHAIRPERSON: You said that you did not have a daughter, you only had sons?

FUNEKA VOYIYA: Yes, I only had sons.

CHAIRPERSON: And the doctor said that there was no hope that you would get another daughter?

FUNEKA VOYIYA: Yes, the doctor said that it was not possible.

CHAIRPERSON: After the six months in hospital how was your health?  Were you able to go back to work?

FUNEKA VOYIYA: I was discharged.  I tried to go to work, but I could not.  I lost my job, because I would go to work and I would get ill and I would have to go home.

CHAIRPERSON: So that is how you lost your job?

FUNEKA VOYIYA: Yes.

CHAIRPERSON: Where were you working?

FUNEKA VOYIYA: At the cleaners.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.  Would you like to add something to your story?  Is there something you would like to add?

FUNEKA VOYIYA: Yes, I do.

CHAIRPERSON: What are your requests?

FUNEKA VOYIYA: If the Commission, as I am not working as a result of my back and when the weather is bad I have to be in bed.  If it is going to be cold I feel it in my body.  I do not know what is happening with my back or my kidneys.

CHAIRPERSON: Did you try to get a disability grant or a pension?

FUNEKA VOYIYA: Yes, in 1987 I did try.  However, for two days and two nights I was in a queue to as for this grant.  On the third day they said I must go get my folder from Frere Hospital.  I went to, for my file.  I got a female clerk.  I went to the hospital to check my file.  When I came back from Frere Hospital I went back to that queue.  There was on guy there, I found one guy, not the lady who was there before.  I gave him the file and I told him my situation.  He said that I am very young, I do not need a pension.  I must go and ask for work, look for work.  He tore the file.  I then went back home.

CHAIRPERSON: When was this?

FUNEKA VOYIYA: It was in 1987.

CHAIRPERSON: Did you know the man who did this?

FUNEKA VOYIYA: No, I was told that he was a young man from Mooiplaas, but I do not know his name.

CHAIRPERSON: Do you have any medical records or a card from the hospital so that we can be able to find out whether there are documents about you in hospital?

FUNEKA VOYIYA: In hospital they know me, because I spent a lot of time there and the doctor, if he is still there, he will know me.  I can ask the sisters who were there.

CHAIRPERSON: Do you still remember the name of the doctor?

FUNEKA VOYIYA: No, I do not remember the name of the doctor.

CHAIRPERSON: Which hospital was this?  Was it Frere Hospital?

FUNEKA VOYIYA: Yes.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.  Is that all you wanted to say?

FUNEKA VOYIYA: Yes, that is all.  I have no more requests.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.  I will hand over to my colleagues.  Maybe you will be asked questions to clarify certain matters.  Thank you Mam.  There are no questions.  I would like Reverend Finca to make a conclusion.

BONGANI FINCA: Thank you Chairperson.  Mrs Funeka Voyiya, we thank you very much for coming before the Commission to open your heart the way you did and to tell us the painful things in which we as men cannot understand, because what you have told us, men cannot understand how people feel under such situations.  We thank you for giving us this evidence.  Our report to the President will be able to tell how women were harassed and how they were tortured more than men at the, during the time of the struggle.  We thank you on behalf of the Commission.  Thank you Chairperson.