Amnesty Hearings — Durban — 1998-12-02

KONAKWAKHE ELLIOT SHANGASE: Yes, I am referring to him.  The first meeting, he was present, Mr Luthuli that is, where we were discussing this matter that they should stop this because this will bring some enmity between us and amongst the residents of the area.
	The second meeting and the third meeting, the third one unfortunately I was not in attendance, but my brother was there.  But the second one I was present.    We were discussing these matters of evil matters that they were conducting in the area.
	We felt this was getting out of hand, but they did not take notice of that.  When we were discussing in these meetings, we will have elderly folks coming to attend, not them.  They were not disciplined children, these ones, you could not tell them what to do.
	They would render the area ungovernable.

MS THABETE: Who is Linda?

KONAKWAKHE ELLIOT SHANGASE: This Linda came to the meeting, to the second meeting.  He came in and stood up, exhibiting signs of not being obedient.  He will not even listen to our requests to try to get him seated.
	He was busy using his handkerchief, blowing his handkerchief around the face, he was feared.  The elderly people from his area could not address him in any way.  The third meeting, I was not present, but then I did hear as to what happened, and issues that were discussed.
	Again, even at that meeting, they did not bother about the gist of the meeting.

MR LAX: Sorry, who is the they that did not bother?

KONAKWAKHE ELLIOT SHANGASE: I am referring to Zakhele and Linda.  They were a known gang, known as Sinamandla.  Linda would carry a big stick and walk around with it.
	At any time when they would want to rape a girl, one would scream and say Sinamandla, then we would know that is a signal that they are about to do something, that they are up to mischief.  Even this one, who is sitting right in front of the Commission, he would get the girls to call him Mageba, as a Chief.  He was feared, very much so, in his area.
	What I am trying to bring to your attention is that that was the beginning of all this.  Then on the 26th, it was around the 26th of December, we were celebrating and the mood was jubilant since it was Christmas time.  They came in and they said to the reverend, the reverend was making noise and they assaulted the reverend thereafter.
	We never experienced that mood again, because they stopped it.

MS THABETE: Just slow down so that we can listen to the translation as well.  Please proceed.

KONAKWAKHE ELLIOT SHANGASE: What started this violence, was when they found Mtembu's son at a bus stop and they asked him if he was a man or what, but even though he is a man, he is not a man who was fit to fight them, harassing the young man there and they started torturing him and he ran away.
	He went to his peers and told and related to the peers what happened, that he was tortured and harassed.  Then the boys did not report the matter any further, subsequent to what they were told by this young man.
	They went back to the road that they are referring to, these ones.  That was the start of the fight, they kept fighting all the way up towards our area.  That is when and where Xude got shot, Shosi.  As Linda is repudiating this, Linda's brother, he is the one who shot that boy.
	They fled, our boys that is.  They went to report to the induna that they have already launched an attack and they were missing one of their members, Xude that is.  It was late in the afternoon.
	The following morning, it was on Monday, we went out in search of Xude and we discovered him dead.  He was taken to Inanda police station, (indistinct).  We went to report the matter and the police came to fetch the corps.
	We therefore went to search the attackers and as he is referring to six, it was not around six, it was around four.  August, I am not too sure, but at about past four, it was still during the day.
	What he explained ...

CHAIRPERSON: When you say four, do you mean in the morning or in the afternoon?

KONAKWAKHE ELLIOT SHANGASE: In the morning.  Four in the morning.  When they entered, when our people entered, Linda was by the door.  He is the one who told the people inside the house that things are bad, and people fled.
	He fled with (indistinct) Mkonzene.  I am not too sure about the ladies, because we did not take notice of them.  Linda's father was the last one to get out.
	As he was approaching the gate, and they were running after him, (indistinct) Mkonzene, I don't know other ladies, unfortunately they got hold of this old man and they killed him.
	After they killed him, Sithole approached us and he was at Luthuli's premises when they came.  They found him there, and he was also shot.  They went back.

CHAIRPERSON: We heard that also a young boy from the family Zulu, was killed.  Do you know anything about that?

KONAKWAKHE ELLIOT SHANGASE: Yes.  When they were going back, we knew that we had already revenged.  I will count myself as having been there, although I was not in person there, but we were about the same group.
	When we were coming back from the other side, we went to report the matter to the induna that we have already committed this act, and that we have already killed people in Bolushe.
	Linda was discovered by the school children.  The school kids saw Linda crying, not that he was not there, he was not present.  He is telling a blatant lie if he says he was not present.
	There was the struggle now of one group running after the other, killing and the other one revenging.  Now, that was the situation that prevailed.  But they were known as the gang called Sinamandla, not anything political.
	We were trying to defend ourselves or our area.  There was a girl who got pregnant as a result of being raped by this gang.

MS THABETE: Slow down.

KONAKWAKHE ELLIOT SHANGASE: They are lying to an extent that I cannot speak slower than this.

MS THABETE: Please try to speak slower.  Can you repeat your last sentence, about the lamp.

KONAKWAKHE ELLIOT SHANGASE: When they say and claim that they were a political group, they are lying through their teeth.  There are kids from our area, girls, or they are fathering kids there in our area as a result of them raping the girls.
	They once got to a certain house, by my house, and raped a child there and gave the mother of the child, a lamp that she must see this whole act that is going on.  If she did not want to hold a lamp in her hands, and see fully the act of rape, how it is conducted, then they would assault her.
	The poor lady had to hold a lamp in her hand and witness the rape of her child.  As time went on and matured, the whole thing kept intensifying.  There were people who suddenly were destitute, they did not have straight places where they were residing in.  It so happened that one day after about two months to three months, they stopped buses which had in them, abroad, school children.  I am talking about Madada Mission, where there are a number of schools found.
	There were school children who were coming back and once they identified them, they screamed beyond their voices and some fled to report to us, then we had to arm ourselves and we rushed to the scene and we discovered that they had let go of the buses and they said they were looking for Fu Moilase and they did not find him.

MS THABETE: Sorry Mr Shangase, can you just wrap up and get to how the place of Mthetwa was attacked?  I think you have given us the background of what they were doing.  Can you tell us how it came about that the area of Mthetwa was attacked by them?

KONAKWAKHE ELLIOT SHANGASE: I wanted to touch slightly about the Zulu.

MS THABETE: You can proceed.

KONAKWAKHE ELLIOT SHANGASE: When we found them there, we went behind the butcher store and now they were fighting about gaining entry into the butchery to see if there were people from Ngonweni.  He was present at that incident, this one.

CHAIRPERSON: Do you mean the applicant?