Special Hearings — Children's Hearings — 1997-05-22

CHAIRPERSON: I would like to call Zamikhaya Botha to come up onto the 
stage.  I see the Fezeke Choir is leaving.  Thank you for your contribution and 
good bye.  Can you hear me through the headphones.

MR BOTHA: Yes, I can hear you.  Yes, I can hear you.

CHAIRPERSON: Before I ask Ms Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela to lead your 
evidence I am going to ask Mrs Burton to administer the oath.

MARY BURTON: Good morning Zamikhaya.  Are you ...

MR BOTHA: Good morning.

MARY BURTON: Are you going to make the oath?

MR BOTHA: Yes, I am.

MARY BURTON: Please will you raise your right hand.

ZAMIKHAYA WILBERFORCE BOTHA: (Duly sworn in, states).

MARY BURTON: Thank you.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: I would also like to greet you.  Thank you 
Chairperson.  I also greet you, Zamikhaya  Are you Zamikhaya's mother?

MRS BOTHA: Yes, I am.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: You are not going to testify, is that correct?

MRS BOTHA: Yes, that is correct.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Zamikhaya, you have told us in the statement 
before the Commission about the way in which you were injured.  We, firstly, 
would like to ask you to tell us when this incident took place.

MR BOTHA: I would also like to greet.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Could you please come closer to the microphone 
so that I can hear you.

MR BOTHA: I would also like to greet.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Thank you.

MR BOTHA: This incident took place in 1985.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: How old were you?

MR BOTHA: I was 11 years old at the time.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: You were 11 years old.  What were you doing at 
the time, were you at school?

MR BOTHA: I was at school at the time.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: What standard were you?

MR BOTHA: I was in standard two.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Do you have any brothers and sisters?

MR BOTHA: Yes, I do.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Are they older or younger than you?

MR BOTHA: I am the first born at home.  I was born in 1974.  So, the others are 
younger than I am.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Do you remember the day on which this incident 
took place, the day on which you were injured, what kind of day it was?

MR BOTHA: Yes, I remember it very well.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Can you just tell us what kind of day it was.

MR BOTHA: This incident took place in 1985, the date was the 17th of June.  I 
would say that there was conflict there on that day.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Please take your time Zamikhaya, because 
sometimes it is very difficult to relate such painful experiences.  You may take your 
time.  Were you from school?

MR BOTHA: I would say that I did not go to school on that day, but this incident 
took place on a Thursday.  The Wednesday I had a headache and I left school.  I 
think it was approximately two o' clock the Wednesday when I left school.  I was 
sitting next to the house, we were living in the KTC area in Nyanga and I was 
sitting next to the house and my friends came while I was sitting there.  Because I 
still had the headache I was sitting there, but at that time the pains were not that 
bad so I was just sitting there.  My friends came and we all left without me 
reporting to my mother where I was going.  We went to NY78.  What happened in 
the vicinity of NY78 is that the police were shooting at the time and someone had 
been shot near KTC Bazaar.  I would say that we went to go and, out of curiosity, 
to look at this person that had been shot.  Before we got to the scene, I would say, 
the last thing I remember is a caspar coming in our direction.  We were walking 
down NY78 towards KTC.  
 I would say that the last I recall was that caspers' were coming and I came 
to when the Comrades were taking me into Guguletu Police Station.  I would say 
that my story goes that far, as far as I can recall, as far as relating what happened 
before my discharge from hospital.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Were you just walking, going to look at what 
happened to this person, you were just somebody walking there with your friends?

MR BOTHA: Yes.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: When you were shot you felt the bullet penetrate 
you?

MR BOTHA: I never even felt the bullet.  I came to when I was being carried by 
my Comrades to Guguletu Police Station.  It seems that I lost consciousness when 
I was shot and I regained consciousness when I got to the Guguletu Police Station 
and I was put in an ambulance.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Which hospital were you admitted to and how 
long were you admitted for?  I am quite sure that this is a very painful experience 
for you to relate where at the tender age of 11, without even being aware of what 
was happening, you were blinded.  I just want to tell the people that Zamikhaya 
who is testifying now lost sight of his one eye.

MR BOTHA: I will try and tell the people.  I am a youth with no life, I lost my life.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: The things we are faced with here today are so 
difficult, because young people like yourself when faced with difficulties like this in 
life, see their life just disintegrating before their very eyes and what is so painful is 
that there is not even anything that can be cited as the reason for you having lost 
your sight.  Could you please tell us, Zamikhaya, what your wish was before this 
incident?  What were your dreams, your idealogies?  Could you just tell us what 
your dreams were so that we can try and comprehend the extent of your loss.

MR BOTHA: I would start by saying that I am now 23 years old and I am an adult 
now and I now realise the expenses that I am incurring and I could have been a 
football player, but because of the loss of sight in the one eye, because there is 
nothing else I can do, I try and carry on playing football.  Hence, my feelings are 
that at this age, looking at my peers, I would have liked to have been a professional, 
but I cannot see myself as being a professional anymore, because I have this 
permanent damage and this causes extreme loneliness in my life and also makes it 
very difficult for me to mix with people and so often I just want to go and sit by 
myself.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Do you find very often that you are alone as if 
nobody cares about you, as if there is no one on your side?

MR BOTHA: Yes, I would say that I often feel very lonely and it feels as if 
nobody cares.  Even hence the experience, this experience, when we tried to 
institute steps, for example, my parents trying to establish since they shot at me.  
The State at the time told us that we would not be able to lay any charge against 
the police, because the police could not be prosecuted.  So I would say that that 
was also one of the causes why at this point I feel such bitterness towards the 
people that took my life away from me, because I would regard my eyesight as my 
life.  It could have given me a better life.  I would say that is one of the things that 
makes it difficult for me to make peace with this incident, because even if the 
person who did this could compensate me.  I do not see any kind of material 
compensation, you know, from somebody who is the Station Commander of the 
police who was promoted after doing this to me.  I do not see what good his 
assistance could possibly do.  Any kind of assistance that he could offer me, this 
person that did this at some stage tried to compensate me by having it, making it 
possible for me to obtain an artificial eye, but that artificial eye does not help me in 
any way.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: So you are saying that nothing could compensate 
the loss of your sight which is, ultimately, the loss of your life?

MR BOTHA: I do not see anything that could possibly compensate me for this 
loss.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Zamikhaya, I would like to pose a few questions. 
 As you say you went to try and lay charges or institute a claim.  Did anything 
become of the matter?