Human Rights Violation Hearings — Nelspruit — 1996-09-04

BEAUTY MKHAJWA MTHETHWA: Actually the people who usually attended were the boys.  My boys would not stay at home. They used to stay at work until the next day and therefore they did not attend that meeting.  My boys were not always attending. Another issue that is to look at is the damage what's happened when the father was killed, is that (indistinct) and then the boy.  My child has changed greatly. He was affected by the killing of my husband, my husband killed in front of him.  He changed his mind. Even now he doesn't have a friend in the area.  He can't even talk.

MS MKHIZE: How did the boy change?

BEAUTY MKHAJWA MTHETHWA: Maybe if the child was at school he could continue. My child was working.  Because he realised that he was not to attend the school, he has to look after the family and he must look after them, and to get a friend he is afraid, and the other two were also attending school.  When they were attending school they were instructed not to retun.

MS MKHIZE: We realise that really this is affecting you
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so much.  In your view what could the Commission do to assist you? How can we also help your child so that he can healed.

BEAUTY MKHAJWA MTHETHWA: I do not understand.

MS MKHIZE: Can you think of anything which we can do maybe in the community of Bosfontein, that we can try to heal or help the child.

BEAUTY MKHAJWA MTHETHWA: No, I don't know, I don't know if maybe you can meet with them and that they come out and apologise. Maybe that can help us.  They never came to talk about the issue, they never came to us and apologize.

MS MKHIZE: Is there anything which maybe is traditional which you feel we can do or can offer help for your family, because during the funeral they were very much hurt.

BEAUTY MKHAJWA MTHETHWA: Yes, I also think that my husband who was killed, I didn't understand anything. I also asked God to help me, that even the Christians come with me and then I sit there and talk to them in the manner in which my husband was killed was very bad.

MS MKHIZE: We are here with some of the pastors. If they can come and visit you at home to maybe help you (indistinct), to suggest what can we do to help you get better. In other words, those boys who are here, (indistinct), that can help.

BEAUTY MKHAJWA MTHETHWA: Yes, that can help me.

MS MKHIZE: Thank you very much.

CHAIRPERSON: Mamma, I am just going to ask you a few questions.  You say in your evidence that a group of men and older boys called this meeting, and in your evidence you called them comrades. Now did you know them as comrades?

BEAUTY MKHAJWA MTHETHWA: They were comrades, because I saw them
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handling sjamboks and that was during the time for struggle.

CHAIRPERSON: Were these comrades affiliated to the ANC or to the UDF?

BEAUTY MKHAJWA MTHETHWA: I heard them saying they were from ANC.

CHAIRPERSON: Was your husband and the other three men, the other two men who were burnt ...

BEAUTY MKHAJWA MTHETHWA: He was a farmer for six hectares.

CHAIRPERSON: Had that been given to him by the chief?

BEAUTY MKHAJWA MTHETHWA: Yes, from the chief.

CHAIRPERSON: The men who had called this meeting, did they also own any farms?

BEAUTY MKHAJWA MTHETHWA: They had some plots as everybody, like everybody.

CHAIRPERSON: So this land in the Bosfontein community had been allocated equally to everybody?

BEAUTY MKHAJWA MTHETHWA: I didn't know, the farm I have formed specially, farm 6.  Those who are having a long hand in family and who are (indistinct) they have got at least six hectares. Those who are late living in the area they got just four, they are farmers.

CHAIRPERSON: Mamma, before this meeting, had there been trouble between these people in Bosfontein about the land or about the farming of that land?

BEAUTY MKHAJWA MTHETHWA: There wasn't such a conflict, there was nothing at all.

CHAIRPERSON: Was your husband very good at his farming?  You have mentioned that on that particular day when they were looking for him, he had gone to attend a meeting in a water project. Who was running that project?

BEAUTY MKHAJWA MTHETHWA: It was conveyed by the community and the chief.  It was to talk about the water problem.
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CHAIRPERSON: Was your husband perhaps seen as belonging to, or being a follower of the chief?

BEAUTY MKHAJWA MTHETHWA: No, he was not supporting the chief. They were inviting only those who by the problem of the passage of water. He wasn't anything, he was an ordinary man.

CHAIRPERSON: Was there ever any problem between the comrades and the chief in that area?

BEAUTY MKHAJWA MTHETHWA: No, there wasn't a problem.  Even the teachers themselves (indistinct), because they weren't aware.

CHAIRPERSON: Was the chief not invited to this meeting that they had to discuss the problem of witchcraft?

BEAUTY MKHAJWA MTHETHWA: No, he wasn't invited.

CHAIRPERSON: So the decision was taken by a senior group of people?

BEAUTY MKHAJWA MTHETHWA: I don't know what to say. The decision, I cannot know who took such a resolution. I can't know who took that resolution.

CHAIRPERSON: Mamma, after you had buried your husband, did the chief call a meeting in your community to discuss why this had happened?

BEAUTY MKHAJWA MTHETHWA: No, the chief never convened a meeting.  The people who were (indistinct), they even sent soldiers to intervene and make peace in the community.  The soldiers were responsible.

CHAIRPERSON: Mamma, what happened to all the land?  Do you still farm that land?

BEAUTY MKHAJWA MTHETHWA: The land (indistinct) and I have got no work like my husband.

CHAIRPERSON: So yourself don't benefit from the farming on that land?
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BEAUTY MKHAJWA MTHETHWA: I am ploughing, I just cause (indistinct).

CHAIRPERSON: Mamma, your story is a very, very sad one, and we are very disturbed to hear the story.  We know that many of these ugly things happened in our communities and we hear your request that at least, if these people were to be with you and explain why they had done this, you might find some peace. We in the Commission will investigate the matter and we will see what we can do about that.  We thank you for sharing your story with us, and we feel with you in your sorrow.

BEAUTY MKHAJWA MTHETHWA: Thank you very much.