Human Rights Violation Hearings — Piet Retief — 1997-05-21

CHAIRPERSON: Can I ask Dingi Ngwenya to come forward?
While she's coming forward, can I welcome some guests from Germany.  I'm afraid my pronunciation might not be good enough but anyway I would like to welcome them. Anna Standhebel and Sonke...I'm not even going to attempt, but welcome to you.  We also have the hospital superintendent Dr Sija. Would you please stand so that we can please welcome you.
 Mr Ngwenya, good afternoon.

DINGI S NGWENYA: Good afternoon.

CHAIRPERSON: Can you please introduce the young man who is sitting next to you?

DINGI S NGWENYA: Tulani Ngwenya, my son.

CHAIRPERSON: Tulani, welcome to you as well.  Mr Ngwenya you are taking us to 1993.  Dr Russel Ally is going to help you tell your story, but will you please stand to take the oath. Mr Hugh Lewin will help you.

DINGI S NGWENYA: (sworn states)

CHAIRPERSON: Dr Ally.

RUSSELL ALLY: Good day!  You're coming to speak about your son Mbongeni and the circumstances which led to his death.  We have a statement from you which is quite comprehensive, so I'm going to ask you if you would go through some of the main points which are contained in your statement.  Thank you.

DINGI S NGWENYA: I greet you all members of the Commission.  I thank this opportunity that has been afforded me so that I could talk about my son, my lost...(intervention)
(Dr Ally makes an appeal for silence).
 In 1993 on the 20th, it was on a Friday evening, I was coming back from my work place at about 5:30pm. My son was there at the time and he had just come into the house and went out.  When I called him in as he was going out he said to me he was coming back in a few minutes, and after quite a few minutes I thought he was coming back only to find that he didn't come back into the house. 
 I heard some gun shots whilst I was inside the house.  My house is situated in the main street where I reside. When I heard this gun shot it occurred in my mind to ask myself as to what was happening, and when I looked around the yard as well as the house I discovered that my son, the one who went out wasn't in the house at that time and I went out of the house.  The gunfire continued outside and I went out to investigate.  I went to the direction of the gunfire but I didn't know who was firing shots. After I had travelled quite some distance up to my neighbour's place that is next to the Tarette(?) Shop, I saw a body on the ground that was a security members but I did not see the ones who were having the firearms at the time. I just discovered that I was amongst them.  I was able to survive but I do not know how I survived because they were firing shots towards my direction and I went back.
 I looked at the people who were firing and I continued looking at them shooting at random and I saw them firing towards a ford from Mabaso's family, and at the time I was in my yard and watching the people as they were shooting. Three were about three assailants, two of them had two guns each, they were using one gun whilst the other guns were on their waists.  At that time I hadn't yet discovered that my son was the first to be shot and when I went out it occurred to me that my children were not all in the house and they had already shot some of the members of the neighbourhood.
 I went out at that stage towards the tavern where my son was shot, that is before I heard that he's been shot at that tavern, and I came across some of his friends who told me that my son had been shot. I proceeded to the scene of the crime and I fear I lost consciousness then, when I saw him lying on the ground.  There was one policeman from Lisilo who was looking after the corpse.  I never had a chance to look at him and identify him only to find later on that I knew the guy who was standing there and some white policemen came to the scene at that stage, two of them and one of them came to me and asked me as to whether I was a member of the Inkatha Freedom Party and when I answered him I told him to leave me alone and asked him as to whether, was this part of the reason that we were being shot at because we were members of the particular political organisation.
 I stayed there where my son had been killed, that is on that scene, up to such time that it was 12 midnight, and they came, they said they were taking finger prints, but at the same time they were laughing at us.  They were mocking us.  That came as a surprise to me because they were policemen and to me it seemed as a surprise and their conduct was unacceptable because they were picking up the spent cartridges and keeping them to themselves.  I remained there.  We were told that there were some crime scene technicians who were supposed to come and take some photographs of the scene and we saw some who were members of the police force who were also involved.
 This came as a surprise to us and we questioned our safety and security when people die and policemen seem to be involved and at a later stage we put them in some cast that is political.  I was also helping in packing the bodies into that van and they were taken to the police station.  We waited there and I was called as the bereaved, I was told to go to the green door to submit my name and I asked them as to what was I supposed to submit my name for, because they had seen what happened and they had done it with impunity and why should I go and submit a statement because they had done what they wanted to do and there was absolutely no reason for me to furnish my name, and I did not want to sign.
 I said to them what do they want me to sign, is that a verification of them having killed him? I flatly refused to attached my signature and I waited until they conducted a post mortem and on the day of the funeral there were talks that they were afraid to come to my son's funeral because they were scared their lives were not safe.  This came as a surprise to me because I did not know how this all started and why it happened.  That's why I say I'm thankful for this opportunity so that I can talk because we realised that we were being killed at Tandukukhanya but we had absolutely no power to counteract what coming was actually happening. On the 6th when we went to Naspoort we heard them talking, that is the killers or the perpetrators. As we are sitting here we know who the killers are, that is the most painful and disturbing part of the whole thing.  I think if you die and you do not know who killed your loved one it's better, but if you are killed by a person that you know it's very unacceptable.

RUSSELL ALLY: Thank you Mr Ngwenya for relating that incident to us, could you tell us a little bit about your son  Mbongeni, how old he was at the time, whether he had been involved in any political activity, what role he played in the community.

DINGI S NGWENYA: Mbongeni was 18 years old and he was still attending school at that time.  During that time he was a member of the ANC but he was not a fully-fledged member because at that time he was still at school but he used to attend the ANC meetings and he identified with the ANC ideologies and when he was supposed to take an ID he said Mandela was going to be released and he was going to bring an end to the pass laws. He seemed elated by the idea of Mandela being released from prison. So I could say he was a member of the ANC though he was as young as 18 years.

RUSSELL ALLY: In the statement which you submitted you speak about a conflict in the township with political organisations fighting each other, mainly the ANC and the IFP. Could you just speak a little bit about this aspect in your understanding.