Human Rights Violation Hearings — Durban — 1996-05-10

MR LAX: 17A/1 "house and you've made it the comrades' house".  My husband said, "But if you have sold something that becomes your property after you've bought it.  You've got a right of doing anything, because you bought that property.  It's yours.  You can do anything on that property".  He said, "You'll see, because you bought this house from MP.  Please don't say I've said this to you, because I could be one of those people who will be killed".  And in 1988 on the 15th July, it was on a Friday, we were making arrangements for travelling.  We were going to go to Johannesburg.  My husband came home, because I was still busy packing in the bedroom.  He had not been there at that home.  There were some mechanics, who were busy fixing our cars.  My husband came upstairs - came to the bedroom.  I said, "Please get ready, because at half past seven we must all go out", and he asked where Sifiso was, because he didn't part with Sifiso.  I said he must look for Sifiso downstairs.  That's when he got out.  After six - after a short while - it was just about ten minutes after he had left, I heard the voice calling, "Sifiso, Sifiso".  Just in that short time I heard some explosion and I heard another explosion again.  My other younger boy came in - my younger brother came in.  He was running.  He tried to open the wardrobe, but the wardrobe would come in.  He tried to open the safe.  I said, "The keys are with my brother, Mandla.  Maybe they have already left".  I said, "What is happening?  Why are you in such a rush".  He said, "Please don't talk.  Let's just try and hide".  I got very suspicious, because I was in a bad situation.  I opened the window - I opened the upstairs window.  I heard the voice of Sifiso.  He said, "Why are you killing

MR LAX: /"my father?

MR LAX: 17A/2 "my father?  Why did you kill my Dad?  What has he done?"

MR LAX: You can take some time to recover yourself and we do understand it's a very difficult story.  I went downstairs to enquire about this shooting.  On the stairs I fell and I was affected at the spinal cord.  I was now crawling.  Sifiso was red.  He was cuddling his father in his hands.  People stopped me.  They didn't want me to come very close to him and after that I collapsed.  When I regained consciousness the doctor was very close to me.  At about 10 o'clock at night, Doreen - my sister who got married at the Mnguni family - told me that my husband had died, and I discovered that there was also a telephone call from an MP member of the KwaZulu and he asked, "What happened to Mkhize?"  My sister, Doreen, answered the telephone and she said to him Mandla had been shot and they didn't see the person who killed him.  The following morning - it was on a Saturday - the KwaZulu MP arrived and said he wanted to hear what happened the previous day.  They related the story to him.  He was together with members of the ZP.  Our members of family were not happy about this issue and they asked him why is he in the company of ZPs.  He said to them they have just escorted him.  Well, we buried my husband.  We were living that terrible kind of life, because every time when we were mourning the cars would come and there would be shots from those cars.  In 1990, I was busy hanging the washing on the line.  I saw a man coming to my house.  It was a long time that I've since saw him, and they greeted me.  He was together with our neighbour's boy, and he told me that he was a chauffeur for the MP and he asked me do I know the killers of my husband.  I said to him, "No, I don't know them", and he

MR LAX: /asked me,

MR LAX: 17A/6 asked me, "Do you want to know them?"   I said, "Yes, I want to know them".  I said, "I just want to know who they are and after knowing that I would die.  I just want to know who killed my husband".  He said to me, "Don't go anywhere.  I will come back and I will tell you who they are".  I waited.  He arrived during the day and he told me who killed my husband and he went to Mr Phiri.  He gave me a few documents.  He said he wrote a letter to the Government of that day, the De Klerk Government, and he wrote a letter to Vlok, informing the Government about the killings at Clermont, and he even indicated in this letter why were these people killed and there was also a hit list, but Vlok never gave him answer, but there was an answer from De Klerk, and I asked him to make us photocopies of those letters, because we wanted to have them in our possession.  I read De Klerk's answer, and he said that's all right, he will investigate this letter further.  Even to this day I haven't heard anything.  There was also a cassette that he taped.  He taped that this person is in gaol as we are now talking.  In that tape there was a conversation that he killed Mkhize.  He was together with the ZP.  They first came during the day to survey the house.  To see which point will they use to get into the house.  The cassette explained further that Pearl Tshabalala had also been killed and how she was killed.

MR LAX: We will just give you time to recover.

WITNESS:   I received a telephone call from Major Nkabinde and he told me that he will arrive at my place, together with other policemen, to investigate the matter of my husband's killing.  He arrived with Magaza and Captain Dutton and

MR LAX: /they surveyed

MR LAX: 17A/10 they surveyed the place where my husband was lying and the place where the car was parked and they said they would come back to me.  It was on a Sunday and there was report in the City Press.  It was a report on how a person arrived at Clermont and how he killed the people.  There was also a revelation about this Member of Parliament at KwaZulu.  The person who came to inform me about this got attacked on that day.  There was a telephone call at my home and they said to me, "Mrs Mkhize, we are being shot at".  I called Captain Dutton and within a few minutes he arrived at that scene.  When we arrived there one boy from that family had already been injured.  They were taking him to hospital and they came back with another one and they said I should hide him.  The police escorted us throughout the night until it was morning.  The following day the police called me, telling me the date of the court hearing.  We found Mr Jamile there and Mr Hlophe.  The case was taken from Pinetown because there lots and lots of people.  The school children were deeply hurt about the killing of these prominent people.  Then we went to Supreme Court at Pietermaritzburg.  This case was on for about two years.  One day while we were at the court I went to the toilet.  It was tea break.  Mrs Khuzwayo was accompanying me and I heard a voice calling at me.  The voice said, "Sis Thandi, Sis Thandi".  That was the name I also got while I was harassed.  That was not my real name.  And I looked around.  I looked up and I could realise that it was from the cells.  That person peeped.  It was Msizi Hlophe and he said, "Please don't hate me".  He said, "I was sent to kill Mandla".  He said, "Jamile is also inside".  Mrs Khuzwayo ran outside to call all the

MR LAX: /people that

MR LAX: 17A/14 people that were outside and the police.  The police went to him and they said, "Speak".  We went back.  The case continued until the two men were acquitted - were sentenced.  The other one was sentenced to 22 years for killing and the other one 12 years for pointing out Mr Khuzwayo, but the ZP members who were together with them I don't know their names.  Even now I don't know who they are, but I know because I was told that they were together with the ZPs.  Because the person who came to tell me the story told me again that he was asked by Mr Jamile to be involved in the killings as well, and that when we heard that Mkhize had been killed.