Human Rights Violation Hearings — Lusikisiki — 1997-03-26

CHAIRPERSON: Merriman Sipho Sikutshwa.  Thengiwe Bester Khwezi, Hlokomani Alfred Shaza, Louisa Nonzwakazi Ndamase.  Is Tamsanqa Gabriel Njiyela here?  Is Tamsanqa Gabriel Njiyela here?  This is the last group. 
 I don't know if the person that swears the people in is still here, if he is here, he will swear them in.

REV XUNDU: Mr Chairperson, I thank you this afternoon for giving me this opportunity to swear the witnesses in.

MERRIMAN SIPHO SIKUTSHWA: (sworn states)

REV XUNDU: Thank you sir.

THENGIWE BESTER KHWEZI: (sworn states)

REV XUNDU: Thank you.

HLOKOMANI ALFRED SHAZA: (sworn states)

REV XUNDU: Thank you.

LOUISA NONZWAKAZI NDAMASE: (sworn states)

REV XUNDU: Mr Chairperson, they have been properly sworn in.

CHAIRPERSON: We will now hand over to Ntsiki Sandi.

ADV SANDI: Thank you Mr Chairperson.  Let us begin with Mr Sipho.  Merriman Sikutshwa.  Mr Sikutshwa, I think you have a document, a typed document, but you did not have a chance to give us a copy.
 I would like to ask you not to explain what is in that document, because you are going to submit the three-page document to us.  When I am looking at your statement, you are going to tell us about yourself starting from 1960.
 You said that in 1960 during the state of emergency, can you please tell us what happened to you?

MERRIMAN SIPHO SIKUTSHWA: During the state of emergency I was still a boy, I was only 16 years old.  There was a proclamation named as Proclamation R400 where the Boers assaulted people in Bizana.
 They deployed hundreds of soldiers and police with weapons.  They said that they are going to kill ANC.  I was arrested in the forrest.  Everybody was arrested from boys aged 14 years to men over 80 years of age, everybody was arrested.
 Every male person was arrested.  They took us to Bizana.  They were, the police and soldiers were in their cars which were known as caspers with their helmets, there was a helicopter surrounding us and at that time I did not know what was going on until I saw the soldiers in their jeep.
 They came to me, they said come.  I was confused because at that time I didn't like White people although I was not politically motivated, but I did not like White people.
 When I tried to answer them, I answered in Xhoza, they couldn't understand me, because they were speaking Afrikaans only.  They told me to come.  I tried to answer them in English, still they did not understand me.  They just showed me to go to that van.
 I refused, they came to me, they dragged me.  That is
where I fight for myself, I managed to escape.  They were chasing me.
 I was fighting with them.  It is when I got injured here in my face and I lost my teeth.

ADV SANDI: Did they beat you?

MERRIMAN SIPHO SIKUTSHWA: Yes, they did.

ADV SANDI: What were they using, were they using their guns?

MERRIMAN SIPHO SIKUTSHWA: They were using their fists to beat me in my face and my teeth, I lost my teeth.

ADV SANDI: Did they arrest you?

MERRIMAN SIPHO SIKUTSHWA: Yes, they did.  One of them kicked me, I fell down.  I became unconscious and when I woke up, there was blood in my face.  They told me to get in their van and they drove the van away.
 They went, they took me to the clinic, there were many people and there were helicopters all over, soldiers were all over.

ADV SANDI: In jail, at that time you were detained, how long were you detained under the state of emergency?  How long were you detained under the state of emergency?

MERRIMAN SIPHO SIKUTSHWA: They would detain me for two weeks and release me and detain me again for three weeks and release me.
 They would do that all the time, but when we were first arrested, we were taken not to prison, but we were taken to an open field.  It was raining that time and we had no shelter.  If I can count, they detained me for almost six months.
 It is when I decided to run away.

ADV SANDI: How long did you stay in exile?

MERRIMAN SIPHO SIKUTSHWA: For 13 years in Swaziland.

ADV SANDI: When did you come back from Swaziland?

MERRIMAN SIPHO SIKUTSHWA: I came back in 1974.  What happened in Swaziland was that the Government of Swaziland did not want us to stay there as we were political refugees.  He told us to move to overseas.
 Because at that time it was the Matanzima Government and they told us to come back, they will forgive us unconditionally.  If we didn't want to go back to Transkei, we were told to go overseas.
 I didn't want to go overseas, because I was the eldest at home.

ADV SANDI: When you came back, were you under police guard?

MERRIMAN SIPHO SIKUTSHWA: When we came back, we were told that we would be forgiven unconditionally but I was tortured by Van der Walt and Dreyer and Manciya and Sifumba here in Flagstaff and Cronje, Berger, Nguba, they were interrogating me about the mission of the ANC.
 They said that I was part of the ANC.  While I was in exile, I used to come back with pamphlets.  I joined ANC when I was in Swaziland.  I just want to mention that my younger brother was working at the Magistrate's office and I heard that if anyone saw me, I should be killed.
 I went with Macawana to the Magistrate to investigate and to ask about this because seemingly there was a letter that I am a threat to the Government so I have to be killed.

ADV SANDI: Did you get a job when you came back?

MERRIMAN SIPHO SIKUTSHWA: Yes, I was a teacher - after a month and the Security Police used to interrogate me.

ADV SANDI: Were you a teacher?

MERRIMAN SIPHO SIKUTSHWA: Yes, I was a teacher in exile, even when I came back, I was a teacher.

ADV SANDI: What happened, when did you loose your job as a teacher?

MERRIMAN SIPHO SIKUTSHWA: In 1985 I was a principal at that time, I lost my job.  They found pamphlets saying "release Mandela".  My bag was stolen and everything was found in that bag.
 I was almost sentenced to 15 years, but they didn't sentence me.

ADV SANDI: Were you a principal at that time?

MERRIMAN SIPHO SIKUTSHWA: Yes.

ADV SANDI: Did you go back to teach?

MERRIMAN SIPHO SIKUTSHWA: Because people saw that I was perfect in mathematics and science, they pressured the Government to take me back as a teacher, but I was just an ordinary teacher.
 What I would like to mention - when this Government dismissed me, I lost my pension and my wife divorced me because she said that I don't want to drop membership of ANC.

ADV SANDI: What is your position in the ANC here in Bizana?

MERRIMAN SIPHO SIKUTSHWA: I am a Chairperson of Bizana of the Veterans of Bizana.  I am also an executive member of SADTU.  This is why I lost my job.

ADV SANDI: Do you know Lena Mamanci Sikutshwa?

MERRIMAN SIPHO SIKUTSHWA: Yes, she is my mother.

ADV SANDI: What happened to her?

MERRIMAN SIPHO SIKUTSHWA: They tortured my mother.  Miss Desifumba was one of them, they wanted my mother to tell them where I was.  She was working at the hospital at that time as a domestic
worker in Greenville.  She had to go to report daily to the office in Greenville and this was impossible.  She decided -she lost her job due to this because they were torturing her.

ADV SANDI: Do you have any other requests you want to add to the ones you have already mentioned in your statement?

MERRIMAN SIPHO SIKUTSHWA: Yes, I do have requests sir.

ADV SANDI: One of your requests is that you would like clean water and proper roads?

MERRIMAN SIPHO SIKUTSHWA: Yes.

ADV SANDI: You also mentioned your children.  What about your children, what did you say about your children?

MERRIMAN SIPHO SIKUTSHWA: My children - i re-married and I started my life afresh after all this happened, after Matanzima did all this to me.  I would like my children to be educated.
 My younger children.  I would like to add more requests.

ADV SANDI: Can you please tell us your requests shortly because you are going to give us your document?