Human Rights Violation Hearings — Lusikisiki — 1997-03-24

MR SANDI: This Mr Mdengi is he Mr Leonard Mdengi?

CLEMENT KHEHLANA GXABU: Yes.  They were going to go to Albert Luthuli. At the time he was banned and he was under police guard.  This gentleman will tell us how they managed to talk to him although he was under police guard.
 We elected people who will go there and represent us.  Mr Bubu was one of them, Mr Digo was also going to represent us in this parliament and all of these people went to the Matanzima parliament and the case continued.  It was said that we had to pay for the people that were injured and for those who died, we have to pay for their families.
 Clothes were sent, old clothes were sent to these people and in 1961 we were banned and we were not allowed to go to work,if you were inside this area you were not allowed to go out and nobody was allowed to come in, so we couldn't go to work and din 1961 the police came to arrest us and we tried to fight for ourselves, and my wife was responsible for interpreting for our people.  One man was severely beaten up because they wanted him to talk and he couldn't.  One of the policemen who was there was Lamketi Ponteis(?), they were and Mankinyana was one of them.  At the time of 
these incidents there were many police although I don't 
remember them all.
 We were then arrested and our case continued.  It was found out that the police killed us and we were not doing 
anything, but what surprised me is that there were people who were arrested and who were hanged in that in 1970, Tuleni Mfumu Nwai was one of them, Nota and Zadunke Gavu, they were arrested and their case was not amongst our case and they were hung because they were present in the Ngquza Hill incident.  They were found guilty for beating people who were known as informers, although there was no evidence that any of the people who were labelled informers was ever beaten.  Even their families are here today, families of those people who were hung and I have a request that these people, their bones must be brought back so that we can bury them, even that we request for a monument in the Ngquza Hill.  We made this request to the past government that we need a project in our area as the people who were fighting for our struggle.  We won this case that we told the magistrate that the white man had just beaten us up because we were fighting for our government.  In 1971 Toby Johnson, at the time we were driving taxis, we were staying with a policeman in 1971 and this man told us that the was amongst us in the struggle, although he was a policeman.  He was taping all the conversations we had. 
 On our first day  Winston Johnson was called and I went with him and when we got in that place there were policeman from Demdodza's police station, and this man told him to speak any language and they asked us what we were doing the Tambo house and they told me to go, to leave and Mr Somdiza was beaten up. I was not arrested at that time.  We made a 
statement that we were taxi drivers and there was a taxi man log book and the case proceeded to Maritzburg and one of the people is here to testify today and it was concluded that we must not be charged or found guilty because we were just 
driving taxis.  Two men were sentenced to 10 years on Robben Island, Tshumani was one of them, there was a field in Khambati and one of the people in our area was beaten up and most of the people who were arrested died, not because they were ill but due to the injuries they sustained in prison.
 They used to use motor car tubes and they were torturing us severely and we used to just urinate because we couldn't breathe when these people were torturing you.
 This is a picture Mr Chairperson of the Ngquza and Arisdane(?) said that a post mortem was not conducted on those people and the doctor was called to examine the bones of these people, and they were then reburied after this.  Mr Landu asked us to pray because the police were digging people who were already buried so that the doctor could examine them.  We had Reverend Landu who was buried in Lesotho, he left his wife here and his wife died here.  Mr  Landu went to Lesotho because he was running away from the oast government. 
 That is all Mr Chairperson, if I've left out something Mr Silangwe will tell you what happened in 1972 when people were sentenced.  Mr Mtuleni, they were hanged in 1967, thank you Mr Chairperson.

UNKNOWN: Thank you Mr Gxabu.  Do you have anything to add Mr Silangwe?

SIMON SILANGWE: Yes Mr Chairperson there is.

UNKNOWN: You can add to what Mr Gxabu said.