Human Rights Violation Hearings — Heiderveld — 1996-04-23

MS NGEWU: Mr Blackie told this policemen to leave my house.  It was - my house was full of detectives, we were left with one of these vans, we went to Ms Mia at no 21, we went to speak to him.  We were going to all these woman who are next to me here, we went to Town.
 When we got there, we were being taken one by one, but I was the first one.  Now I was the one who said a lot and after me Ms Mia was the next one.  These people were asking about AK47's, I said I know nothing about AK47's.  They said if this policeman wanted to kill me where were you, what were you going to do about that.
 Okay after that we left, they took us home.  After a long time we have 
already - we had already forgotten about this, we were told that there is going to be an inquests.  We were told that it is going to last for a month.  So we went to Wynberg.  We kept on going to Wynberg about this because we are going to this inquest.
 We were told that Christopher was shot by Barnard and Coetzee.  And these woman next to me were also told that, who the people shot their sons.  One of the children who had his hands up, was also shot, he was also one of the Big Seven.  He was one of the innocent ones.  Some of these witnesses also mentioned the fact that the police shot somebody who even had his hands up.
 As the trial went on, just at the end - towards the end of it, the boers 
said to me, if you want, you can also come to the place where these people were shot, the crime scene.  But I forgot to tell you this before, but this - this sight we want to - we want to - we want to do this again, just to show you again how everything happened.
 We said we cannot show - we cannot see that drama again.  We can - we cannot re-life this whole experience.  Now we were told that nobody can be blamed about this, it's only our children who had - who were the offenders.  Thank you.

DR BORAINE: Thank you very much helping us to try to understand what - what happened and what you went through.  Can I ask you just a few questions to help us understand a little better, may I go on.

MS NGEWU: Yes.

DR BORAINE: Thank you - tell us first a little bit about your son Christopher, who was he - ho old was he when he was shot, just a little bit about his - was he at school, was he working, was he - tell us about him.

MS NGEWU: Christopher was 25 years old, he had already - he was already working.  He was also working, helping me a lot around the house, sometimes he would fix the house, he was very helpful in - around the house.  He was working at Albany bakery   He had a three year old daughter at that time.
 Peza - was he a member of any political party, was he interested or active in politics?

MS NGEWU: He just kept himself well informed about politics, but I didn't know about these things.  But I realised this much later that he was an ANC member.

DR BORAINE: Ms Ngewu there was a lot - lots of stories written about the killing of these seven men in the newspapers on television, on radio, what do you remember, what did you remember reading about what happened or what you think happened on that day?

MS NGEWU: During that time when all these happened, I was too weak.  What I - what I knew is that I didn't want to see any white man in front of me, because I was - I was full of hatred at that time because of the way my son was - was killed.

DR BORAINE: What was the cause of death, was there one wound on your sons body or many wounds?

MS NGEWU: He had many bullet wounds on his - on his body.  Even the doctors after the post-mortem the doctors told me that he had 25 bullet wounds.

DR BORAINE: There were about 30,000 people who attended the funeral on the 15th of March, do you remember that day?

MS NGEWU: Yes I remember.

DR BORAINE: Tell us a bit about that.

MS NGEWU: There were many people at that time, I remember even the boers didn't want all this to happen.  I even remember that some of the people didn't even manage to come over, they were told to turn back.  The stadium that we were holding this whole funeral in was surrounded by the boers, that was in NY49.

DR BORAINE: The service went on all right?

MS NGEWU: Everything went well, because nobody - nobody was taking any notice of this boers.  We decided to ignore them, the only thing that we were concentrating on was the funeral.

DR BORAINE: Now just going back again to the actual day on which your son was fatally wounded there were witnesses at the inquest who said that even some of the seven who were killed, was standing with their hands up in the air and they were shot.  Do you remember that?

MS NGEWU: Yes that is so, I remember.

DR BORAINE: And the other witness said that while they were lying on the ground, the police came and put the gun to their head and shot them, do you remember that?

MS NGEWU: Yes it is so.  Even in my son's case, I actually saw the bullet on his head.

DR BORAINE: Now Ms Ngewu there was an inquest and you attended that inquest, in fact there were two inquests is that right?

MS NGEWU: Yes I went to the inquest in Wynberg.

DR BORAINE: Yes, can you remember what the final result of that inquest was?  I am sorry can you repeat that please.

MS NGEWU: I was told there is nobody - there is nobody to be blamed about the death of my son.

DR BORAINE: Do you remember a person by the name of Colonel Britz?

MS NGEWU: Yes I remember him.

DR BORAINE: At the inquest the Judge was very critical of Colonel Britz do you remember 
that?

MS NGEWU: I can't remember that well, I can't remember what the Judge said.

DR BORAINE: According to the judgement which was in the newspapers and on the television and radio, the judge criticised Colonel Britz because the police not only shot people there but went around shooting from the vans and he was very critical of that, do you remember that?

MS NGEWU: I remember that, but I - it's only from hearsay.

DR BORAINE: [indistinct] ... the actual Court case.  What do you think happened now when you look back what - what do - I mean what is your feeling about what actually took place?

MS NGEWU: I think what happened is that even when I am just alone I am thinking to myself I was just thinking was their any survivor out of all these - out of all these killings and why did the boers kill everyone?  Could they just warn them, or even kill - or even shoot them on their legs just to save their lives.  
 Didn't these boers have any feelings at all, why did they just kill everyone, absolutely everyone.  Not to leave even one to give witness.  Now nobody knows - knows the real-real story.

DR BORAINE: And that is one of the reasons why you are here.

MS NGEWU: That's precisely why I am here.

DR BORAINE: We nearly-nearly finished, one of the people who gave evidence at the inquest and you may not remember his name but he was a doctor and he was a doctor Van der Spuy.  Do you remember a doctor giving evidence? Yes I remember that doctor.
 Now according to him six of the seven of the so-called Guguletu Seven were killed at very close range, in other words the gun was held very close to the person not from afar, do you remember that story too?

MS NGEWU: Yes I remember that  - in Court.

DR BORAINE: And the doctor also said he thought that the witnesses were more reliable than the police.

MS NGEWU: Yes I remember that well.

DR BORAINE: And still the verdict was that nobody could be blamed for the killing of your son.

MS NGEWU: Yes they said that.

DR BORAINE: Thank you very much, would you like to add anything that we may have left out?

MS NGEWU: If there is something that I have forgotten these woman next to me will also add, because they know what - that happened they were also there.  If there is just anything that I haven't added, I haven't said, they will add.