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

CHAIRPERSON: Could we now call Mary Mafa to the witness stand, please?   Mary, can you hear me properly? I would like to welcome you to the Commission and thank you for having agreed to share with us your story, but before you do that could I ask you please to take the oath.  Will you stand?

MARY MAFA: (Duly sworn, states).

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.  Thank you, you may be seated. I have asked Mr Hugh Lewin on my right-hand side to assist you with your statement.

MR LEWIN: Mrs Mafa, we would like to say thank you very much for coming.  The story you tell is of your son and the tragic incident that took place in 1986.  I think the best thing would be if you could just in your own time, feeling very relaxed, tell us that story.  Thank you.

MARY MAFA: My child was arrested in - he was 16 years.  At the age of 17 he was sentenced to Robben Island.  When he came back he spent one year and eight months and then he left for a funeral at Mdeni, a funeral of a friend. Now on his way to the funeral he took Dr Asfat's car, but when he came back from the funeral, Dr Asfat's car was full of other people and he wanted to run with other comrades. But two men called him, they said come and ride with us.  Then they
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drove together. Now at the bridge, the King Molatsane and the Cladi location, comrades were staying in there.  They started pulling him out of the car.  Now that man said he is a spy and he said take him, he thinks he is clever because he comes from Robben Island.  They started throwing my son with stones and they stabbed him. 
 This car proceeded to the funeral.  They washed their hands and they ate, they enjoyed themselves, forgetting about this other person.  As they were eating, his friends asked where is Martin, and they said no, he is around the people here, he is eating.  Martin on the other side was being assaulted by people, they were stabbing him, until in Cladi where he fell next to a church.  They finished him off there.  They took big stones, they crushed his head and they necklaced him.
 Now this boy, the thing that puzzles me, this boy has never had any clash with Martin and he had never been involved in a fight with Martin. In other words they are just, he was fighting for the words Robben Island, Martin has been to Robben Island, he left him here. I don't understand why would he kill a person just for the fact that he had been to Robben Island.  That will be the end of my story.

MR LEWIN: Thank you, Mrs Mafa. Could I just take you back slowly over some of the points.  You mention that he was sentenced to the Island when he was 17.  If I work it out correctly, that must have been in 1981, was it?

MARY MAFA: It was in 1980.

MR LEWIN: He was arrested in 1980 and then sentenced the next year or arrested in 1979?

MARY MAFA: He was arrested in 1979 and sentenced in 1980.
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MR LEWIN: And what was the charge?

MARY MAFA: Sabotage.

MARY MAFA: Sabotage and he was sentenced to five years?

MARY MAFA: He was sentenced for five years. And what organisation was he a part of?

MARY MAFA: He belonged to Azapo.

MR LEWIN: To Azapo?

MARY MAFA: Yes.

MR LEWIN: And was there any specific actions of sabotage that he was charged with?

MARY MAFA: I don't know, but he was charged with sabotage and he was sent to Robben Island.

MR LEWIN: And served his full sentence then?

MARY MAFA: Yes.

MR LEWIN: Now in your statement you mention the group of young men who attacked him and pulled him out of the car. You have also mentioned a specific name of somebody.

MARY MAFA: He is Sipiwe Tusi.  Did I say Simon?

MR LEWIN: Sorry?

MARY MAFA: I mentioned the name of Sipiwe Tusi.

MR LEWIN: Yes.  Did you know him before, do you know him personally yourself?

MARY MAFA: No, even today I don't know him.

MR LEWIN: How do you get the name then?

MARY MAFA: No, in that car there were two women.  There were two women in the car and Martin was in their company and another boy called Ballacks. Now this boy talked about the night vigil.

MR LEWIN: Okay. You say Ballacks is from Diepkloof?

MARY MAFA: Yes, he is from Diepkloof. At the time he was staying in Diepkloof, I don't know where does he stay at
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this moment.

MR LEWIN: Do you have any names for the two women?

MARY MAFA: Yes, I have their names, Lorato Munaghotla and Joyce Houtkop.

MR LEWIN: Right. I see that, thank you.  And do you know where the girls now are?

MARY MAFA: Joyce Houtkop stays in Dlamini and Lorato Munaghotla stayed somewhere in Dobsonville.

MR LEWIN: Now these people with Tusi, who actually was responsible for killing your son, none of them had then been to Robben Island themselves?

MARY MAFA: Among all these people, not even one of them has been to Robben Island.  The people who were with Martin were two women, and women don't go to Robben Island and the driver we don't know and Ballacks has never been to Robben Island.

MR LEWIN: No, sorry, I mean, the people who attacked him and killed him, they had not been to the Island?

MARY MAFA: No, they had never been to Robben Island.

MR LEWIN: Why do you think they felt so strongly?

MARY MAFA: When they took him out of the car they were fighting. It was a fight between UDF and Azapo, they had been to a funeral. Now this boy said this one thinks he is clever because he has been to Robben Island, take him away.  He was together with another group of boys. He used very small children to kill people.

MR LEWIN: Could you explain then the significance of the funeral?  You give the name Sipho Ngomizulu, who was being buried.  Who was he?

MARY MAFA: Sipho Ngomizulu was a member of Azapo. Because he was a member of the Azapo, as Azapo member he had been to a
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funeral, that is Sipho.

MR LEWIN: But what I would ask is, I am trying to understand why the passions were so strong, that they would lead to an incident so terrible as this.

MR LEWIN: They were, the UDF was fighting. I don't know why they were fighting, I am a woman, I don't know nothing.  But they were fighting and we read in the newspapers that UDF has committed such-and-such a thing.

MR LEWIN: You also mention in your statement that after killing him, they changed their story and started talking about Qibasa.

MARY MAFA: Yes, after killing him, taking huge stones, crushing him, necklacing him, they asked him why do you kill him. They said no, he said no, this man is a Qibasa, he was lying actually, because when he took him out of the car he said he thinks he is clever, because he is from Robben Island, but now as his body was burning, people were asking him the reason. He said he was a Qibasa member.  He wanted to draw the people's attention. Nobody helped my child.  The whole tyre finished him off.  Nobody helped him because he was regarded as a rapist, as a murderer and a member of Qibasa.

MR LEWIN: Now was anything done about this by the police, afterwards, was there ever a report, an investigation?

MARY MAFA: When you reported such things, they would do the same thing to you.

MR LEWIN: And you also mentioned, if I could just mention this, in your statement, you said you did not report to the police because of threats.  Could you tell us about those threats?

MARY MAFA: I received telephone calls that he had been
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killed by a million people. Many things were said and I even disconnected my telephone.

MR LEWIN: Did they give any specific threats?

MARY MAFA: No, they were just calling telephone threats on me.

MR LEWIN: To stop you from going to the police?

MARY MAFA: Yes.

MR LEWIN: And can you tell us after you discovered, apparently you discovered his body or discovered that he had been killed, two days after the killing itself.