Human Rights Violation Hearings — Durban — 1996-05-09

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much.  Is there somebody with questions.  Dr Mgojo.

KHOZA MGOJO: Baba Nzama, as your son was affected in his education while he was doing his second year at a university, where is he now?

WITNESS:   He is here.

KHOZA MGOJO: Was he able to further his education?

WITNESS:   No, he only managed to finish now, because his sister started her working and is helping him.  He is now at the Technikon.

KHOZA MGOJO: So it's the sister who's educating your child?

WITNESS:  Yes.

KHOZA MGOJO: Why I'm asking you is because we're trying to help you.  We need to help you where we can manage.  Didn't you  /think that

KHOZA MGOJO: 13A/7 think that there was a need for him that since he was affected that he could have some kind of request?

WITNESS:   I think he has some request.

CHAIRPERSON: Baba, we thank you very much that you were able to come here to come and give this testimony.  We are listening.  May God be with you.  We are going to try to meet your request and see how we could help you.  Thank you very much.

DR BORAINE: Mr Chairperson, the next witness that I call is Mr Sibongiseni Goodlord Linda, and I will ask him to please come to the witness stand.  We are just waiting for the earphones to be put in place, so that the witness can hear and follow the questions.  Can you hear my voice all right?  Fine.  Sibongiseni, is that the name you would like me to call you, or Goodlord?

SIBONGISENI GOODLORD LINDA NZAMA: Sibongiseni.

DR BORAINE: Thank you very much.  You are very welcome.  Let me ask you immediately, are you related to Mr Jerico Nzama?

SIBONGISENI GOODLORD LINDA NZAMA: That is my father.

DR BORAINE: It just confused me a bit by all these different names, but now we know.  And you are the same young man that we heard about from him?  Is that correct?

SIBONGISENI GOODLORD LINDA NZAMA: In fact, Linda is one of my first names.

DR BORAINE: Okay, that helps a lot.  So you are Mr Nzama, Junior?

SIBONGISENI GOODLORD LINDA NZAMA: Yes.

DR BORAINE: Thank you, now we know where we are.  So I'm going to call you Mr Nzama and say to you how pleased we are that you are here.  We have heard from your father, but we are very pleased that we can hear from you as well.  You are a very young man and you must have been even younger when all these terrible things happened and we are going to listen to your story with great interest, but before we do so, would you please stand to take the oath.

SIBONGISENI GOODLORD LINDA NZAMA: (Sworn states) (Through Interpreter)

DR BORAINE: Thank you very much.  Mr Nzama, my colleague, Mr Lax, is going to take over from me now and
 /he is
13/11 he is going to help you help us to know exactly what happened, so that we can know what the truth is.  Thank you.

MR LAX: I'll speak English, because I don't speak Zulu very well.  We have heard your father telling us about the events of that night.  What we would like to hear from you is, from your own perspective, what happened to you that night.  We have the general outline of the story, as your father has described it, so we know more or less what happened, but we would like to hear from you what happened as far as you saw it and experienced it.

WITNESS:   As my father has already explained, the soldiers arrived and they way they came in.  All the things that happened to him ... (inaudible).  With me they put me in my father's bedroom.  That's where they put me.  That's where they started interrogating me, asking me where were my father's guns.  I told them my father doesn't have any guns, and some of them lied me down and pressed me down.  One of them hit me - slapped me with an open hand in my back.  They asked me again, "Where are these guns?"   I kept on saying, "My father doesn't have guns".  During that time they were searching.  There is a huge belt they found that my father had while he was still working at the security.  They hit me with this belt and it was very painful.  When they started hitting me with this belt I screamed aloud.  They started hitting me and they were asking me, "Where are these guns?"  I said I didn't know where the guns were.  It continued.  From there they got very angry.  They threw me down on the floor.  That's where all of them started attacking me.  They were kicking me, hitting me with the gun butts and hitting me against the wall,

MR LAX: /banging

MR LAX: 13A/15 banging me against the wall, hitting me with their fist.  They assaulted me in every way they could.  They were attacking me and then they would give me a chance to speak to say where the guns were and I kept on saying, "I don't know".  This thing continued for a long time.  They were beating me, asking me questions, they were beating me.  There was a time I feared that I was going to die.  I started telling them lies.  I said, "There are guns".  I said, "There is a gun here".  I said it was on top of the wardrobe.  They ran on top of the wardrobe and they didn't find any and when they came back they were very angry.  They said I'm making them fools.  They attacked me again.  From there, they said, "These guns you are talking about, what kind of a gun?", so I said it was a small gun.  They said no, they were looking for an AK-47.  They showed me one of the long guns they had.  They said, "We want a gun that looks like this one".  I didn't know that gun.  I said to them, "I don't know that kind of a gun".  They called my father back while they still were dealing with me.  They told him that I had already told them that there is a gun.  When my father was inside I said I was in such pain I said that because I was in such pain, there is no such a gun I know of.  They started beating me in front of my father.  They also assaulted my father and kept on taking him outside.  They were still asking me where these guns were.  After about an hour, while they were assaulting me like this, they took me outside.  It was very cold on that day and I wasn't wearing warm - I just had pyjamas and it was a short-sleeved pyjama and even the pants of this pyjama was short, but it was very cold and I was in pain.  They went inside the house and started

MR LAX: /searching