Human Rights Violation Hearings — Vryheid — 1997-04-17

WITNESS:   Which case are you referring to?  Mavuso's case?  When we were in court - we arrived there, and I had no one accompanying me because people were scared to accompany me, they feared their lives, and they thought that they were going to be killed because I was known as a woman of ANC.  I was with my daughter, my first-born, who is 17 now.  We arrived there and we found Inkatha people inside the court.  Most people in there were Inkatha people, and they refused that ANC people should go inside.  I was the only one allowed.  Inside people were swearing at me.  The case was remanded.  I left the court.  There were Comrades outside the court, they were waiting there in cars, and there were also buses full of Inkatha members.  There were many.  There were buses from Dumbe, and vans.  Outside the court one person known as Zanda Hlangamandla came to me, and then he spit at my face and he pointed his finger at me.  I went back to the court because I was scared.  Police were just watching and doing nothing.  One white policeman came and he helped me.  He pushed these people and I went to my car.  I drove back home.  It was on the 4th of March.  It was about 10 o'clock.  I decided to drive down to Swaziland to bring my children's clothes.  I didn't sleep in Swaziland, I came back.  At about 9 o'clock in border gate in Golela I phoned the security, I asked them how was it in the township, and they told me the situation was bad, I must be careful.  God protected me until home.  I parked my car in the garage.  I went inside my bathroom and then I took a bath.  After I finished taking a bath I served the guys I was staying with, I gave them food.  One of them noticed me that I was troubled, and we all knew that Themba Khoza has just passed next to my house and pointed at my house.  He was together with other IFP members.  When I was inside my house these guys said to me, "Sister Jabu, you mustn't go outside.  Outside the situation is real bad."  Police cars were outside from Pongola Police Station, and kombis, about eight of them, with soldiers, Shangani soldiers, and boers, and Inkatha members as well.  They were in uniform.  I took a pillow, I went to my sitting-room.  That's where I slept on my couch.  I fell asleep and I heard a knock at the kitchen door.  When I heard this knock these guys told me I mustn't go outside because the situation was real bad, and all these people who came by kombis were surrounding my house.  I went back to the lounge and they told me to turn off the lights.  I turned off the lights and it was dark.  Sbu Shandu got up the tree, climbed the tree, and the other one went and stood next to the bedroom, the other one next to the garage.  When I was still lying on my couch I heard a gunfire hitting the front door.  I got scared.  I stood up.  A big hole at that door.  I went to the bedroom, I took a telephone and I made a call to the police, and the police told me there are no cars.   That's because they were the ones who were surrounding my house.  I heard gunfire.  It was the guys whom I was staying with and the policemen.  The gunfire went on until 4.00 am.  Other shots were coming through the windows at my house.  I lay down on my stomach and then they started throwing hand grenades inside my house.  I saw a fire from the sitting-room and the dining-room, and then they went inside my child's bedroom.  The house was on fire and I was inside the house, I couldn't run outside.  I went to the main bedroom, I opened the wardrobe, I got inside.  I heard footsteps and I could tell that they were coming towards the bedroom.  There was a smoke, fire, I was dizzy.  I couldn't do anything.  And outside gunfire were still on.  These guys were shooting the police and the police were shooting them.  One policeman got injured, a black policeman.  His name was Ndlovu.  He is at Pongola Police Station.  I went to the kitchen.  I was trying to get out because I was scared that even if I am inside I am going to be burnt by the fire.  When I got outside they heard that the door was being opened.  They fired at the door.  I went to the refrigerator, next to the refrigerator.  I could smell the gas from the refrigerator, and I suspected that it was going to explode.  I went outside.  When I was outside I was shot and God helped me, protected me, because I didn't get injured.  I went to a neighbour's house.  Outside my neighbour's house I hide myself on the grass.  They tried to look for me, they couldn't find me.  Before all these things happened I took my car keys with me inside my gown pocket.  People stopped me in the morning to go inside my house, but I refused, I went on, I checked my house.  They also burnt my saloon, my business, and it was the only income I was depending on.  And what I had in the saloon, the stock was about amounting to R10 000,00.  I found a tape in the yard, and boers were inside my house.  They were about 20 of them.  They refused me to go inside my house, so I told them, "I am going to get inside my house.  This is my house."  No one answered me.  Senzo Mchunu came together with security from Empangeni.  He talked with these boers, and my house was burnt and everything inside my house was damaged.  I was left with the gown I was wearing.  I asked them to accompany me to the bank so that I withdraw some money and buy something to wear.  I decided to go back to Johannesburg.  I went back to Johannesburg.  After that these security guys stayed there in my house.  When I was in Johannesburg I heard that they wanted to exhume my husband's body, and I tried to talk to these security guys to make sure that they don't do that.  I stayed at home in 1994 after I left, because I left in 1994 April.  I went back to Pongola again after they burnt my house because I couldn't stay nice in Johannesburg.  My heart was back in Pongola.  I decided to go back to Pongola.  I reported the matter to Senzo.  I asked them to look for a place for me to stay.  Then I decided to renovate two rooms of my house.  I renovated that two rooms.  One lawyer from Pongola, his name is Plant, he helped me.  He bought paint and doors for me.  I stayed there with my kids.  Elections came and I was chosen as a councillor.  After that what happened last year in December, the Truth Commission people came to take a statement.  SABC people came to interview me about the violence in the area, because I was one of the members of the ANC there.  After that I got threats that I was going to be shot and follow my husband, and even my children they still experience harassment from Inkatha Youth, and they still tell them that, "Who killed your father?  You will follow your father."  And this thing is really tormenting my children.  Even today they aren't in a good situation.  In December I went to Jozini.  A 4x4, a certain 4x4, powder blue in colour, followed me, and then it overtaken me.  I slowed down.  It followed me until Jozini.  At Jozini I drove to those people I was supposed to drop there.  I was suspecting this 4x4.  I went to the police station in Jozini.  I noticed this van, and luckily enough when I went to make a call these people were coming to my direction, but the phones were not working so I couldn't make a phone call.  Then I left.  This very same 4x4 followed me, so they knew I was going to go back to Pongola.  There's only one route from Jozini to Pongola.  They followed me again, they tried to shoot me.  They couldn't shoot me, they just shot my car.  I accelerated.  When I got into the T-junction I found a red car standing parked there and I couldn't overtake it, but I tried my best, so I accelerated.  When I got into the town I checked my car.  I made a call to Durban to the ANC offices in Durban.  I couldn't get any assistance.  I was staying there unsafe.  I continued staying under those difficult conditions, and then I decided to stay there and die there with my children.  In December a certain guy, IFP member, was killed, and I wasn't there.  When I came back I heard that there was a guy who was killed, an IFP member.  So I stayed there, I didn't want to run back to Johannesburg.  I said I was tired of running away.  I was tired of sleeping in hotels, and I have been reporting all these matters to my own organisation, to other people, and I can't get any assistance, so I decided that I will rather die here.  One night I was sleeping with my children.  A kombi got there and they started firing.  We woke up, me and my children.  I took my children, I actually threw them out the window, and I saw the kombi driving back.  And I took clothes and I took them to the boot of my car and then I drove back to Johannesburg.  I reported this as well to my organisation, but there was no assistance.