Special Hearings — Mandela United Football Club Hearings — 1997-11-24

NOMSA SHABALALA: On the 13th November I had gone to church.  Siboniso's father was at home at the time, and I arrived at home around about seven in the evening.  When I got home, Siboniso's father explained to me that there were certain young men, two of them, who had a box of matches with, and at the back of this box there was Siboniso's name as well as his address, and Lolo Sono's address and Lolo's name.
 As he was still explaining to me, he told me that this young men came twice to our place, and as he was still explaining I heard a knock at the door and I saw two young men. Mr Shabalala said to these young men, my boys, sit down, I am Siboniso's father and this is Siboniso's mother. I want you to explain as to why you are after Siboniso, does he owe you any money?  They said to us, aren't we aware that today Siboniso was supposed to leave, they were coming from Winnie Mandela's place, and Siboniso was supposed to cross the borders and we didn't know anything about that, and they said we were delaying them.  They stood up and went out at that moment. But Siboniso was not at home at that time. 
 After about half past nine, Mr Shabalala went to Lolo's place. And when he got there, he asked Lolo's father as to whether these young men also came to his place and that they had his address, and Lolo's father said, they had already taken Lolo.   He had been assaulted by the members of the Mandela Football Club.  
 And Mr Shabalala came back to me and explained what he had been told by Mr Sono.  I was very surprised by this explanation, but I nevertheless asked, I said Winnie Mandela is involved in politics and how did she get involved with my son?  And Mr Shabalala said, he didn't know, he could offer me no explanation.
 I think Siboniso came at about ten or eleven that very same evening.  He was from a birthday party, and when he arrived, his father called him and told him that these young men said they would return.  He sat Siboniso down and explained. I was present when he talked to Siboniso. He told Siboniso about the young men who were looking for him beforehand, and Siboniso didn't seem to know anything about those young men.  He didn't seem to be aware of anything that could possibly make them look for him, and he kept on denying his knowledge of the young men.  And, as a mother, I said to Siboniso, I think we should take you away because Mr Sono had told us that Lolo had been assaulted, but Siboniso refused and said he will remain at home that particular night and he was waiting for those two young men to return.
 The following morning I went to Siboniso and asked him as to what we were going to do with this matter and he was sleeping on top of the bed, he wasn't inside his blanket, and he said he was going to wait for Winnie's people because if he ran away that would not help him in any manner because Lolo had already been assaulted.  And I asked Siboniso as to what relationship they had, or he had with Winnie, but he could not tell me.  His father also asked him, and he said he was not prepared to run away, he was going to remain and wait for the young men and hear as to what they wanted from him.  And he said whenever they come he would go with them and go to wherever Lolo was.  And we asked him as to whether he knew where Lolo was.  Then he said, if you say Lolo was taken by Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's people, then probably I will be taken there as well.
 And we left for work. When we came back Siboniso was not at home.  I looked for his shoes and his belongings as to whether he had taken anything with.  I saw that all his shoes were there except for one pair of shoes, and I realised that probably the pair that he was wearing, even the clothes that were missing were the ones that he was wearing the previous day.  
 In the evening when his father came, I explained to him and his father went to Mr Sono's place and explained to Mr Sono what had happened.  And Mr Shabalala said he had decided that he should go and report the matter.  He duly went to report.  
 My son disappeared on the 14th, that's when we got home and discovered he wasn't there.  And on the 15th Mr Shabalala went to the Meadowlands police station, and that's where he reported the matter.  He came back and filled me in as to what had happened.  And later on police arrived from Protea police station, and they said that he should report to the Protea police station.  He went there. When he came back I asked him as to what had happened, and he said they asked with regard to my son and said he should submit a statement.  Two days thereafter the police came to my place.  They searched the whole place.  They asked us as to whether Siboniso was involved in politics, and we said we were not a politically aware family. We had nothing to do with politics, but he was friends with Sono's son, that is our son.
 And time lapsed after the police had come to investigate.  They kept on calling Mr Shabalala to the police station.  And on this instance, that was in February, I think it was in 1989, when I was inside a taxi on the date I've mentioned, I was listening to the news and mention was made that at Meadowlands there are two young men missing, Siboniso Shabalala, as well as Lolo Sono.  That's when I realised that he had actually disappeared and it was well-known that he had disappeared and he was a member of the Mandela Football Club.  Mr Shabalala used to go to the newspaper reporters, Star, Sowetan, and he would give our son's photo to the reporters, and that our son had disappeared.  
 After a few days then I had heard this over the radio, a certain Mr Dempsey came to my place and he produced his identification that he was from Protea police station. He showed me a photo and asked me as to whether I knew the person on the photo, and I said this is my son.  I identified him positively.  He said he was going to take me on that particular day. I agreed because he had shown me a photo of my son.  He came back at about ten o'clock. He took me, that is Mr Dempsey, together with Mr Sono, his wife wasn't there, we went to Diepkloof mortuary.  When we got to the mortuary, they opened up the shelves.  They showed us some of the young men who had disappeared and they wanted us to identify them as to whether there were any people that we knew, but I couldn't get my son, and Mr Sono couldn't get his son as well.  We came back without having identified any of them.  I explained this to my HASSEN, and my HASSEN was surprised by this whole turn of events.
 After that we heard the stories doing the rounds that Stompie had died, and that there were certain members of the Football Club who had been killed.  It's only then that we were made aware of the goings-on at Winnie's house and we started reading newspapers.  At some stage they were called to the High Court.  They submitted statements.  Immediately after submitting the statements, Mr Shabalala said   [Tape ends.]