Human Rights Violation Hearings — Port Elizabeth — UNKNOWN

WITNESS: It was 1981.  We were organised by Comrade Thozamile Botha, who is now a prominent member in our government.  That was the beginning of the Civics.  We were following Port Elizabeth at that time.  I was also nominated.  We had an anti-removal committee within the Civic.  I was the Chairperson there.  When we were campaigning against the forceful removals of people to Kwanobuhle, we said that if a person does not want to go to Kwanobuhle the government must not force that person.  Unfortunately, that campaign put me into this kind of trouble which I am going to tell you about now.
On 12 January 1981, it was 00h25, my home was bombed.  This bomb destroyed a 12-roomed house which we built.  My whole family was a church going family.  I was the only political person in here.  The only things we had left were those we had on our bodies.  We almost forgot our grandmother during this fire because at the time she was blind.  It was only people who went through the windows who got her out.  That time the house was in flames.  A few minutes after that a police van arrived.  I did not even notice what time it got there.  One of our neighbours, her name was Mrs May, she was coming enough saying that I was the first one to go out.  That case was given to Mr Putu who was also a policeman.  
This woman also forwarded her statement.  Putu was standing behind the fence when he was taking the statement.  His name is Putu.  We heard that he is in one of the government structure in Port Elizabeth.  It was only once, that he tortured us over a fence and we never saw him again.  We only heard that he has been shifted from Uitenhage.  Now we were forced to go to Uitenhage.
A campaign was started saying the same Kobese who said you must not go to Kwanobuhle is now living there.  The Special Branch policemen used to ridicule about that.  They used to ask me, "Now you are living in Kwanobuhle and yet you were the first one to say people must not go to Kwanobuhle."  They ridiculed my stay in Kwanobuhle and they made that their propaganda up to now.  I am challenging anyone from the government who is involved in the propaganda to come and tell the truth about the fact that tax had been used so much to promote propaganda.  In Uitenhage that happened the most.  I challenge anyone here who says their town has been used more than Uitenhage.  Most of the money that has been used to promote that propaganda was also used in the Military Intelligence.  They used to say to me, "Go into a certain place and take a couple of leaders so that the struggle of people could just die down."  
I was target number one in that strategy.  I said in the following organisation, I have reasons why I should mention these organisations especially when I talk about propaganda.  I served on YOUTHCO, United Automobile Workers UCON, it was a branch of COSATU at that time.  I served on AFROS as a director.  I served on the UDF with Mr Ngoni whom I have seen in this hall.  I was his Deputy-President.  I served in MAKUSA and GWUSA which were trade unions.  I served in Food and Allied Workers Union.  The fact that I served in those organisations made that when these Special Branch would divide themselves they would come to me.  If they are talking about trade unions, how involved they are with the communities, they would come to me because I was also in the trade unions.  If someone is looking after the cultures and trade unions they would come to me because I was also involved there with the youth.
I was involved from 1981 to 1985 except for those times I was being arrested.  I was building COSATU in the unity called talks, but all those things that happened in Uitenhage.  Their style was, they used to say in the propaganda, everything that is happening and everything that was happening in Uitenhage, Kobese was doing it.  That was their propaganda and their strategy.  
The second strategy was, the reason of the existence of the UDF was Kobese because I was the Vice-President of the Eastern Cape region.  So if we are expected to praise the police I can praise them because I can say to them, "They used millions of rands to promote propaganda."
On 28 November 1984 certain people arrived at my house.  Number one, Johnson Straight.  They were in a van that was used by the Council at the time in Uitenhage.  It had rocks in it.  You could identify where these rocks were from.  There were white stones that used to be in a certain place where there was a bridge being built.  Around midnight I saw this van and there were people in my yard.  I quietly opened the window so that they could not realise that I was in there.  They were taking out these rocks and then through my house, through the doors and the windows and then thereafter they left.  During that time there were another five houses belonging to UDF people that were also damaged like my house, even on the second day around 08h15 in the morning.  Now I am going to talk about something that is connected to Kinikini.  I want to make these two points.  The first one is, the reporters who are here, if they are going to report on what I am going to talk about Kinikini, they must report all of it so that it must not be out of context.  
If they cannot report all of it, if they just want to report a portion of it then it will not be the real thing because it will not be what I have said.  The second point I want to mention is, if the Kinikini family is in here they must just let them relax like everybody else.  I do not want to say that they must be attacked.  I am going to talk about a straight forward simple point about Kinikini.  This is not a propaganda committee.  At 08h15, on 29 November, the family of Kinikini arrived at my place.  I did not even know Mr Kinikini at that time.  If you were not working with the organisations that I have mentioned you do not know what I am talking about now.  You cannot say you do not know everything directly and personally unless you are everywhere.  You are not expected to know everyone who has a headache in Port Elizabeth, if someone has a swollen ankle some place you are supposed to know that, if somebody has been thrown by a stone somewhere in Soweto you are supposed to know that, there is no such thing.  You are not expected to know all that.

CHAIRPERSON: Please hold it.