Amnesty Hearings — East London — 1999-11-02

CHAIRPERSON: The Panel is the same as the last matter and two of the representatives are the same.  I would like the third representative to just mention his name on record for the purposes of the record.

MR MALUSI: Thank you Mr Chairperson, I am Tembegi Malusi, I am representing the victims, that is the Paka family and the Cakwe family.

CHAIRPERSON: And the?

MR MALUSI: Cakwe.  Thank you Mr Chairperson.

CHAIRPERSON: Mr Mkonwana, what language would you prefer to use?

XOLISA MKONWANA: I'm going to use language your Honour.

CHAIRPERSON: Are you comfortable with the English?

XOLISA MKONWANA: I am as free in English as I am in Xhosa, your Honour.

CHAIRPERSON: Should at any time during the course of your evidence you feel you want to change, feel free to do so, just inform us that you intend to do so.

XOLISA MKONWANA: (sworn states)

MR NOMPOZOLO: Thank you Mr Chairperson.  Mr Chairperson, there is an affidavit prepared for the applicant and the applicant has indicated that he is fluent in English.  He is going to read from paragraph 3 of the affidavit for the record which will basically be the basis of his evidence.  Thank you.

XOLISA MKONWANA: "I was born on the 11th February 1969 at Queenstown.  I'm the first born of four children.  My father passed away in 1988, he died of natural causes.  My mother is still alive.  I started schooling at Stimoto Machabo Lower Primary School from 1976 to 1979.  I did Sub standard A in 1976 and Standard 2 in 1979.  From 1980 to 1982 I attended school at ...(indistinct) Primary School where I attended Standard 3 to Standard 5.  In 1983 I attended school at Khanya Senior Secondary School where I passed Standard 6.  I then proceeded to Standard 7 but I could not complete my studies due to my involvement in the struggle against apartheid and the homelands system.   Sada was in the former Ciskei.  Khanya Senior Secondary School fell under the then Ciskeian Homeland Government.  In Ciskei there was an undemocratic government, all liberation movements were banned.  At school where I was at then there was no student representative council, the principal was autocratic, towing the line of the homeland government.
	Myself and other comrades then took an initiative of addressing the problems at school due to the oppressive laws that prevailed at the time, we could not operate normally and our arrest and detention became inevitable.  We then became very sensitive to the comrades who betrayed us or people who were working with the homelands system or apartheid government for that matter.  I may mention that at that stage I was only fourteen years old.  Due to pressure of the police and the homeland government I was forced at that age to leave school.  I then dedicated my life to the struggle of liberation of the oppressed masses of South Africa.  It became very difficult for us to join a political organisation.  We then decided to operate as a student organisation or a youth organisation.  Subsequently, other organisations, there came about organisations such as Sada Youth Congress and Sada Residents Association.  We decided to also form the latter organisation because we realised that we could not pursue alone without the involvement of our parents.  We recruited elderly people to the Sada Residents Association but we kept the two organisations separate although the goal was won but the strategy was not going to be the same.  The youth organisation was more militant than the residents organisation.  These were just structures but we were not keeping any records of what was happening due to fear of evidence in court against us so we just operated on the basis of retaining the events on our minds.  We are aligning ourselves to the United Democratic Front referred hereunder as UDF.  We were still planning to affiliate the UDF but most of the leadership was arrested and detained for burning down a rent office and a building belonging to the Department of Public Works.  I was involved in these incidents of arson, I was amongst the people who were arrested for arson and I was detained for 3 days and was discharged without being formally charged.  There was a meeting on the 24th April 1986.  The reason why I know this date precisely is because on the statement on Mrs L S Paka it is alleged that Vuyise Paka was killed on that day.  The meeting was held at 426 Sada Township.  The meeting was about the decline on the membership of the organisation.  It was also raised in that meeting that there was no action.  In the meeting somebody started a song which that said there was an informer nearby.  In Xhosa it means "nganeno impimpi".  Then we were not far from Nomboniso Cakwe's place, there were about a hundred people attending that meeting but there were also about 400 people who were in the street busy toyi-toyiing.  On a previous occasion, but I cannot recall the date where a group of about 50 people, when we went to Nomboniso's place and we informed here that we were aware that she was a police informer.  We asked her to refrain from being an informer.  The following day some of our comrades were arrested and beaten up by the police so we realised that she had informed the police and as such, once more, sold us out.  As stated on paragraph 5 above, we then divided ourselves into two groups and one groups was to have been in charge of the south end section of the township and another the northern part.  The mood then was that we would clean up the township of informers, all informers would be killed.  I was part of the northern part, we moved across and crossed the street known as Big Street and we met a station commander who shot at us.  He then ran to look after his house which was in jeopardy at the time.  He did not hit anyone of our group.  We the other group, that is the northern part of the group, went to Mr Mpetega's house who was believed to be an informer.  There was a group which stopped cars and they were asking for petrol and petrol bombs were made.  We went to Mr Mpetega's place.  There I threw stones but I kept my petrol bombs.  Then we then proceeded to D M Digane's house who was a minister in the homeland government at the time.  We petrol bombed his house, it was burnt down.  We then went to a soldier's house who was a comrade and we hid there.  I knew that Nomboniso was to be killed and that Mr Andrew Parka was to be killed as well.  I was not part of the group that killed them" ...(intervention)

CHAIRPERSON: How did you know they were going to be killed?

XOLISA MKONWANA: I knew that they were going to be killed because there was a circulation of a rumour around the township that they must be dealt with once and for all especially after that occasion when we went to Nomboniso.

CHAIRPERSON: Do you know when that decision was taken, the date?

XOLISA MKONWANA: The date of the decision, it was not taken on that particular day of that meeting, we did not say anything about that on that day but on the day that we went to warn Nomboniso at her house it was then decided and that the day of the meeting, it was ostensibly to talk about the decline in the organisation but ostensibly what was apparently going to be done was to deal with them once and for all.

CHAIRPERSON: Were you in that meeting?

XOLISA MKONWANA: Yes I was in that meeting.

CHAIRPERSON: Were you party to that decision to kill her?

XOLISA MKONWANA: Yes I was, yes.

CHAIRPERSON: And Mr Paka?

XOLISA MKONWANA: Paka as well, I was part of that.

CHAIRPERSON: So while you may not have been in the group that actually done it, you were part of the decision making process?

XOLISA MKONWANA: I beg your pardon?

CHAIRPERSON: You were part of deciding that that must be done?

XOLISA MKONWANA: Yes I was part of the decision to do that.

CHAIRPERSON: You can't remember the date of that meeting?