Human Rights Violation Hearings — Benoni — 1997-02-05

VICTOR NKWAMBA: Ja, I am Victor Nkwamba and we are family of five, my father, my mother and my two sisters.  I am there only son.
 So, in 1976 I was 17 years old and I was at Edward Secondary School, doing Form Two and on 21st of June 1976, it was a Monday and I was on my way home from school and the roads that I usually used was occupied by the police and it was very tense at school.  We had to be out of the classes.  So, I was avoiding the roads that I usually took.  So, I took the other roads that I thought was safe, that was Mokwatsi Street.  So when I was in the middle of the road I heard a bullet shot, but before that when I was just in the middle of the road I saw a police, aiming a gun at me, but before he could shoot I ducked swiftly and started now running up the street.
 So, when I was a few houses up the street then I heard a shot.  Then I was shot and I was down.  So they came with a Hippo and stood next to me and the police was looking at me like that, while I was bleeding, holding my hands just like this.
 So, one of the police told the other police just to finish me off.  He said this in Afrikaans, skiet hom dood.  So before he could shoot, they were disturbed by the school kids who were in a distance far away. 
 So, they drove off.   So the kids, they school kids, took me to hospital on the same day and I was admitted and I lost my consciousness at the hospital and I recovered after four days.  
 Then I did not know where I was until I was told by the nurses that I was shot by the police.
 So, I stayed a long time in hospital and I suffered a lot.  I am still in pains even today.  I am using pain tablets each and every day.   And it is really hard.
 It was an operation after an operation.  I had to undergo about four operations.  One was to remove the bullet and my right arm here, I cannot use it fully, because now the bullet went through my right arm here and penetrated my school bag and right on here in my back.  So, the spinal cord was affected.  So, I cannot use both of my legs, of which I am classified as a paraplegic.
 After a while I was discharged from hospital.  I started to write letters to the Ministers to inform them about this matter, what they have done to me.  The first person I wrote to was Le Grange, the Minister of Police, that was in 1981.   
 So, they came to take a statement at my place and 
they asked some questions, which I answered very well, because I know very well what happened to me.  
 And after some time I received a letter from them, informing me that they heave dealt with these matters, all the claims that emanated during the period of 1976 to 1977, they have dealt with and no longer now can they consider my case.
 So, I kept on writing letters to the Ministers.  It was Minister after Minister, until before the election then I wrote a letter - because I know the Government was going to change - to inform them about these, because I wanted now to be compensated for the suffering I have encountered.  
 And after the ANC Government took over, I wrote a letter again to the Minister of Police and Safety, Mr Mufamadi, to inform him about these, thinking about that he would do something about this.  But, unfortunately he referred the matter to the Commissioner of Police in 
Germiston and all these other places and they did not really do nothing about this.   
 And until the TRC was formed, I think there was a chance for me to tell my story what happened to me.  Because I really want to know who shot me and for what reason, because I was still very young.  I had a future.  So he destroyed all that and being now the only son in my family my parents had high hopes for me.  So all their hopes were put down the drain.  
 So my mother still suffers.  She still cannot really sleep.   So, they are now very old.  So, we are struggling in the family, without getting help from anywhere.   
 So, is only the Truth Commission can do something 
about this then I think we can be on our way to reconciliation.  I can start now try to forget about what happened to me, though it would not be an easy thing to forget about it, because really I have suffered enough at a young age, like that 17 years old.
 Really I want to know who shot me for what reason.  Before that person really come out and tell me why he shot me like this.  Then that will be something.

DR RANDERA: Thanks Victor.  Is there anything else you want to add?

VICTOR NKWAMBA: I want to add that I never had the chance to proceed with my studies I want to be assisted in that aspect, to be assisted so that I can be able now to proceed with my studies, because right now what I want to do is study, because I was doing Accountancy and I think I can be good in that.  And to be able to, to be helped in order to support myself as well as my family.

DR RANDERA: Victor, can I just ask you a few questions?  And I am sure my colleagues would also like to ask a few.
 You were shot five days after, what is now known as the uprising in Soweto, June 16, 1976.
 In your statement you say the police were shooting indiscriminately.

VICTOR NKWAMBA: Absolutely.

DR RANDERA: What was actually happening in the township so soon after June 16 that brought the police into the streets and made them shoot indiscriminately?

VICTOR NKWAMBA: As I have said it was tense at the school that day.  So, we were told to come out of classes.  All right?  So, later on we were told to go back to our homes and as I have said, I have avoided the streets that I was
always using, taking the other street which I thought would be safe for me.  So, down the street, next to the railway line I saw school kids fighting with the police, throwing stones at the police and the police shooting back.
 And someone said, the police are coming into the 
township from Actonville, using the bridge and the crossing line.  So, that is where I took now Mokwasi Street on my way home and that is what happened.

DR RANDERA: Were you a member of any student organisation at the time?

VICTOR NKWAMBA: I was not, I was not.

DR RANDERA: And what standard were you in?

VICTOR NKWAMBA: Doing Form Two.

DR RANDERA: Did you finish your schooling?

VICTOR NKWAMBA: No.

DR RANDERA: Victor, you said earlier on you wrote to many Ministers and other Government officials, but before
that, did you lay a charge at a police station?

VICTOR NKWAMBA: I forgot that.  While I was at the hospital the police came and took my statement and at the hospital I was under police guard and when they saw that I was about to be discharged from hospital they told me from hospital I am free to go home.
 And they were always visiting at my place after I was discharged from hospital.

DR RANDERA: Now, can I just come back to this police guard in hospital.  You have told us already that you were on your way home.  There was unrest in the township.   Again you said that you had seen young people throwing stones at Hippo's and at police vehicles.   Why the police guard?
Was that common at that time?  Even an innocent person was has just been shot, paralysed, has a police guard all the time, or did they suspect you of something?

VICTOR NKWAMBA: Ja, I think they were just shooting at anyone, because now I was not the only one who was shot that day.  Before I was hurt, I saw someone who was shot as well, but he was not shot as I was shot.  He was rushed to the city doctor.
 So, basically they were just shooting at anyone.

DR RANDERA: So, all those people who were in hospital besides yourself, had police guard.

VICTOR NKWAMBA: They were in the hospital.

DR RANDERA: Right.  And the response from the Ministers that you wrote to, what was said in those letters?