Human Rights Violation Hearings — Lusikisiki — 1997-03-24

CLEMENT KHEHLANA GXABU: It is a helicopter.  I thanked the Lord that nobody died because of the helicopter, because it would fly just above the ground as we were lying on the ground.  We were not armed, we only had batons.  There were police all around, it was not just the helicopter that was there.  We dispersed, went home and then a date was set when we were going to meet, the 6th perhaps.   A decision was going to be made to go to the late chief from Nyandeni who is the father of Chief Botha.
 At about 9 o'clock the boers came in their helicopter yet again.  When we went there, when we realised that we were going to be shot, we had to protect ourselves in a traditional way, we went to a witch doctor so that the bombs would not get us because we were not armed.  We did not go to Ngquza.  When we went to Ngquza, a cow that was taken to 
the dip fell three times, the Mpondo people then said we 
must go back.  We were then wondering how the people from 
Flagstaff and Bizana would hear of our decision that we decided not to go to Ngquza.  
 As we were just sitting talking a helicopter came yet again from the Bizana area towards Lusikisiki, a second one came by.  When these helicopters approached, there were men there that were informers, Vangeli Mdolo, Vavadliwe, we were told that as we were sitting there they had gone to the shop at Fafaza informing the police that we had gathered yet again. We were demanding information as to what they told the police.  They then confessed that they told the police that we were gathering.  A second person was talking, an evangelist Dolo, he was arguing, a helicopter came flying around Ngquza, we were not on the mountain as such, we were right at the bottom because we were disturbed.  A second one came, it landed and quite a number of police came out, another one came and a number of police got off from it as well.  No one was armed except Wanna Johnson who had gone to help Stefele who had been detained.  He had a gun.  When these helicopters came we were asking ourselves as to what we should do to peacefully continue with the gathering.  We took a pillar and put a white cloth around it, demonstrating in the form of a white flag that we wanted peace. It was Mabeles Pilla who should be here in the hall.  We were trying to show them that a white flag was symbolising peace.
 Four police stood around us, when they were about 100m from us, we decided that we should sit down and only one person should talk.  We thought that they'd come to talk to us.  They had huge machine guns, we called these machine guns nduludulu.  Mr Maqlaqa who is here, from Mahlenyanga 
holding the flag up.  The police started shooting.  
Wanna Johnson then got up, called them to come closer, when 
he was calling them they shot at him, he's the first person who was hit down by a bullet, we realised that these people 
are here to kill us. The second person who died or who was shot was Ngelishe. Maxlaxla then said we must fight. We went, Mr Chairman, unarmed, they were shooting at us. Donsa who had the white flag that symbolised peace would shout and think that it was the last bullet but they would continue shooting.
 The four police were shooting at us and above us were the two helicopters who were also shooting at us. I think Mr Chairperson, they started shooting and beating us up from 9 o'clock in the morning and they stopped at 6 pm.  Some of us were able to run into the forest.  There people all around the mountain shooting at us.  Mr Chairperson, it was such calamity, we people were injured, we carried 58 people to Mr Tswele's house who is here this morning, he's a short man who is crippled. He was also beaten up.  Some of us were able to move even though we were shot.  One man was shot from behind in his buttocks and the bullet got out of his body through his navel.  The gentleman sitting next to me was shot as well.  We left 11 men who died instantly.  These men that were left there were Wanna Johnson, Chipisela, Ndolo, Gere, Ngilishi, Poposho, I have a list here, I will give it to you later.
 Mr Chairperson eventually these men left us, we gathered our injured and those who passed away.  The looked for Dobula and eventually they found him.  They had already shot him, he was bleeding.  They did not see that he was hiding in the tank, they shot at the house, we carried him 
on our way home.  We then decided to go to the hospital to 
phone the magistrate, because people had passed away.  We 
were too scared to bury them.  Men form Holy Cross would come, drive and cavy people that were injured and who had 
been shot.  We refused to go into the hospital. Mr Quanthrie(?) whose leg was practically amputated, we were told that he had been detained.  We then phoned the magistrate, telling him that people had died.  He said we must bury them.  We then asked how we're going to bury them because the police are there.  When this happened our chiefs were not there. We heard that they had gone to a farm in Umzinkulu.  These were the people who we were supposed to be consulting with.  We then sent a message to Chief Nelson Mhlanga Segau, we asked him what he thinks of what is happening to the Pondo people.  He did not reply because he was scared.  Also Chief Squebo who was taken to Nanda to hide.  It was in the morning. We had to nominate some men to go to Ngquza to see how the people were.  Lamketi who was a sergeant in Flagstaff then came, stopped us, asked us where we were going and we told him that we are going to Ngquza, he then said they are going to kill us and finish us off.  He said that the government had said that they must kill us.   These men were buried on the same land.  We left them there, people were then detained. They beat you up, they don't play games.  We needed money as well for attorneys to assist us.  Nonjebu was beaten up, his testicles had swollen. On the 6th we went to Ngquza yet again, Abraham a white man from an embassy in Umtata came, he said he wanted to talk to us. They were tense at Nofezile.  We had with us a mayor and he asked us what our problem was.  We told him that the reason was because we did not want passes, Bantu 
education and all our complaints.  He said he would get feed-back.  We also told him how the police had beaten us up and had violated our rights.  We then tried to get attorneys, I think one of them was Mr Swarts, another 
Ariston(?).  The gentleman sitting next to me whom we'd sent to get ... (end of tape) ...Ndoda Ndengani, then said, if it is true that we had a gun and shot at them, can they - this gentleman requested that one of us be given a gun to use and try to shoot at a policeman, just to demonstrate that we were not able to even use these guns.  It then became clear that the magistrate had sent these people to kill us and Mr Swart asked the magistrate not to be in the bench and this request was refused, and one attorney from Natal came and the magistrate was removed from the bench and another magistrate was brought in for our case.
 After that we were called to this helicopter field where we all met and this person came and explained to us about this situation.  And Matshibini who has passed away now, came he stood up and told them that we want to be represented in the parliament and we want the pass laws not to exist and we don't want the Bantu Education and we don't want to pay taxes because we are giving them our sheep and our cows to pay for taxes.  And he told us that he would come with a report, and he came back and he told us that we were baboons and we would not be allowed to go to Cape Town because baboons are not allowed in the parliament. 'What   
will happen in your grievances is that you will be given your own parliament in Umtata'.  And we gathered together to discuss what we will do because we did not want our own parliament and the Mpondo people decided to send Chief Luthuli who was a member of the ANC, as we were members of 
the ANC, because it was banned and we called ourselves Kongo and you will see that as we were calling ourselves Kongo, that was derived from the African National Congress and the boers were not aware that we were members of the ANC.
 And people were elected that were supposed to represent us there.  We elected this man next to me to go to Mdengi in Natal, Mdengi from Bizana, they would go to Luthuli and their answer was that Albert Luthuli said that we must accept what we were given.  We have to elect our people to elect us in the new parliament and we did that.