Human Rights Violation Hearings — Soweto — 1996-07-26

MR NGWENYA: Well, by 1975 TZ had finished one year of a BSc degree in Kwalazini University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland.  He then disappeared.  Rumour had it that he was in Russia. It was only in 1981 that we discovered that he had joined the ANC. We had been told that he was killed in Russia and we contacted the ANC in Swaziland.  They
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confirmed that he was alive and arranged for me and my wife to see him in Swaziland.
 From 1975 onwards there were constant night raids by the security police on my house. I was also interrogated in John Vorster Square about his whereabouts.  My wife and I met TZ on a number of occasions in Swaziland and Mozambique.  We supported him with clothes and money.  
 By 1981 we knew he was a commander in MK, Umkhonto weSizwe.  During this period I paid for his marriage in Mozambique. He was married in a catholic church and had a white wedding.  They were blessed with a child, a daughter who is now roughly aged 12, and at boarding school in Harare. It is a multi-racial school.
 At one stage TZ was arrested and tried in Swaziland and deported to Lusaka.  I visited him in detention in Swaziland at the time.  After he was deported to Swaziland, he came back to both Swaziland and Mozambique, where my wife and I continued to meet him from time to time.
 In 1989 we heard he was in detention in Lusaka.  The South African Council of Churches gave my wife and I two air tickets to proceed to Lusaka.  In Lusaka I met Mr Nzo, then secretary-general of the African National Congress.  Mr Mkobi, treasurer-general, Mr Joe Mhlantha, chief of intelligence and Mr Zuma, Jacob.  
 We told them we had come to find out why our son was in detention.  They told us that our son was not detained. Of course this was proved afterwards to have been a lie.  The ANC brought TZ to us in our hotel.  TZ asked us to withdraw our request to the International Red Cross because I had already given the matter over to the International Red Cross for investigation.  TZ told us this was a minor domestic 
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matter, which would soon be settled.  
 Of course we wanted to find out from this gentlemen here, whom I have earlier mentioned, why our son was in detention.  Their explanation I still repeat, they emphasised that he was not detained.  He had come only for a routine report and enquiry and he would soon be released and join his family in Mozambique.  There was nothing serious that our son had committed.
 In 1989 we heard he was in detention again in Lusaka.  His wife phoned us, of course.  The South African Council of Churches - I am sorry.  I am making a mistake here.  Didn't I read this?  I did.  Sorry, where I am is here.
 After we had been to Lusaka and came back home, six months later his wife phoned me to say TZ was now in an ANC cell and in solitary confinement and that he was being tortured.  At my expense, because the SACC could no longer finance me to fly over to Lusaka, I bought my own air ticket and could not afford the second one for my wife.   I reached Lusaka by air and was received by Dr Ralph Nipijima at the airport.  This time no ANC official from headquarters would see me.  I persistently asked to see Mr Nzo and Mr Jacob Zuma, and this was all in vain.   At the time Zuma was in Swaziland I was told and would soon return to Lusaka. On his return from Swaziland to Lusaka he still would not see me.   I got to his headquarters, called the Green House.  Of course to the young cadres this was a notorious place and they actually made it clear to me that I was not supposed to get there, you know, get near.  They gave me directions, but told me that I should not reveal their names, that they had given me directions to go to the Green House in Lusaka.
 On getting there, I really found the place. I found the SOWETO HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
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place and got there.  We met a certain Mr Sindiso Mfenyana who was a kind of a jailer, I would say.  I explained who I was and whom I had come to see.    Now he told me that I would not see my son, TZ unless Mr Zuma gives permission and Mr Zuma was away on official business in Swaziland.  From Swaziland he would proceed to Harare.  I gave this gentleman the capsules which my wife had given me, capsules that would build him.  They were a nutrition and I gave him also a packet of cigarettes, 200. I knew that he smoked Stuyvesant Mild, and left without seeing my son.
 From there it was a question of going to headquarters daily, waiting for Mr Zuma to come back.  On his return Mr Zuma would not see me personally when I got to Green House. He spoke to me through this gentleman Sindisiwayo and told me that he would send my son to the hotel, which thing they never did.
 I waited and waited and altogether, I remained in Lusaka for 18 days, and in the 18 days I hadn't seen my son. At headquarters, ANC headquarters I pressed to see Mr Nzo.  Mr Nzo would send a message through his secretary, that he was too busy.  
 Young boys who came from Soweto were even very sympathetic to me and waylaid Mr Nzo.  So one morning as he came into his office by car, the boys tipped me and told me Babba, here is Mr Nzo coming in. I rushed into his office. Again met his secretary, Mogalo, and on asking him that I would like to see Mr Nzo, he went in, came back to me and said Nzo is too busy and would not see me.
 I had gone to Lusaka at great expense and my money was running out. I had left the hotel and I was taken over by a family, a Catholic family far out of Lusaka.  That's where
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I would sleep and have my breakfast and soon thereafter, I was again on the way, trying to meet these gentlemen, trying to plead with these gentlemen, to allow me to see my son.
 When Mrs Sisulu and Sister Ngway in Lusaka, I appealed to Mrs Sisulu to plead with these people to allow me to see my son. Nothing came out of it.
