Human Rights Violation Hearings — East London — 1996-04-17

DR BORAINE: We call the stand Mr Billy Shiyani.
You are Mr Billy.......(end of tape 13)
(presumably oath taken inbetween changing tapes)
BILLY SHIYANI

DR BORAINE: Mr Shiyani, you have come to tell the story of what happened to you.  Obviously there were other people involved, and other people who were not here to tell their story because they were killed.  So you will be speaking in one way for them as well.  It's not an easy story to tell, it's not pleasant, it's not funny, it's very tragic.  So I want you to feel that you are amongst friends and that we want to hear you and in order to try and help you through the story, Mr Tsiki Sandi will lead the evidence.

MR SANDI: Afternoon Mr Shiyani. The story that you're going to give an account of is that on the 25th of December 1988, you were with your friends and you were enjoying yourself.  At the time you were assaulted, there were bullets over and rifles all over. Let's start from the beginning, and try to talk about yourself.  You as a victim would like to know who is here, who is Mr Billy Shiyani.  Probably if you can start there, we'll be able to have an estimate and imagine what caused this assault. Thank you please give a brief outline.
EAST LONDON  HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
2 B.SHIYANI

MR SHIYANI: The Vice Chair and all who are here for the Truth Commission, I'd like to greet you.  My name is Billy Shiyani and my second name is Vuyisela.   I was born in East London in the location which is called Tsolo. The place was also called Duncan. When we moved from Duncan to go to Ezpumzni Location, which was a Duncan extension.  I attend school at St Phillips, that was my primary education, I went on to attend school at Duncan Village Higher, like any child there in East London I went to Welsh. My mother died when I was in standard 3, and my father died when I was in standard 7 at Welsh High School.  My parents were poor.  When I finished studying at Welsh, I went to Pedi.
 I came back to East London again, as the bread winner.  Both for my family and also my nieces and nephews.  We were a very religious family and in 1970 I went with my aunt Mrs Sinjlani to stay at Mtansani. I was exchanging these families, my paternal aunt which was Mrs Ncumbuti.  There was a mayor at the time at Mtansani location, he was Mr Gordon Nqumsa, he's dead now.  There are many units there at Mtansani, Unit 1 and 2 were macadamised and the other roads were untarred in the other units. The people started complaining about this, especially those who were in new units, from Unit 3 upwards.  There was a meeting and Mr Nqumsa was taking the problems and complaints from the people.  I was one of the people who went there together with my friends and we attended this meeting. We requested Mr Nqumsa and mandated him to come here in East London  to the municipality to come and present our case.  
 When he came back he gave us a report back and he said the white man is adamant, they feel that they will never macadamise those roads.  He said he will go for the last 
EAST LONDON  HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
3 B.SHIYANI
time, but if they refuse to do it, he will resign. This
 meeting was in another area in an open space called Highway.  When his efforts failed he resigned as mayor because, at the time, the white person didn't want to do anything to lift the standard of the blacks.
 In 1973, there was a bus boycott, and this was called because of the problem of the increase in the bus fares.  I was with my colleagues while travelling back to my place, we boarded a taxi, and when we were there, there was a child who was being chased.  We couldn't board the taxi as we felt that we must protect this person, it may happen that she might be one of our relatives and we resolved to make an effort to assist the child.  This girl ran and we followed her, but we realised that she was being chased by the vigilantes and the councillors of that time.
 When we went back to our cars, we were surrounded by some men. If you cab remember well, the homeland was very suppressive and oppressive.  What used to happen, they would enlist the help of the businessmen and the people who were from the rural areas, and they would have...(indistinct) and then would assault everybody who refused to board the busses.  We decided that we wont run away from this and decided to walk peacefully.  They started to ask us where we were going to.  Without responding to them, we were assaulted, but I stood my ground and decided that I wont run and was severely beaten.  I realised among the people who were assaulting us was Mr Nan.  My front teeth were broken during that day.
 I went to a garage next door and vowed that I would not let these men get away with what they'd done, I'd lodge a complaint against them.  I went to do so and there 
EAST LONDON  HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
4 B.SHIYANI
fortunately were policemen whom I knew at the police station.  They were Ndusquabawe and  Mulandeliwe, and they promised to make an arrest.  True to their words they arrested Mr Nan and there was a court case.  There were  many people who also went to report these assaults done by the business people and the vigilantes.  I remember one lady who was highly expectant, and she was assaulted terribly by the vigilantes.  The person who was handling the case ...(intervention)

MR SANDI: Who were they accountable to?

MR SHIYANI: These people were the people who were the henchmen for Mr Zibo.  The case went on, Mr Masisa was my lawyer, the prosecutor was Mr Popo.  It was now clear that Mr Masisa would prosecute these people who had been assaulting people.  Then after some time we were told that he's been transferred to Nunjwa.  Then we heard that Mr Masisa will stop working for the government.  He would not even be taking articles as an attorney. Now a white person handled my case.  You know what happened in this case, I was not even informed about the dates for the court cases.  Denthonga helped me a lot.  He's an advocate today.  Ben was doing articles at that time at Mr Makabi's and Mr Makabi represented the vigilantes who assaulted the people.
 The information which he would give me was very helpful, he would tell me, go to this place on this date, it's your case.  This went for some time and eventually I was...(intervention)

MR SANDI: Excuse us Mr Chairman, I understand that many things were happening during that time, I would like you to, can we save time, let us concentrate on the incident of the 25th of December 1988. I'm not really saying the things that EAST LONDON  HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
5 B.SHIYANI
you are now talking about are not important, they are. I just want us to respect time.  Let's go straight to December 1988, according to your statement you said you were at home and Jeff Wabena arrived, he is the late Jeff Wabena.  That was the explanation you gave.  He was together with others.  Can you start from that point and proceed?  Thank you.

MR SHIYANI: That was on the 24th of December 1988.

MR SANDI: Is it the 24th?

MR SHIYANI: Yes.  I was at home on a Saturday.  Jeff Wabena and Windsor Siwisha were heading for Transkei.  Jeff told me beforehand that they were going to Transkei.  They were very active in politics.  Jeff was the chairperson of COSATU in East London.  They came back.  If I'm not mistaken, it was round about nine.  While we were thinking that they are now back, we thought of going to greet them. I said, well I'll go and see them after a while because I'm busy selling at home.

MR SANDI: Did you know what they were referring to in your talks with them?

MR SHIYANI: Yes I knew exactly, but it was difficult during those times here in Transkei.  We were using terms, we were not even calling each other by name, we had terms, secret names so as to hide any trace.