Human Rights Violation Hearings — Worcester — 1996-06-25

MR ZWENI: I would like to ask a question.  I thought maybe you as the Commissioners of the Truth of Reconciliation Commission were going to call the culprits because I never heard their names being mentioned and by coming here today I thought I was going to hear the names and to get the reason for the killing of my father from them.  I thought 
that this was going to be disclosed.   I would like to go home today knowing who the killers were.

ADV POTGIETER: We have noted that as well.  That is obviously something that you would wish the Commission  to try and do.  Perhaps I can just explain the procedure to you.  We have listened to all the evidence, we've taken notes of everything that  you've said, we have also noted your request now in connection with an explanation as to what happened and why it happened.  We give all of the evidence that we've received as well as the requests, we give instructions to our office to look into the matter to investigate it and we eventually make findings about the case that was brought to us and we notify you about those findings eventually once all the work is done.  It's not the end of the case today in fact in a way it is the beginning of the case but we will come back to you and to your family.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: There's one more thing.  You said that there was a Mayor who was involved in this murder of your father, am I mistaken in thinking that you said so?  Where is this person is he still the Mayor?

MR ZWENI: He was a Mayor in 1980.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: XHOSA -

MR ZWENI: No, because according to the things that he said and because he had said to me that I should tell my father that he is an epiempie and my father died in that year that he told me those things, it seemed to me that he was involved.  It was him that said these things about my father.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Are there other threatening things that he may have said that may have caused you to think that he had some involvement in the death of your father?

MR ZWENI: There were many fights and exchanging of words about what happened, seemingly he was still not happy and you still have the pain of losing your father.

ADV POTGIETER: Well I thank you again, it's not the end of the case.  Thank you for sharing the evidence with us.  We thank you very much and we want to call upon you again when you leave to just put the translation devices on your chair.  We repeat again that they are useless outside of this venue and we need to recharge the batteries, so leave them like that and you can use it again to-morrow.   I also want to thank my colleagues on the panel.  They will continue to-morrow with the proceedings and they will start at 9 o'clock.  My two colleagues on the panel will be joined by other Commissioners who will do the last day's proceedings to-morrow.  Thank you very much and good night.  Will you stand while the witnesses leave.
Hearing adjourns.

STATEMENT FROM WITNESS: It was on a Friday 1986 in April when we last saw our father [Mr Douglas Ndakuthini Zweni] at home at about 8pm in the evening.  The situation in Zolani township was very tense in that there were tension between the community and the Councillor.
 My father at the time was also one of the Councillors.  So my father did not come that Friday night in April 1986.  All of us at home were worried at home especially my mother.
 My mother [Ms Nolusapho Zweni] asked my younger sister [Kholiwe Zweni] to go and look for my father around the area.  This was on a Sunday morning when she went to look for him.  Within a few minutes my sister came crying and running telling us that she saw our father lying on the street between the squatter camp area called Masekani an area called Seven Steps here in Zolani.
 My father went out alone to the spot where my father was.  When she arrived there she saw my father lying down on his back in the street.  At the time I was not at home but I heard the news and went to the spot to witness this.  When I arrived I saw him lying on his back, one leg was bent and one was flat while he was down.  There was a big knife next to him.  Also an old reference book was found underneath his body with no name or identity.
 A certain Mr Lenk who was a policeman from Ashton and Mr Mpiko who worked with my father at Langeberg went to pick up my father.  His body was put into a police van driven by Mr Lenk.  His body was taken to the mortuary.
 About three months before my father died a man from the neighbourhood, just next door by the name of Mr Timothy Tyalisisu said to me that I must tell my father that he is an informer.  This Mr Tyalisisu was once a Mayor before but was later converted and became a political activist.  So he said this while he was a political activist.   When I told my father what Mr Tyalisisu said, he said, let him come to me and say that to me.
To come back again to my father's death.  While he was lying down he had a big deep scar across the nose.  Seemingly he was hacked with an axe.  We are also told by Mr Qotose Maqolo who was a State witness at the Supreme Court in my father's death case.  He told us that in order to overpower my father the murders/killers threw a brick at my father's head in order to put him down on the ground.  More information can be found in Cape Town Supreme Court [1987/88]
 Investigation were done initially by Mr Lenk because he was the first to take fingerprints and other things.  Other investigations were done by other detectives, perhaps from Cape Town.
Arrest subsequently were made, people arrested were
* Mr Tyalisisu
* Mr Samuel Mangcola
* Mr Kikise Msoki
* Mr Lemi Mhlomi
All of them were and are still in Zolani but Samuel is no longer here in Cape Town.  They appeared in the Supreme Court in Cape Town and were given suspended sentences and had to do community work.  But that came as a surprise to us to see the murders going free without imprisonment.
 Although my mother asked me not to say anything which might lead to other tensions there were many threats from the people at Zolani directed to us.  For instance there were verbal abuses and death threats even after the death of my father.  We were blacklisted in the social and political circles.  We were a very isolated family in Zolani.  There was also stone throwing on our roof by faceless/invisible people because when we go out to check them, they were not there.
 Also the relationship with our next-door neighbours were very cold but I must confess that we are in good terms with them, we have forgotten what happened in the past.