Amnesty Hearings — Cape Town — 1999-10-18

STEPHANS METLE DYASI: Yes, I could see that he was in danger because I saw him laying down and I was trying to pick him up to take him with me, but I could see that that was very difficult.  He couldn't stand up.

MR RHEEDER: What did you do, where did you go first after that, at that stage?  Where was the first place that you went to?

STEPHANS METLE DYASI: As I have already said, I went to the pastor, my pastor, he is the person I went to first and I told him about the incident, before I went to the police.

MR RHEEDER: So after you left the pastor, you went to the police station?

STEPHANS METLE DYASI: Yes, I went to the police station after that.

MR RHEEDER: And again to refer you to your testimony in front of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings on the 24th of June 1996, and specifically page 240 of the Bundle, you indicated to them that you and the minister went back to where your son was and thereafter you went to the police station.
	Your indication on that day was that you went back to your son, that you were there twice before you went to the police station.

STEPHANS METLE DYASI: I don't remember sir, as I have already said, I went to the pastor, I don't know whether I am making a mistake of whether I went to that house or I went to the police station, I cannot remember that well, but what I know is that I went to the minister, the pastor.

MR RHEEDER: Why didn't you immediately go and obtain assistance, either by going to the police or the hospital or trying to phone an ambulance?

STEPHANS METLE DYASI: At that time people were sleeping and the houses were dark, I just thought I should go to the pastor and inform him so that he can accompany me.  I didn't want to go alone to the police.

MR RHEEDER: You see, it becomes a bit more important to try and establish and if you really cannot remember then we will have to accept that, but to try and establish if you, after you went to the pastor, if you first went back to your son and then to the police station or if you as you got to the pastor, you immediately went to the police?  I would just like to try and request you to try and think back and remember.

STEPHANS METLE DYASI: Sir, at that time as a person that was shocked, I was confused.   I couldn't think properly, I was like an insane person.   That is why I am saying that I cannot remember clearly whether I went to the police station first or I went back to the shack where my son was, but I was with the pastor.

MR RHEEDER: Okay, thank you Mr Dyasi.
	Regarding the police station, you testified - let me start off this way, an indication was given this morning that the possibility exists that you reported the matter to the police station and then police were sent out to this specific address, but if I understand your testimony correctly, that couldn't have happened, that was not so, because you testified and said whilst you were still talking to the policemen and explaining to them what happened, you were interrupted by the gunshot which you heard, which must have been the fatal gunshot?

STEPHANS METLE DYASI: Yes, that is correct, when I was still there, I heard a gunshot, while I was still at the police station.

MR RHEEDER: I want to go further and say your testimony was specific that while you were still explaining to the police that your son was shot and that they must please assist, you heard the gunshot and again I would like to refer you to the Truth and Reconciliation hearings also on page 241 and just to quote
"... when we arrived at the police station, there was one policeman.  I pleaded with him, asking him and telling him the story of my son and I told him that I need some assistance, if he could please help me take my son to hospital.  But there was an interruption whilst I was speaking to the policeman, I heard the gunshot."

STEPHANS METLE DYASI: Sir, I don't know whether you understood me well, as I arrived at the police station, I said there was one policeman that was there and when I was telling him about this story, he said to me "I know Pienaar", I said "yes".  He said I must wait for the Lieutenant, the Lieutenant that is coming, so while I was still talking about, while we were still talking about that, I heard a gunshot and I didn't know where it was coming from at the time.

MR RHEEDER: The point that I just want to make that according to your own version of the events, especially at the time when you were at the police station, it couldn't have been a question of you reporting where your son was and then the police going out to that place to either find him or to shoot him, but it was as Mr Luff testified, by looking around and looking at the houses or looking into the houses, they by accident came across your son?

STEPHANS METLE DYASI: Sir, at that time when I was at the police station, they asked me where he was and then I said that he was in Tusa, so this police told me to wait there, to wait for the Lieutenant and then the Lieutenant arrived, he asked me whether I know where my son was.  I said, yes, he was in Tusa.

MR RHEEDER: But the gunshot was heard whilst you were still speaking to the first policeman, before any other policeman arrived on the scene, that is the way that I understood your testimony this morning, or earlier today?

STEPHANS METLE DYASI: Yes, that is correct.

MR RHEEDER: Thank you Mr Dyasi.   Mr Dyasi, it is, as I mentioned earlier on, my instructions, we all accept a very unfortunate accident occurred that evening.  Did you at any time come to an opinion as to in which manner your son was shot?

STEPHANS METLE DYASI: Can you repeat your question sir?

MR RHEEDER: Did you at any time come to some sort of opinion as to what you think occurred at the time when your son was shot and mortally wounded?

STEPHANS METLE DYASI: No, I didn't have any opinions, I just saw him being shot the way I saw him.

MR RHEEDER: You didn't actually see him being shot, you just saw that he was wounded on two occasions that evening, once when you first met him at the shack and the second time when you went back, and you saw him laying in the street?

STEPHANS METLE DYASI: Sir, when I arrived, he was already shot.  I didn't see him being shot.

MR RHEEDER: You see, because I want to put to you and I have got a further document here that I just want to hand up to the Commission which is a document which comes from the inquest, it is a further statement by Prof Knobel, I made certain copies.

CHAIRPERSON: That will be Exhibit B.

MR RHEEDER: As the honourable Chairperson pleases.  You see Mr Dyasi, according to Prof Knobel who was the Pathologist who inspected your son's body after the incident, he also came to the conclusion that your son was shot at a distance.  He specifically says that it couldn't have been a contact shot or a shot within a metre or two from your son.
	Mr Luff this morning testified that your son was a distance away at the time when the mortal wound was, when he shot at your son in the direction of your son.  Do you accept that as the truth?

STEPHANS METLE DYASI: Sir, I don't accept that because if I understood him well he said there was a group of youths that night, so that is what I don't understand.  Why could he hit him alone, even though there were a lot of youths at the time.  When he was shooting, he could have shot other people if there were a lot of them.