Human Rights Violation Hearings — Empangeni — 1996-11-05

WITNESS:   They meant my husband and myself.  And they started searching.  They had their guns pointing at us even though they didn't try to shoot at anyone.  And we opened the door.  They searched the house until they were satisfied but they never found anything.  And in my house we had a small building where we put the generator to light our house.  They also wanted me to open that place.  I opened for them.  They searched and they didn't find anything.  They went back inside the house and they realised that they just can't find anything.  Then they left.  Later on they came back.  This time they were not wearing the soldier's  uniform.  They were wearing brown uniforms and they were black policemen.  And they were not talking Zulu.  And I heard they were soldiers.  And they were with a certain boy and this boy was from Mthembu's family.  When they arrived at my house with this boy, this boy said, "I came to show the policemen where the IFP boys were staying."  And I asked this boy, "Who told you so?"  This boy said, "I saw them.  They're staying in this house and they always had guns."  What I said to them, I said, "How many times are you going to come to my house and look for guns and you know even if you search for these guns you won't find them because we don't have guns?  What must we do now?"  Then I decided I should open the door for them, for them to check and then they started searching my house and they couldn't find anything.  Again they made me open that small building where I put my generator and they searched again and they didn't find it.  They asked for water to drink.  I gave them water and then they drank and left.  This thing kept on going on, this conflict between the ANC and the IFP in the area.  On the 30th of October 1993, it was at about half past four, we saw them going with guns and they were firing their guns.  And there were four people who were standing somewhere there.  At about 6.00pm many people came from the hill.  We were sitting outside, my and my husband, so we went inside the house and we closed the doors.  And these people came running and as soon as the arrived down the hill, that's when they started firing guns.  It was too noisy and we were scared.  We locked ourselves inside the house.  I heard my neighbour screaming and saying, "Please open the door for me," and I rushed to the door.  I opened the door for my neighbour and I locked the door again.  When she was relating to me, she said they were behind her and they wanted her to come first inside my house.  That's when they started shooting at my house.  They were shooting all the windows of my house.  Inside the house, we were six.  It was me, my husband, my maid or the lady who was helping me and my neighbour and a three-year-old child and one girl who was 15 years at the time.  They came with this neighbour of mine and they just went and rushed in one of my bedrooms.  And these people kept on shooting my house.  I locked my door and it was tough for them to break.  And they kept on firing the door.  And if you can take the guns - ran from the top until down.

MRS GCABASHE:  You mean they were firing the door with the guns?

WITNESS:   Yes.

MRS GCABASHE: When they went inside the house they just rushed in, in this bedroom where my neighbour had hidden herself.  I don't know what happened when they arrived in that bedroom because I was in my son's bedroom and we didn't lock the door.  We just went in there and we sat.  Later on we didn't know what was really happening in that bedroom where my neighbour had hidden herself and that lady who was helping me in my house was hiding under the bed.  Later on I saw them taking this 15-year-old girl who came with my neighbour.  They were telling her to point where there was money and then they said she must turn on the lights.  They looked for money.  They looked for a gun.  My husband said, "I don't have a gun.  I don't own a gun.  What I have is a Bible.  I'm  /a Christian."

MRS GCABASHE: a Christian."  And they said, "We want money."  And they also said to me, "We want money."  And I was scared.  One of them stabbed me by knife and I was bleeding.  I got tired.  I was getting weaker.  I took money from my bag.  I had money inside a tin.  It was about R200,00.  I gave them this R200,00.  After I gave him this R200,00 he took my bag and he started throwing everything out and all the coins came out and he took them.  I held my hand because I was bleeding and I was getting tired.  My husband told him that he doesn't own a gun and my husband said, "Okay, let's go to the bedroom.  I'll give you the money."  I don't know what happened but what I heard is that one of them said, "Shoot," and that's when they started shooting.  I think they shot for about five times.  After that they came inside the house.  They wanted to shoot me.  I went to this guy who was holding a big machine gun and I said to him, "Really, what have we done?"  And one of them answered back and said, "Let me just hit this one with this hammer."  And one of them went to my bedroom and he started searching.  He found the girl who was hiding under the bed and I was crying.  I was begging them not to kill that girl because I told them that this girl just came from rural areas.  She just came here to help me.  She's not from this area.  And they said to me, "We don't want evidence or witnesses here," and that's when they started shooting at her.  And her intestines were outside.  Maybe this is something that I saw because I was scared and I was terrified but I think I saw intestines.  They took everything that belongs to me and my husband inside the house - television, my clothes, my husband's cloths.   They went to the kitchen, they ate my food and they were throwing everything down.  They took cool drinks and they drank because I was selling cool drinks.  They also took other stuff.  And I heard after they left and when I heard that there was no noise any longer, I went to the bedroom.  I called my husband and there was no answer.  I went closer.  I shook him and I realised that he was dead.  I went to another bedroom.  I called this other woman, Mrs Mnconco.  I heard her answering very softly and I said to her, "Oh, are you still there?"  She said, "Yes, I am."  When I arrived where she was, I discovered that she can't do anything.  I told her that they've killed my husband and I told her that he's gone.  And she was crying I told her, "Don't cry because they might come back because other stuff which they took from my house, it's still outside.  They might come back to fetch it."  So Mrs Mnconco said to me they shot her and one bullet came from the back and out to this 15-year-old girl to her cheek.  They had already set that bedroom alight and Mrs Mnconco tried to extinguish the fire.  We had a bottle of water in that bedroom and this 15-year-old girl took this bottle and tried to extinguish the fire.  Other stuff had burnt.  I said to this 15-year-old girl she must go out and tell people that we are injured and my husband is now dead.  It was at about 8 o'clock.  This thing started at about 6.00pm.  I didn't realise that this girl was confused because she seemed not to understand whatever I was saying to her and then I decided to go to my neighbour's.  I went to one of my neighbours.  I told them that my husband has been killed and they said to me, "There's nothing we can  /do because