Human Rights Violation Hearings — Pollsmoor — 1996-11-27

MR MBENYANA: Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity.  I am going to talk about my brother-in-law John Zabonke Konile.  He came to Cape Town with me.  I found him a job in a company called Western Province Hardware.  After a while, he went to stay in KTC,  I was staying in Site C,  Khayelitsha.
Around March, 1985, I  saw in the Cape Times on a certain Tuesday - I read an article about the Guguletu 7, they were referred to as the heroes.  They were referred to as terrorists, sorry.  They were not identified, their names or surnames were not in the newspaper. 
On the Friday I went to New Crossroads to my uncle,  I was from work.  When I got there, Zabonke's mother was there.  I was quite surprised.  I asked why she was there?  She said that a women from Ndwe who was Zabonke Konile's neighbour, phoned her, because Zabonke Konile had been shot dead.  This woman was phoning from Cape Town, phoning Ndwe.
It was very shocking,  I then went and told the brother  in a church.  We then all went together to KTC to find out from the community exactly what happened.   Mr Chairperson, we found  Civic there who was handling the whole matter.   They told us, they confirmed that Zabonke Konile had truly been shot.  He, as he was working for this timber company, he was able to build shacks.  He worked especially for the ladies and the women in the community,  building up their shacks during weekends.
We then had no choice, but prepare for the funeral.  The police gave orders that nobody was to be buried at home.  We wanted to bury him back home, but there was no way,  the police refused.   Even to get the corpses, and have our own program, it was very difficult.  It is the UDF attorneys that helped us.  Even they requested a company called Mashlobe  to help clean up the corpses so that they could be buried.
One of the attorneys was Ebrahim.  They took all the details, how all the bodies were injured.   They would record exactly how each individual had been injured.   One of Zabonke's eyes was totally out, his gums were out.
We then prepared for the funeral.  We went to the stadium, because it was a mass funeral.  We prayed and we continued to the grave yard.  There was a helicopter hovering above us.   When we were just about to finish off, covering the coffins, there is a field between 108 that divides 108 and N2 - there were no shacks at the time.  It was just an open field.
The police emanated from there with Army vans.    They came closer and as they approached, they were taking photographs.  As you will remember, these were very young men.  The entire youth that was at the funeral was extremely grieved.  They did not see the police as they approached.
The police then ran away towards N2 - there was a fence around.  They drove over it.  That day was almost a calamity, because actually the youth wanted to attack all the N2 vehicles that were there, the police vehicles.
It is the priest that helped, trying to stop the youth.  The youth then came back after the police had run away.
Since 1985 we never heard that the case had been taken to court.  We just got a short letter from an attorney Ebrahim, from Athlone, around August or September 1989.   We were then staying in Mandela Park.  The address that you have on your records at the moment. 
He was informing us that we should go and listen to the case.  I went the one day, because I was working.  It was difficult to be there the whole time.  I went the first day in Wynberg.  The Magistrate there told us that he - he was appointed to handle the whole case.   There was a man next to the magistrate - he told us that this man was a professor from the Stellenbosch University.  He has also been appointed to help with the case.
This Magistrate then continued to say that Mr Vlok had an attorney for the police.  The evidence that was given by the police was contradictory even within themselves.  The one said I had a huge gun and the other said  I had a small gun in my hand.  They were contradicting each other.
The professor from Stellenbosch then asked a question.  Asking the police - he then said  you are saying this people were fighting and attacking you.  How come, why is it that not even one single police has a wound?   The police could not answer, but their attorney arose asking the Magistrate if the Magistrate wanted the police to be shot as well?
As the police would go up and down the witness stand, they showed photographs of these young men who had deceased, they were full of blood.  They did not show us the photographs, they were actually showing each other.  There was just blood every where in the photographs.
We did not get any concrete conclusion about the whole case and it was difficult for me to pursuit the whole case, because I was actually working and my company did not appreciate us being absent at work.  They would give us a report that there was - the production was very low at work, because I was constantly absent.   I then could not attend the court case as regularly as I aspired to.

ADV POTGIETER: Thank you Mr Mbenyana.  As I have indicated earlier, perhaps some of those questions that are still unanswered would  be attended to during the course of this hearing.  Zabonke was not married, is that correct?

MR MBENYANA: He was not married, but he was living together with another lady and he had a child with this woman.   This woman ran away, we don't know where she is now.  We couldn't find her and in 1986 he had a shack in KTC and we wanted to take this shack and then I asked Zabonke's mother to come here in Cape Town and then we went to his grave in 1986.
It was difficult for us to get this shack, because there was one policeman, called Barnard.  We couldn't get this shack in KTC,  the situation was very bad at that time, but we finally got hold of it.  There was one time, people were fighting in KTC one night and we took Zabonke's mother and we tried to hide her and there were gun shots all over, coming from the Nyanga direction and people - the followers from  [indistinct]  now were coming from Crossroads.  And there were cement  in the roads and it was written there with red spray, they wrote that Tutu was a dog.  And there was a man who was there with the batons, with a white doek in the head and that is all I want to say Mr Chairman.
But we got hold of this shack and we took it to Site C and we moved from site C to Site B and I asked Zabonke's mother to stay there, but she wanted to go back to the village and we sold that shack for R500.  And I sent that money to her, thank you.

ADV POTGIETER: Thank you, have you got any idea where the child is at present?  The child, do you know what happened to the child,  Zabonke's child where is she?

MR MBENYANA: Yes,   I know, there  she is here.

ADV POTGIETER: Oh! very good - thank you  very much - is she living with you?

MR MBENYANA: No, she is living with one of our family member, she is a nurse in Mandalay.

ADV POTGIETER: She is also present here?  She stood up at the back here.

MR MBENYANA: Ja.

ADV POTGIETER: Well thank you very much.   Thank you for your testimony,  I will hand you back to the Chairperson.

CHAIRPERSON: Yes I  just wondered whether the dog barked hard enough.  Pumla Gobodo.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Thank you Mr Chairperson, please look at me, here I am ma'am.  You come far away ma'am and we know that you were suffering a lot and you have suffered for 10 years.  You had this burden because you lost your son Zabonke.  ... end of Tape 1, Side B ... what would you like us to do in order to help you to try and forget about this and to try to forget about your son.

MS KONILE: My request is that   I would like a tombstone for my son and I also request you to assist me about concerning  Zabonke's child.  And that I don't have a place to stay in the village and I would like you to assist me about that.