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

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: Ja, that was going to be my next question, because some people referred to him as Rasta.   Was that the name he was known by in the community?

MS NGEWU: Yes, he was called Rasta.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: And usually people who are Rastafarians have a particular way of dressing.  A particular way of wearing their hair, did  he have dreadlocks?

MS NGEWU: Yes, he had dreadlocks, but he would wear normal clothes.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: So when you saw you son on the television, was it the dreadlocks that you saw - that was part of the - part of the thing that helped to identify your son when  you saw him on television?

MS NGEWU: Yes, it was his hair,  but I could see it was - it was him.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: So there was court cases - there was an inquest and there was also a court case where the journalist were - were on trial.  Where you involved in both of those cases,  in other words, did they call you to come to the court?

MS NGEWU: Yes, we went to court.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: But at the time that you were there, nobody interpreted what was happening, because they were using a language you couldn't understand.  Was there anybody who actually explained to you what was going on?

MS NGEWU: No, nobody explained to me.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: So in a sense you - you didn't have an idea of what was happening.  You didn't know why the police, why your son was shot.  By whom and what the doctors who were testifying at the hearings, what they said?

MS NGEWU: Nobody explained to me anything.   We just heard that Barnard had shot him.  He had a wound just above his ear.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: Thank you very much  Ms Ngewu.

CHAIRPERSON: Any questions,   Mary Burton?

MARY BURTON: Ms Ngewu when I was a very new Commissioner and this commission was very new, you and Ms Miya and I think Ms Mxinwa  were the first people that came to these offices, that I saw, that I met to say that you wanted to make a statement.  I remember that day very well.
And then, you made your statements and you appeared at the public hearings in April and now people have been asking you questions again and here you are, back again in front of the Commission.
What - what makes you and your other mothers so strong?  What makes you want to come back and put yourself through this again?   What is it that keeps you going?

MS NGEWU: We pray, w e ask the Lord to give us strength,  because there is nothing we can do about the death of our children.  But we have just one request to see this people who killed our children - the Commission must please bring these people, the perpetrators, to us, so that we can see them and listen to them.

MARY BURTON: We hope that we will be able to go some where towards doing that, thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Any other questions, Dumisa?

ADV NTSEBEZA: No thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much ma'am.    As you are talking, sometimes I think people might not be aware of the conditions under which most of our people were living.  It wasn't just that you suffered from the anguish of having a loved one killed,  it was often and often that you were not told and if you were told you had to rush around to find out from this police station, that police station, the hospital, mortuary, and as if to add salt to the wound,  almost always people were not allowed to bury their loved ones as they have liked to.
And we have been ministers of the Gospel remembers so vividly the number of times we had to carry, to officiate at funerals which had very strict conditions laid down on how the funeral had to be conducted.  Very poor people were told nobody is allowed to walk to the funeral, to the grave yard.  Everybody must find some means of transport.   And the conditions were actually, you should say vicious and our country must know that it has been set free from some of the most atrocious  laws and the pain in people's hearts was  [indistinct]  by the fact that you were - you felt so powerless.
The police and the Security Forces seemed to be omnipotent.  They could do anything and there was very little opportunity for people to be able to find some kind of redress.  And so, this Commission apart from trying to find out the truth,  is helping our people by telling their stories to recover some of the dignity, they lost in the times when the apartheid system was at it's height.
Thank you, because you are here and we are also here, because you are here.   We are here  because your children sacrificed their lives, thank you.