Human Rights Violation Hearings — Mooiriver — 1997-05-29

WITNESS:   No.  We have been asked whether she might have just recently, just before she died, have found something, but she went to a party the night before she died and she was completely relaxed.  She mentioned nothing.  She didn't seem to have anything weighing on her mind.  There was nothing very particular that she had found out which troubled her.   ---   And I had just arrived back in South Africa on the 7th of November from many years away, and I spoke to her on the Monday prior to her death on the phone for about an hour or an hour and a half, and she didn't indicate that anything was amiss.

MR LAX: One other aspect you've alluded to in the statement is the question of some degree of conflict between elements in the community and the Bureau of Natural Resources, and you indicate that to some extent there may have been some tension between the project, the co-operative, and the Bureau.  Would you like to elaborate on that?

WITNESS:   I don't think we know about that in detail.  There were some conflicts.  There were also formal agreements between the project and the Bureau.  The KwaZulu Bureau of Natural Resources wanted to make the whole of Northern Natal into one big park at one stage, and that put them into conflict with a number of communities, and also to some extent with the project.  Clare was involved in some negotiations with them which seemed to reach some settlement as well.  But the KwaZulu Bureau of Natural Resources also controlled the area around Kosi Mouth.  There were some security police who had chalets there.  There seemed to be some knowledge of -some interchange between - or some social exchange between the security police and a number of other groupings in the area.

MR LAX: Has any inquest been held at this stage?

WITNESS:   An inquest was held last year in April, and the conclusion was death by unknown persons.  And with the paragraph that my brother read about that it cannot be assumed that, with the evidence at hand, that it was an ex-judicial killing.

MR LAX: ---   It should be mentioned at the inquest six of the key witnesses did not appear, so the investigation was not a satisfactory one and the inquest was not a satisfactory inquest.

MR LAX: Thank you, Chairperson.  I think I'll stop there at this stage.  Thank you very much.  Is there anything else you want to add before I hand back to the Chairperson?

WITNESS:   Yes, there are a number of particular things which we would like the Truth Commission to follow up if it is at all possible.  One thing is to investigate whether there were some underground activities Clare was carrying out which we don't know of.  We wondered if the Truth Commission could contact the ANC people who had recruited her, that's Mr Bill Anderson and Mr Caswells, and ask in what way her underground activities continued.  Secondly, to find out whether security agencies might have known about her underground role.  If Clare's security file from the Security Police could be located that would help.  That might have a reference to her link with military intelligence.  Thirdly, if there were any records of JMC structures in Northern Natal, particularly in Empangeni and Newcastle, it would be interesting to know if Clare's name came up in any of such JMC meetings.  And, fourthly, to see whether any of the personnel involved in the running of the Inkatha training camps, running between the 4th and 14th of November, had any links with security issues of Maputoland.  And then, lastly, the presumed murder weapon, the gun, which the police had, has got lost and the TRC is looking for it.  We hope it keeps looking for the gun.

MR LAX: Thank you very much.  I'll hand back to you, Chairperson.

KHOZA MGOJO: Clare's children, Thambo and Phula, isn't it?

WITNESS:   Phuleng.

KHOZA MGOJO: Is their father still alive?

WITNESS:   They had different fathers.  Themba's father is alive, he's a Zimbabwean, and - she was not married to either of them.  Phuleng's father, Sipho Cele, is alive in Empangeni.

KHOZA MGOJO: This one who lives at Empangeni, do you know if he has any political affiliations?

WITNESS:   Yes, he is an active Cosatu organiser in Empangeni, and he's been involved with local defence units in Ngwelezana.  He's clearly on the ANC side.  Clare had known him for about 12 years.  He wasn't a recent friend.  He is Phuleng's father, but for the year before Clare was killed he had not been involved with Clare at all.  He - so he was not an active parent at the time.

KHOZA MGOJO: The common question usually asked - how much has this affected Clare's children, the death of their mother?

WITNESS:   I think particularly for Themba, the older one.  He was eight when Clare was killed.  He - I think it was a great trauma for him.  He had been - before his little sister was born he had been an only child for a long time, and he was very, very close to his mother.  He's a very bright child, and he did go to counselling sessions with a child therapist in Johannesburg, and he's handled - he's dealt with it very well.  He's a very intelligent, very sorted-out child, but I think - well, it's been very hard for him.  And Phuleng was only 16 months when Clare was killed, so she doesn't have a conscious memory of Clare.  But she - obviously in the weeks after Clare's death she was highly traumatised because she had lost her mother and she didn't know me, she didn't know the people that took her.   ---   Fortunately she had just finished breast-feeding.  Phuleng had just come off the breast.

KHOZA MGOJO: So you feel Themba has had satisfactory counselling?

WITNESS:   I think for the time being.  We have tried to take the children into our broader family.  Ever since our parents dies in 1984 we brothers and sisters have been quite close, and so once Clare died we were there to try to help Clare's children.  And we're coping.  The children will have - will suffer from it as they grow up.  Yes, we can't stop that.

KHOZA MGOJO: Thank you, Sir.

MRS GCABASHE: There's just one small question for my own clarification.  In your statement it's mentioned that Clare was working at KwaNgwanase.

WITNESS:   KwaNgwanase, yes.

MRS GCABASHE: Is that KwaNgwanase.

WITNESS:   Well, Mangusi is in KwaNgwanase.

MRS GCABASHE: Oh, Mangusi is in KwaNgwanase.

WITNESS:   The town is Mangusi, the post office is KwaNgwanase.

CHAIRPERSON: If I could just clarify, the town is known by both names in fact.

WITNESS:   Yes, that's right.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much for having come all this way to speak to us.  We know that you and your family or families have kept alive the investigation into Clare's death for many, many years.  We also know that international organisations have put - continuously kept pressure on the Attorney-General in this province, and on the police, to ensure that a proper investigation takes place.  And we know that the matter has been investigated by the police, that an inquest was held, and our investigators also have all the documents, but at this stage we are, as you know, not really any closer to finding out how or why Clare died.  However, we know that it is your view, and the view of many people who knew her, and knew what work she did, that this was a political killing.  We know about her background.  We know about her ANC membership after 1990.  You have told us about her activities in the ANC in that area, the nature of her work that she did for the local community.  All these things would make her a target for a political killing in a politically divided and politically sensitive area.  She was a committed and a dedicated person, who worked incredibly hard for her community, and also worked hard in the pursuit of a vision for a new South Africa, a new South Africa which she was not able to experience.