Human Rights Violation Hearings — Queenstown — 1996-07-24

REV XUNDU: Thank you.  I hand her over to you Mr Chairman.

BONGANI FINCA: We hand over to Adv Denzil Potgieter.

ADV POTGIETER: Thank you Chairperson.  Good afternoon Mrs Mbalo.  Can you hear me on the earphones?

B MBALO: Yes, I can hear, I greet you.

ADV POTGIETER: Very good, thank you very much.  You will be testifying about the death of Fungile Livingstone Nkohla.

B MBALO: Yes.

ADV POTGIETER: And he was shot and killed by a policeman on the 26th of May 1993.

B MBALO: That's right.

ADV POTGIETER: And although Fungile is actually the son of your sister, you regard him as your own son.

B MBALO: That's right.

ADV POTGIETER: I just want to ask you one or two things about Fungile before you take us through the testimony.  How old was he when he was killed?

B MBALO: He was born in 1965.

ADV POTGIETER: And was he still attending school?

B MBALO: He was a worker in the mines.

ADV POTGIETER: And this incident happened in Sterkstroom, is that correct?

B MBALO: That's true.
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ADV POTGIETER: Now, would you like to tell us what happened to  Fungile, how it came about that he was shot?

B MBALO: Yes, I can explain.  In 1993 the COSAS asked that students should go and march in town.  Then on Friday there is a river in our town, on a  Friday there were many policemen beyond the river stopping people not to go to town until twelve o'clock when the school children would be taking their complaints to town.
 So the school children went to town.  When they were near a certain policeman, superintendent's office, they were asked to stop by the policemen.
 They then went back to the office and on their way, there is an office there which they burnt.  When the soldiers saw that this office was burning, they came to the school children and the school children ran away and got into the location, the old location.
 The policemen parked their hippo's next to the office and walked to the location.  Then my son as he was running towards a certain house, which is near our home, they closed him out.
 Two policemen came towards him and shot him at the back of the head and he fell at the gate of that particular house.  They grabbed him and put him at the doorstep at another house and phoned for other policemen who came and threw him at the back of the van.
 They kept him for two weeks at the police station.  We went there as parents to ask what he had done.  Then we were told that we should come and identify him the following Monday.
 Men then went there together with his brother to identify the body.  Then they asked the brother to sign that QUEENSTOWN HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
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it was really him who had died.
 Then they asked him as the person who had seen the body to sign.  We again went there on a Monday as parents to ask what he had actually done, then they said the case was in the jurisdiction of Queenstown, so we did not go to Queenstown, because we felt they were fooling us, because this actually happened in Sterkstroom.
 They kept him for a week and released him on a Friday, gave the body to us on a Friday and he was buried on a Saturday.  I did not see the policeman taking any photo's at the scene of the death, I also had to cover his blood.
 Then his uncle assisted me in the covering of the blood.  Time went on and it was quite a time with us waiting for the policemen to call us to go to court.
 And they never came.  I then in 1994 went to the Magistrate to ask them when were they actually going to call us as the parents, calling us to court.
 They said they had written a letter to Grahamstown and the reply stated that they had called us long ago.  At the time my son was asked to sign by the police, the policeman made as if that child was going to go to court at that time, and that child did not know anything about that.
 That was the last letter I got from Grahamstown.  Actually there was no court case on this matter up to date.   A policeman called Costa is the one who shot him, but he is still putting on the police uniform.  The mother to this child fell sick because there had been tear gas, a lot of tear gas in the location.
 The policemen were throwing tear gas in the location and the mother to this child got suffocated and then the Doctor said he was suffering from cancer.
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 This year in February she died with that pain, because she kept on asking where are we going to court.  Then I told her I had tried all the means, but there had been no response to this effect and I told her I did not even have money for the lawyers to go and find out.
 So my sister died in February.   That's the end.

ADV POTGIETER: Mrs Mbalo, thank you very much for that full account of what happened.  You said that a policeman by the name of Costa is responsible for the death of Fungile and you say that he is still in the police force, he still puts on a police uniform.  Where is he - is he at Sterkstroom?

B MBALO: Yes, he is still working at Sterkstroom.

ADV POTGIETER: And did I understand your evidence correctly - at the time when Fungile was shot, he was actually trying to get away from the police?

B MBALO: At the time Fungile was shot he was running to a nearby house.  Then he was shot out and he turned, that is how he was shot.

ADV POTGIETER: And it also appears from the statement in our possession that he was never part of the, even part of the toyi-toyi that was going on?

B MBALO: He was not part of the toyi-toyi because he was a worker in Johannesburg, but he had come back on holiday.

ADV POTGIETER: Did Fungile have any dependants, any children?

B MBALO: He was dependent on the parents because he has got a child who is 21 years of age, who is still attending school and he is mentally disturbed, therefore he is still in standard 4 and that child now has been left with me and yet I have got my own family and my own home.

ADV POTGIETER: And I assume that when, or while Fungile was
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still alive he was maintaining the child that you have to look after now?

B MBALO: It is like that because he used to buy furniture for us, even the windows he bought for us.  I only completed the building of the house only last year in November.  It is actually not complete, but I had to force matters because of the - my sister who is ill.

ADV POTGIETER: You've also said to us that you went to see the Magistrate in 1994.  Which Magistrate is that?  Is it in Sterkstroom or where was it?

B MBALO: That Magistrate is there is Lututu.

ADV POTGIETER: And do you know his name?

B MBALO: I don't know his name.

ADV POTGIETER: Mrs Mbalo, before we conclude, is there any request that you want to make to us as a Commission?

B MBALO: Yes, I have a request that Costa should come forward to ask for an apology because they did not tell us anything about what happened.
 They concluded on their own and this really hurt us - up to date, because it shows us as if we did not care for our child.

ADV POTGIETER: Mrs Mbalo, thank you very much.  I am going to hand you back to the Chairperson.

BONGANI FINCA: Thank you very much Denzil.  Are there any other questions?

B MBALO: I don't have any other questions.