 One night on television I saw Mr Oliver Thambo coming back from a conference in Tanzania.  He was at State House with Dr Kaunda, and I thought now I will have an opportunity to meet this gentleman. The following morning, early the following morning I went to the ANC headquarters, to meet him. He wasn't there, he was at State House. I walked because my money had run out, I walked to State House to meet them. It was such a distance from that morning until I got to the State House, enquiring where he was, walking on foot, the conference was over.  I could not, I hadn't seen Mr Oliver Thambo. I was trying to waylay him, of course.
 On my return I was picked up by someone and I got to Lusaka, where my new tenant - sorry, would pick me up.  So whenever it was morning, I had breakfast and these people, I would travel with these people as far as Lusaka, remain at ANC headquarters, trying to plead my way through and this gentleman would not allow me.
 When my son was detained - this is his photo - was a healthy, strong young man.  Of course, when he came out I am told he was a bag of bones.  Around December Rev Frank Chikane phoned me to say my son had been released by the ANC and was very sick.  I should fly over, he said, because my son needed my moral support.  It was very strange.  Very sick, a bag of bones, instead of being taken to hospital, he is thrown into the street, to look after himself.  
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 This is what the military of the ANC had to say about him, after his death:
"A tribute to Muziwake Ngwenya.
 We of Umkhonto weSizwe, the glorious army of our people, salute you.  Dear Comrade Muzi, in doing so we warmly remember you as one of our young and outstanding commanders.  We remember your efficiency and competence, both as a commander and chief of staff, of our camps in Angola.  We recall with sheer pride and admiration how you transformed qualitatively the training and administration of these camps.  We shall ever treaure the meticulous and lucid nature of your reports and analysis.  We shall never forget your theoretical and practical contributions to our armed struggle.  Your thoughts and ideas will always be enshrined in the annals of the history of Umkhonto weSizwe.  When we appointed you the commander of the Natal region of our country, there was a clear and dramatic change in the nature of operations.  The operations multiplied and under your command Durban earned the title of the most bombed city in South Africa.  
 Commander Muzi, we gave you this task, knowing fully the hazards of carrying out operations against the racist army.
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You performed your task with distinction and remarkable courage.  As a consequence of your daring work, the enemy earmarked you for assassination and liquidation. But all these dangers to your live never deterred you from fulfilling the tasks of our revolution. During the period of your command, the graph of our operations went up.  With Natal, occupying a leading position.  Commander Muzi, we remember you as an outstanding strategist, who contributed to the military strategy and doctrine of this movement. Your views and clear thinking will always stand out as lifelong contributions to our armed struggle.  Young as you were, you were one of those who displayed leadership qualities which were discernible for all to see.  Your relentless drive and your stamina for work and your zeal for positive achievements will always be remembered and will act as a firm foundation for our inevitable victories.  Umkhonto weSizwe is conveying heartfelt condolences to Babba and Mamma Ngwenya, to Muzi's wife, Thabesele, to his daughter Lindi, his brothers and sisters and to the in-laws, declares that Muzi, a son and husband respectively, was an inseparable and integral part of a big
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family.
 We know that his untimely death at such an early age has shattered you.  We are also deeply saddened by the loss of one so young and talented, who has left a gap which will be difficult to fill.  We are proud that Ngwenyas produced this giant and gallant fighter.  He became what he was because of the way you brought him up.  To the youth of our country and to our army we say, pick up his arm and intensify the struggle until the racist regime is vanquished.
 We dip our revolutionary banner in fond memory of this gallant warrior and we say ..."
This is in Zulu:
"Farewell, farewell, hero, heroes."
In Sesotho:
"Rest in peace, Tamizulu.
 To the Nygwenya family we say ..."
In Zulu:
"Be comfortable, what has happened we know is painful.
 The struggle continues and victory is certain."
Signed by Joe Modise, Chris Hani, chief of staff, Joe Modise, army commander.
 What I ask of the TRC is the following.  From the investigation unit I want to know why it is that TZ was detained by the ANC.  Was he given a chance to defend himself in a court or council in the ANC?  Where was he
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detained.  Was he in solitary confinement?  I know he was.  If he was, what rights did he have.  Was he tortured?  If so, by whom and why?  Why was he not allowed - I am sorry.  Why was I not allowed by Mr Zuma to see my son for 18 days.  Even under the most cruel regime, apartheid regime, people were allowed visitors.  The ANC doctor was Dr Prehm, a junior Dr Mpijima and somewhere it is said - well, I will leave that to my wife handle, he had Aids. It is a question mark.  Who poisoned my son and why?  Who poisoined my son and why?  In the media it is reported that he was poisoned.
 Soon after his release he died, four days thereafter.  He had ingested a poison and my wife will mention what poison.  There were very few people who saw him after his release.   It was Dr Ralph Mpijima, my wife will mention that and the names of those people, but one of them was Dr Ralph Mpijima.  
 Now the media, Africa Confidential has this to say, that is the media now.  I have just read the tribute by the ANC high military command.  The media says, African Confidential:
"TZ is a highly respected commander. One of the 1976 generation. He rose rapidly through the ranks to become the first chief of staff in the important Katenga camp in Southern Angola.  Working with Commissar Frances Nelly, an AS and SACP lumina Prof Jack Simons.  In 1980 TZ was delegated to the extended meeting of the central committee in Berlin.  TZ's rise continued with his appointment in 1983, of the Natal Military Command.  TZ
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chaired some sessions of the important internal reconstruction commissar."
Now at this juncture I would like to hand over to my wife on my left.