Human Rights Violation Hearings — Cradock — 1996-02-10

XOLISWA ETHEL MBOYA: Yes, it was unbanned.

REV XUNDU: In other words it was not a crime to carry around the ANC flag?

XOLISWA ETHEL MBOYA: No, it was not a crime.

REV XUNDU: You said that you don't know who these policemen were?

XOLISWA ETHEL MBOYA: No, I don't know them.

REV XUNDU: Thank you Mr Chairperson.

BONGANI FINCA: June Crichton?

JUNE CRICHTON: Can you hear me?  Can you hear me Miss Mboya?

XOLISWA ETHEL MBOYA: Yes, I can hear you.

JUNE CRICHTON: There are two questions that I have for you.  The first one when you said that the police were constantly coming to the house looking for your brother, were they SAP police or were they Municipal Police, were they the White and Coloured police that you were talking about later on in your testimony?  May I have a translation please?
 Did you hear my question? I haven't had an answer to the question yet.

BONGANI FINCA: Just take that thing and adjust it to Xhoza.

JUNE CRICHTON: So, has she heard the question?  I haven't had an answer translated for me Bongani.   ... Municipal
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police, what kind of police were they that were harassing you?  They are not translating.

XOLISWA ETHEL MBOYA: Yes, they were Municipal police.

JUNE CRICHTON: The second thing that I wanted to say to you was that it is clear that the police played games with people, that they sent you from one place to the other, knowing full well what the answer was as to where your brother was.  Was that something that happened to other people as well in your experience?

XOLISWA ETHEL MBOYA: Yes, it was happening to other people, because the police knew where my brother was and they knew where the other people were.

JUNE CRICHTON: Thank you Mr Chairman.

BONGANI FINCA: Mrs Xoliswa Mboya, in your statement you said that at home as a family, you laid a charge.  Can you please tell us what happened in court?

XOLISWA ETHEL MBOYA: We didn't know exactly what happened, we didn't go to court, we didn't go in front of the Magistrate.   They just told us that we have to go to court, but they didn't come and tell us the dates, up until today.

BONGANI FINCA: Thank you.  Did you have any attorney, any family attorney?

XOLISWA ETHEL MBOYA: No, we did not have any attorney.

BONGANI FINCA: What were the reasons that you did not have a legal representative?

XOLISWA ETHEL MBOYA: Are you asking our attorney or the attorney for the struggle?  On our behalf, we couldn't afford a legal representative and we didn't have an attorney from the struggle.

BONGANI FINCA: Thank you Miss Mboya, you gave us a testimony about an incident which happened in 1992.
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 I think it is five years from then, but the way you gave us the testimony it shows that you still have pain inside you and we could see in your face that you still feel the pain.
 It is our aim in this Commission that the people involved in these incidents, would come here when people are giving testimony so that they could see how painful the incidents were.  
 What we see in them is that they go to the Amnesty Committee, asking for amnesty and others go there without feeling or knowing how painful this thing is to the people.
 Again, I think that the story you have presented in front of us is similar to the one  Mrs Lizzie James gave before you.  The way in which the courts were not responsible and respecting the cases of the people who were fighting for liberation.  I would like to repeat what I said before that it is our hope that those who are in the Justice Department now, are listening to these stories and the way in which the Justice Department has shown that it cares for the people.
 We thank you and we will try by all means to look at the matter you have presented in front of us and we would like the death of your brother not to look as if he was just a dog.
 If there are any other things we would like to know from you, our investigators will come to you and collect some information, thank you.