Human Rights Violation Hearings — Duduza — 1997-02-07

LILLIAN MAMPURA: In May 1992 I was six months expectant and the police arrived at my place during a Wednesday night and they said that they were looking for Lucky. We told them that Lucky was not in the house and they asked us where he had gone to.  We stay at my grand mother's place so we told them that Luck had gone to my mother's place.  The following day they came back and three black people were driving in a combi and they were members of Khumalo's gang, Bishop Khumalo from Tokoza.  The police would come to our place and assault us looking for Lucky and they would tell us that Lucky is a comrade and that Lucky did not want to let other people lead their lives normally.  We told them that Lucky was not there and he was quite scared to come back to the grandmother's place because Khumalo would come day in and day out and on this particular day Lucky was coming from Everest and he was walking through Khaki Street in June when I was seven months expectant at the time, when a white car that passed by and they shot him whilst driving by. His friend from Khaki Street took him and brought him to our home and we took him to hospital.
 When we asked as to who shot him they did not know the answer and at the time it was discovered that Khumalo's gang had gone to the Natalspruit Hospital to check as to whether Lucky had died or not.  He was discharged so that he could run away from the gang.  He stayed at home and the police came looking for him once more and my grand mother told them that Lucky is a student and he was getting disturbed by all this rigmarole and was in standard 10 at the time.  They kept on looking for him until they got him when he was asleep on this particular night.  They asked him what his name was to which he replied Lucky Sibusiso and the said they were looking for Lucky Puna and he said he was Lucky Sibusiso and had dreadlocks on his head before then but he had undone them so they could not identify him.  They went to ask what he looked like without dreadlocks and told him that he wore an earring on his left ear and he had been shot on the foot. They came into the house saying that they were looking for a person who had been shot on the foot and we asked them as to how they knew this, and they said that they had been told.
 They took Lucky, this particular boer was Joshua and I told them to leave Lucky alone as he was a student and Joshua assaulted me and pushed me aside.  They did not want Lucky who was in his pyjamas to get dressed and they took him away by force for about five days to Tokoza Police station where they wanted to enquire as to why he was arrested but the police couldn't give a satisfactory answer, they took him to Vereeneging, they gave him electric shocks and tortured him quite a number of times and when he came back his right toe was very swollen and he could not put on any shoes.
 His life had become unstable now because he had to keep on running away. They would come early in the morning, Peter, Matiftif, Jabulani as well as another two men and they would come and kick the doors, break everything and demand to see Lucky.  I asked Khumalo whether they were policemen, why were they looking for Lucky. They said they were police also and they were looking for Lucky and we asked what is it that makes them look for Lucky.  They said Lucky had gone to Lusaka and he could use a gun so he was a threat to them.  
 Then on the 30th of July the boers came kicking all the doors of the three back rooms, they broke my mother's back door to search the house, they broke the ceiling in search of Lucky and got into my grand mother's bedroom and stole some money. During that same night they went to my mother's place at Everest where they did the very same thing that they did at my grand mother's place because they kept on saying that Lucky was probably a Sotsi and that is why his home was so beautiful and luxurious probably earning a living as a sotsi.  We told them that Lucky a student and was also the president of the SRC but they did not seem to believe that he was a student and Khumalo would come together with the police and the boers not caring what damage they caused there.  My younger sister had to run away from home because they were also assaulted during all those raids.  I stayed with my grand mother and they kept on coming until December, and it had become a usual occurrence for them to come and assault us and kick down the doors and do all sorts of funny things.
 Then on the 3rd of January my child was five months old and as we were still sitting there we heard some gun shots from Nkake Street, I was with my baby and I saw about 15 boers and four black people who got into the house saying they were looking for Lucky and they told me that he had shot seven people at Nkake Street, they assaulted me while I was holding the baby and they kicked me and hit me with the but of a gun.  Amongst those boers there were one called Russel, and they continued hitting me with the butts of the guns and slapped me across the face until my feet were swollen.  Lucky didn't stay at our house then because he was scared of the boers coming to raid from time to time.
 On the 20th of January Lucky was coming back from Everest, his life had become very unstable because he was now afraid of Khumalo and his gang and most of the youngsters had to abandon their homes and seek some cover in order to run away from Khumalo and Lucky came home and said that he wanted to sleep peacefully because he could not sleep. H went away and returned at about two. He used to like jewellery and that day he came and washed his tackies, he took his chains and necklaces and cleaned them and said that he was tired of running around looking for cover and just wanted his life to be back to normal.  And he said he wanted to come back home and if they wanted to kill him they would have to do so because they used to tell my grand mother that wherever they find him they would shoot him and kill him.  
 They went outside with my youngest brother and another friend.  As they were standing there he said he wanted to go and see his other friend at the third house my place when a red combi appeared, I do have a photo of it, and inside the combi was Peter who pointed at him and said that this was the man they were looking for.
 When Peter pointed at him he tried to run and he ran towards another house No 1616, when he tried to jump the fence the boer shot him and he fell and he was still alive.  Another lady tended to him and lifted his head up and asked him what had happened and he said he had been shot.  When we tried to get closer all the boers surrounded his body and they said that we should not get closer. Another boy came to take photos and they also shot him. They refused to let us come closer when we said that he was alive and we wanted to take him to hospital and at that time our phone lines were cut off so that we couldn't communicate with the outside world.
 We heard over the radio that they had killed a robber and my brother was neither a robber or a thug.  He stayed there for about two hours lying there and died when my father approached.  When he died they would not allow us to come next to him and did not want us to touch him.  He had R500 in his pockets as well as some rings on his fingers and they flatly refused us permission to come closer and take those things from him.  We opened up a case later on but nothing ever happened about it.  One gentleman told us that you cannot report a policeman to another policeman.   
 I cried so much ever since that I have been diagnosed as having depression and Lucky left a six month pregnant girl friend who now has a child.