Human Rights Violation Hearings — Durban — 1996-05-10

DR BORAINE: Thelakuhle Sithole.  Thank you very much and you are very welcome.  I must say that you have been very patient.  You have been here for a long time.  You have waited all day and we are going to give you the same attention that we have tried to give everyone else and we want you to know that when you tell us the story of the death of your brother in 1990 it is as important as though you were the very first witness.  Thank you very much for coming and thank you for your patience today and will you please stand for the oath.
21A/0 THELAKUHLE BONGIKILE SITHOLE  (Sworn states) (Through Interpreter)

DR BORAINE: Thank you very much.  You have somebody with you.  Perhaps you could tell us who that is.

WITNESS:   Thank you.  The person I'm with it's Sisipinde.  She was born at Sibise.  She was from Dube.  She married at Dube.  She is our home neighbour but she is also a family friend.

DR BORAINE: I'm very grateful that she's with you, and thank you very much indeed for coming and you are welcome here as well.  Now, my colleague, Mr Dlamini, is going to take over from me and he will help you to tell the story that you have given to us.  Thank you.

MR DLAMINI: Thank you, Mr Chairman.  I greet you Bongikile, and we would like to thank you for your patience.  I just want to clarify a point here.  Are there any family members or are you alone?

WITNESS:   Yes, my

MR DLAMINI: /younger brother

MR DLAMINI: 21A/1 younger brother is here.  He is 34 years old.

MR DLAMINI: Where do you live?

WITNESS:   I live at Ndengezi, but our original home was at KwaMashu.

MR DLAMINI: Were you at KwaMashu when this thing happened?

WITNESS:  We were staying at KwaNdengezi.

MR DLAMINI: I'm going to ask you to relate the story to the Commission about what happened when your brother was discovered at the university swimming pool.

WITNESS:   Thank you very much.  My brother is Njengabantu Sithole and I come just after him.  He was born in 1958 and I was born in 1960.  He worked for a SACTU union, that's a clothing union.  He started working there in 1988, towards the end.  He was in love with a white girl called Bridget.  I can't remember the surname.  He worked at this union and the members were so fond of him, because he protected human rights.  He arrived where I stayed and he told me that he's really working at the union, but he's not free at all, because every time he was fighting for the rights of an employee he had to go back to the company and report and every time the employers they wouldn't welcome the decision.  They wanted him to side with the employers and he didn't like this.  I said, "If you're no longer free like that, you must leave this job".  He said yes, he did want to leave that job, but he wanted to work, because he doesn't have a home any more.  Our mother died.  Nje was involved in politics.  He was working as ANC.  He was very involved at KwaMashu Township, but one day I got a report at home - it was in the morning on a Saturday - that our mother was sick, that our mother was at the hospital at home.  When they said I must be urgent, she was sick, she was at the hospital, but I must go home, I felt something

MR DLAMINI: /was wrong.

MR DLAMINI: 21A/3 was wrong.  When I arrived at home I found that the house had been burnt down at KwaMashu.  Our mother had been burnt down completely.  She was in ash.  Our mother died in 1987, but in 1996 Nje was arrested for political activities.  It was on a Saturday and I went back.  On Monday - I can realise this thing is getting a bit confused.  I'm mixing it up.  I've been going forward and backward.

MR DLAMINI: Please go on.  Don't be worried.  Your mother - did you establish who burnt your house with your mother?

WITNESS:  I really don't know who these people were, but as they knew that this was a politician house I did suspect that they were burning this house because Nje was - they wanted that when Nje is released he would have no home to come back to.  They didn't want him to come back to any home.  (Inaudible) ... after him and so on, but he used to come back home.  On a Monday, when my mother had died on Saturday, I went to check at Verulam.  I really found that she was completely burnt.  All our property was burnt.  There was nothing left, but I don't understand what was used to burn this house, because there was nothing that survived.  Our mother was just an ash.  But our burglar proof - there were padlocks that were locking inside - it would seem they got inside and killed, although I didn't have the courage to look at her, but I didn't see her head.  I don't know if they cut off the head and then they put things on top of her and then burnt her.  I made funeral arrangements.  I couldn't bury her from home, because we didn't have a home, so I went to bury her where I was living.  At that time Nje was still in gaol.  We planned with my sister that we should not inform Nje how

MR DLAMINI: /our mother

MR DLAMINI: 21A/5 our mother died, because he really loved my mother very dearly.  So we said to him our mother got sick and died.  We thought maybe it would be better for him just to know that she got sick and died.  We used to go and visit him while he was still in gaol.  When I wasn't working I would go and see him all that time.  When I went to see him one day in gaol I found Nje was in a state.  He said, "I have trusted you.  How could you not tell me how our mother died?"  I said, "Nje, I told you that our mother was sick".  He said, "I knew you were cheating at me.  My mother came in my dream and she told me what had happened.  As I am here I know how my mother was killed.  My mother said my enemies came - the Inkatha - they killed her and they her and damaged her and then they put things on her which she didn't know what it was and they lighted and put on fire.  They got out and locked the house.  That's what my mother told me in my dream.  If you come out of here there will be no home for you".  That was what Nje told me.  He said Mama came to him through a dream and told him these things.  At that time he cried and he asked for the permission from the police to go and see his home.  Indeed, he went to see our home.  They chained him and handcuffed him and they allowed him to go and see in that condition.  When he arrived at home he just saw the veld and he just collapsed, because there was nothing.  The police picked him up with a van and took him to the hospital at St Augustine.  That's where he was admitted for a long time.  He was in a coma.  He wouldn't come to.  After that he was released, because he was no longer very healthy.  When he came back there was no home for him.  Even his mind was very disturbed.  He was very much

MR DLAMINI: /involved in