Amnesty Hearings — Boksburg — 1998-06-25

MAVIS PHUNGULA: Let me put it this way, in April, that was on the 25th, it was around quarter to nine in the morning, two white men came and they unhooked a trailer from a car and they parked it in front of the shop.
	When they came, this white lady said they should be careful because there was a brick in front of the car.  They were not really looking at us, they just said thank you, removed the brick and slowly parked the trailer in front of the shop.
	I asked them in Zulu why they were parking this thing in front of the shop and nobody answered.  I thought they did not understand because I was talking to them in Zulu.  They then got into the car and left.
	I looked at the time and I realised it was quarter to nine.  Then they left.  This white lady with whom I was working, I actually said to her, asked her why she was not asking them why they were parking it in front of it, and I thought they may have been selling something.
	The trailer was not locked, but it was just closed.  I went back into the shop.  It was on the Monday.  You see I am working at a supermarket.  I came back to the outside, I just had a feeling that there was something about this trailer, I wanted to open it because it was not locked, but I heard a knock, I feared and I did not open it.
	At nine o'clock, I think it was about five to nine, I went back to the door, looked at the trailer and got back into the shop again and after a while, I heard some bang.  I did not know what was happening.
	I screamed in the shop, it was like the whole earth was opening up.  I did not know what was happening.  I realised that I was alone in the shop.  As I was screaming for help, nobody was responding.
	I wanted to see, I could not because shrapnels of bottles were in my eyes.  As I was screaming for help, I can really say I was moving about like a blind person, feeling and touching things as I was moving about.
	I jumped some of things like the mealie meel bags that were there and some people were laying in the shop, quiet.  They seemed to have been laying on a wet surface.

MR SINJATSI: Did anybody from your shop lose their lives?

MAVIS PHUNGULA: Yes, many people died in the shop.

MR SINJATSI: How many, just for the record, how many people lost their lives in that shop?

MAVIS PHUNGULA: I would not be able to numerate them, because I could not see, but I did try.  I was trying to find balance, trying to get outside.

MR SINJATSI: The white lady you were referring to, was she your employer?

MAVIS PHUNGULA: No.  No, she too was an employee.

MR SINJATSI: What happened to her?

MAVIS PHUNGULA: She was in the toilet when the bomb exploded.  Some people must have picked her up in the toilet where she was laying.

MR SINJATSI: Is she still alive?

MAVIS PHUNGULA: Yes, she is still alive.

MR SINJATSI: Do you know Leynette Vicky Labuschagne?

MAVIS PHUNGULA: I do not understand what she is all about.

MR SINJATSI: Apparently she was also injured or she died from that explosion?  That is the white lady?

ADV GCABASHE: Repeat the name.

MR SINJATSI: Leynette Vicky Labuschagne.

MAVIS PHUNGULA: I would not say whether I know her or not, as I have indicated I could not see.

MR SINJATSI: After this explosion, you were taken to hospital?

MAVIS PHUNGULA: I went to the outside on my own.  I was still trying to explain.
	I could not actually move and get out of the shop.  A certain lady helped push me out of the shop.

MR SINJATSI: What injuries did you sustain?

MAVIS PHUNGULA: My eardrum burst.  I had a burst eardrum.

MR SINJATSI: Did you receive treatment from hospital on the same day?

MAVIS PHUNGULA: The treatment that I received in hospital, was reference to the baby that I was carrying in my stomach.  The heart beat of the baby was not normal at the time.
	That is the kind of treatment that I received.  They wanted to operate on me, because they indicated that the heart beat of the baby was not normal, if was feint and after four hours, the baby's heart beat started picking up and the baby could start moving now.

MR SINJATSI: Were you eventually able to deliver the baby on its normal time, that is nine months?

MAVIS PHUNGULA: Yes, that is correct.

MR SINJATSI: In other words the baby was delivered in June?

MAVIS PHUNGULA: That is correct.

MR SINJATSI: Did you after this bomb blast, undergo any operation in respect of your eardrum?

MAVIS PHUNGULA: Yes.

MR SINJATSI: And how are you feeling now, are you completely healed?

MAVIS PHUNGULA: No, I have not healed completely.  My right ear is not functioning.

MR SINJATSI: You listened to the applicants who led evidence for amnesty the whole of this week and last week, is that correct?

MAVIS PHUNGULA: Yes, that is correct.

MR SINJATSI: What is your attitude towards them, they now are before this Commission to ask for amnesty.  Are you able to reconcile yourself with the situation?

MAVIS PHUNGULA: Chairperson, I would like to explain something here.  I don't understand anything about these amnesty applications that they have submitted.
	If I were to be given a chance to ask them, the people who were pushing the trailer in front of the shop, I don't know whether you can allow me to ask them questions.

MR SINJATSI: You are free to speak.

MAVIS PHUNGULA: It is a pity I don't know their names.  I would like to ask you two people, who put the trailer in front of the shop, did you not feel pain or feel sorry for me, you realised that I was pregnant.
	You had women and children and you did not care about a pregnant woman like myself.  Did you not perhaps think about identifying another target for example, if one of your wives is pregnant and something similar is done to her, what would you say?  Did you not feel sorry for me, pregnant as I was at the time, please answer me.

MR SINJATSI: I hear what your concerns are, but I just want you to assist us here.  Are you able to reconcile yourself with that situation?  I know your feelings, I know it is very difficult.

CHAIRPERSON: Let me help her.  The applicants have come to this Committee to apply for amnesty.  That means they want to ask this Committee to pardon them and that is what this whole application is about.
	The question your Attorney asked you, can you live with that, or what is your attitude towards that application because if they are granted the amnesty, those who would be in jail now, would be released and those who haven't been tried and sentenced, would be exonerated.

MAVIS PHUNGULA: Chairperson, I understand what you are saying.  What I am saying here is that I have no forgiveness for these people, because of what they did.
	I would have liked that they not be granted amnesty, they should serve their sentences.  We have lost, we have lost so much.  Many people have lost their cars because of this, because of politics.
	For example, if I were one of the AWB supporters, what would they do because I was not a member of any political organisation.  They were sent for political reasons to do what they did.  If that was to be the case, I just want to say here that if I listen carefully to what they were saying, they are saying they did not target people, but they wanted to derail the elections.
	They would have targeted other places like banks, etc, and not the taxi ranks, that is if they were not targeting black people.

MR SINJATSI: Has this incident in any way effected your family, not particularly yourself, but your husband and perhaps your children?

MAVIS PHUNGULA: They were effected, very much effected, because my children were no longer the same after the shop was bombed.
	They were concerned about their future, the possibility of losing their mother.

MR SINJATSI: I have got no further questions Mr Chairman.

MR SINJATSI: .