Human Rights Violation Hearings — Empangeni — 1996-11-06

WITNESS:   I think I was very, very affected.  What really affects me is that I wasn't just the only one who was affected.  This affected people whom I loved very much - members of the ANC, SACP, COSATU and my mother, because of me, and my family - I'm from a very big family and my brothers left their houses because of me, because the name had the legacy because of me.  The last person who died was Ntuli person.  They killed him even though he was Inkatha member, but they killed him because of the name Ntuli.  What really affects me most is that when my mother was killed my first-born was there and my brother, even though they survived, and my cousin was also there, who was killed as well.  And when Moses and the other police came to my house at Esikhaweni my child saw guns for the first time, because I didn't own a gun at that time.  Now that alone made my child a retarded child and I can tell you even today he's unable to talk to the police.  Even if he sees other policemen whom he knew before, because they were ANC members and they were integrated with the South African Police, now he's scared of them, even though I'm trying hard to teach my child that now the police are under good hands and again I was forced to leave to the house which I could afford to pay at Esikhaweni.  Now I'm staying in a house where it's hard for me to afford and they could chase me out any time because I don't afford.  I have to go to Esikhaweni, but it's difficult for me to go there, because no one wants to see me.  I took a chance on Saturday.  I went there to see my house and I realised that even the walls were still bad.  This affects my soul bad.  All these things make me lose my senses.  I can't use my mother's picture.  I can't use my brother's picture.  Mostly, my mother was a member of these people, the people who killed my mother, they belonged to one organization.  My took membership cards from IFP, because she didn't want to get involved in political conflict, and she was trying to protect us.

KHOZA MGOJO:  Now that you are here before this Truth Commission, what do you want us to do?  Leave out your mother's issue for now.  Talk about the earlier events which happened to your life.  What do you want us to take to the President?

WITNESS:   What I will ask you to do is something which is not for me personally.  It's something for everyone who was affected because of the political violence, more especially in this region, North Coast.  My wish is that all the cases of the people who tortured or harassed, some of the cases you have listened to, some of them you will listen to, some of them you won't even listen to them because people are still scared out there.  Now we are asking the Government to please remove all these people who are still there and who were there, who did all these things to us.  These are the people who tortured and other people have run away from their places and they are now criminals and people should go back to their places.  The Government should make sure that people should go back to their places.  That's why I'm saying to you whatever I'm going to ask, it's not just for me, it's for the region.  Some people from IFP were tortured, because even ANC members also protected themselves by attacking IFP members.  So everyone was affected.

KHOZA MGOJO: Thank you.  What I would like most from your request is that I can tell that you aren't selfish.  You ask something for everyone, not just for yourself, because even the Act allows people to ask for themselves or for their families or for their community at large.  We shall pass those recommendations to the State President.  You also showed some maturity in that you are not self-centred or self-conscious and you are not making these requests on behalf of ANC alone, but as well as on behalf of the IFP, because you believe that people from both groups suffered tremendously in the past.  We hope that the State President will take that into consideration, because this is a very important aspect that you have mentioned that we should come together.  It's part of the reconciliatory process and your request is one of the most genuine.  We thank you very much.  We wish you could be an example to the rest of the people.

MRS GCABASHE: You have already detailed about your family, but you have not yet told us about your wife.  What happened to your wife?  How is she feeling after this happened?

WITNESS:   She follows me wherever I go.  Now, she has grown fatter because of the misery, but I think she was the most traumatised amongst the family, because she is from a relatively quiet area, where there were no politics and faction fights, but she's now learning more about politics, in that in every struggle there should be a casualty.

CHAIRPERSON: Mr Ntuli, we thank you very much for coming here today.  You've given us a very clear, very vivid description of what life was like only a very few years ago, as an activist in this area, one of the most violent areas in the country.  Your story is a story which can be told in many other parts of this province.  People like yourself, either civic leaders or trade union leaders, who were continuously arrested, stopped, had their cars and their houses searched, charged, and you had your house attacked.  Your brother was killed and in the most cowardly of all these incidents your elderly mother was shot dead, and these have all had an effect on you.  You said your whole family was affected and I think you must accept, unfortunately, that the scars will be with you and members of your family in some way or another for the rest of your life, and after you short spell away from Empangeni it's courageous to hear that you have come back to this area and you continue to be of service to your community.  So thank you again very much for telling us that story.  It's important to hear these first-hand, detailed accounts of the activities of the police from that time and that information will find its way into our report.  Thank you very much for being here today.

WITNESS:  Maybe before I step down, I do not know how appropriate it is, but according to the reports that we received from this Commission is that the ANC cannot make submissions on behalf of the ANC if other political groups are not present.  We can oppose this because even if it was our initiative, we were not requested by the Commission to do this, because we realised it was important.  But we have already submitted and sent in documents, which has an outline of incidents which took place, which we think the Commission will have a look at and tell us as to when will other political parties be present, so that they can have their input also and tell the world as to what happened during those times, because we do believe that even if the ANC were traumatised, we believe that the IFP members were also affected by the violence.  We also wish to know what things happened that must be brought to the surface, because the political state is changing at the moment and the political climate is becoming quite different and we require the Commission to advise us as to the date as to when the other parties will be present, because we have a lot of cases which we believe will help all members of all parties to come and place their stories before this Commission.  Thank you very much.