Human Rights Violation Hearings — Newcastle — 1996-09-10

COMMISSIONER: that Zwelinjane had a girlfriend, he might probably be at his girlfriend's place, but I didn't know where the girlfriend stayed.  They said I should look for another male, and I realised that if we got arrested the Inkatha would come and burn down the house.  And I told Nhlanhla to go and look for Zwelinjane, and Nhlanhla went together with the police.  They went to Mountain.  When they got to Mountain they did the very same thing that they did in my house.  When they got into the house they got Zwelinjane, and they wanted to search him but he refused.  And he undressed, he took out some money, approximately R400,00.  He took everything out and he was left naked.  He was throwing the clothes at them so that they could search the clothes and search everything.  They said he was stubborn and he was arrogant, and they said he should get dressed.  They took him and they detained him.  And I had told them to bring my son so that I could see whether he was still alive.  They threw him along the road and they said they were in a hurry.  The following morning I went to tell my nephew what had happened the previous day, and they were taking photos.  I went to de Kock and I asked him as to whether he had acted in terms of his promise.  He said he was busy with my son.  There is a certain male - I don't remember his name, I think he was from the Sibisi family -and this boy said to me, "There's no smoke without fire."  Then he said there's fire at my place, that is why there's so much smoke.  I should not make fools of them.  Then I  went to de Kock.  De Kock said I am not going to get my son back.  Ultimately de Kock said I should get my son back, but the police kept on refusing.  And the police put  /us in

COMMISSIONER: us in a police van.  It was myself, that policeman,

COMMISSIONER: Sikosana, as well as Zwelinjane.  We went out.  Along the way I asked this policeman to take us out of the van because I did not want to be killed.  I suspected that we were going to be killed.  The manner in which they were driving leaves a lot to be desired.  The car hit a pole when it was taking a turn, and he was driving at high speed.  My boy went out and we were left in the car, and we were left there with Sikosana.  And I asked them as to why they were arresting me because they had no evidence that I had done anything.  That was the last time that they arrested my son, but they kept on hunting us.  They would come home, harass us, traumatise my family.  They would swear at us, assault us, up until such time that every time in the evening I would put a spotlight, and whenever they were singing outside, saying, "Kill Inkatha, kill," I would put the spotlight on.  Then in December, on the 31st at night, I called my children to come back home.  This one was still young at that time, and the two were left in the street just a few minutes when I was sitting underneath the tree.  I heard some gunfire and I went out.  I discovered that Dumisani had been shot, had been shot in the street.  I phoned the police.  Mlojwa came and wanted to take the corpse, but my children refused.  I begged them to let go of the corpse up until Mthethwa had taken the corpse and took him to mortuary, because at that time he was dead already.  That is the case now when the Minister of Inkatha said there should be some investigations because his police were being harassed.  This is the only investigation that was done.  Attorney Gaja was representing the State, and when the witnesses  were being called we were told that the evidence that was

COMMISSIONER: given was not satisfactory so Mthethwa was convicted.   It was alleged that this investigation was going to be taken to the KwaZulu Government, and the case was changed to Dundee, was transferred to Dundee.  When my son was killed he had three children.  Now these children are being maintained by my own kids.  There is Siphelele.  These children are being maintained by my children.  Vusi Khumalo is working, and he is maintaining his own parents, but my child is dead now.  After all this had happened I tried to find out as to the progress in the investigation, but I was told different stories each time that the statements were taken to Ulundi.  Buthelezi was busy and could not look at the statement.  And from then I was harassed by the police.  They said I was creating havoc by coming to the police station each time.  I went to Mbele, and Mbele looked for the statement but could not get the statement anywhere, up until such time that I went to the prosecutor, who told me that he knew nothing about the matter.  He said that I should go and speak to the ANC.  That is the prosecutor who said.  I said that I had not come to talk about the ANC, I had come to investigate about the cases that I had reported, and he threatened that he will arrest me.  I stayed without knowing what was going on with the cases.  I started from scratch buying household goods because all my possessions were destroyed in the fire.  I had big windows, so it was easy for them to destroy everything that was in the house.  They also confiscated certain possession.  They shot at the house, and they also broke all the windows, and they put on a fire from the stoep.  I had to put on a new ceiling as  well as new planks before I could put the roof.  I waited

COMMISSIONER: that the case would be heard, but absolutely nothing came out of it.  Mlaba also tried to help me.  He also tried to write to the KwaZulu Police, but he would tell me that he was not getting any reply from the KwaZulu Police.  And Mthethwa said there's absolutely nothing that he could do at that time because there was no response from the KwaZulu Police.  I was told that I should be arrested because I was Mkhize's enemy.  Then thereafter Alfred Kubheka, my brother, was also killed.  He was shot and killed.  Alfred was present when my house was burnt.  Alfred, as well as Mkhize, were shot, and apparently we were supposed to be investigated with regard to the shooting of Mkhize and Alfred.  They said I was a suspect.  I told them that they got any guns at my place so how could I have shot Mkhize?  Because I was a working man, I was an ordinary civilian.  I had no guns and I did not belong to any political organisations, so I had absolutely nothing to do with the shooting of Mkhize and Alfred.  I left the police at that juncture and I went back to work.  I kept on being told that anyone who was not a member of Inkatha was not welcome in that particular residential area.  I lived that life, and my children grew up in that situation.  My other one is still at school, and I decided one should leave school because the Inkatha members would go to where he was attending school, and Inkatha would be deployed in that area so that they would accost him.  And on a certain day there was a fight that ensued and my son was nearly injured, but he survived that day.  That's why I decided that he should stop going to school because he  was no longer safe.  The Inkatha kept on troubling him.  But due to God Almighty he finished school.  He should

COMMISSIONER: have finished a long time ago, but he kept on failing because of the situation.  And that was an Inkatha school that he was attending, and I was also called by the headmaster and I was told that the school belonged to Inkatha members only, and my son was not welcome because he was a member of the ANC.  And they said any child who is not an Inkatha member should not be accepted in the school.

COMMISSIONER: (Inaudible) ... just take you back to the first incident you described when they were having a meeting - your son was having a meeting in the St Louis Roman Catholic School, and the vehicles were ... (intervention)

WITNESS:  They started at the hotel in Madadeni on the 20th.  Then on the 27th there was the meeting at St Louis.

COMMISSIONER: The vehicles were stoned by members of the IFP, is that right?