Human Rights Violation Hearings — Soweto — 1996-07-25

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: I am very sorry, the letter that you are reading now actually is the statement that you had given before describing the events. Could you go to the part of the letter where you are making the request to Mr Mandela?  Can you go to the part of the letter, the actual aim of the letter, can you read that part to us, please?

OLEFILE SAMUEL MNQIBISA: Okay.  Yes, you know my problem is what I am heavily exhausted, because I have been here since this morning. So as I told you, I have a problem of memory.  The way I wanted to put my statement, that has run out of my mind, but ...

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: Can we help you in that because I am aware that you are very tired, that you had been here for a long time.  What you are trying to demonstrate to the Commission is that you had made several appeals and you tried to explain your situation and it seems that that is coming through very clearly in the way in which you are presenting your case to us.  Maybe we can lead you a little bit and ask SOWETO HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
21 O S MNQIBISA
you some questions, which would help us to complete your testimony before the Commission.

OLEFILE SAMUEL MNQIBISA: Okay.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: The one question for me which is uppermost in my mind, and if you could very briefly explain this to us, we are aware that you are a sergeant in the South African National Defence Force.  What is it that made you decide to actually join the SANDF and how do you feel being a member of the SANDF with Mr Joe Modise as the Minister of Defence right now. If you could just briefly give us an idea of how that happened.

OLEFILE SAMUEL MNQIBISA: Yes, I joined the SANDF because of that being my only profession.  As I said I was denied educational opportunities in Angola, I mean in exile. I feel very badly to be headed by someone who extremely abused and ordered our friends to be slaughtered in that fashion. I totally and extremely don't have respect for Joe Modise. I am very much disappointed because I thought he will be here today, because I wanted to challenge him openly, because in the past I testified before three commissions, that is Amnesty International, (indistinct), and Motseuyane. I requested the commissions to bring him forth so that I can debate with him.  But this didn't take place. Also this Commission can't bring the perpetrators in front of us.
 So in general, I want to say I don't have respect for Joe Modise.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: How does that influence how you work, how does that impact on the way in which you conduct your everyday work at work?

OLEFILE SAMUEL MNQIBISA: Well, because I am strong physically, psychologically. I don't care a damn about Joe Modise.
SOWETO HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
22 O S MNQIBISA
 I have written letters to many people around the world, in this country: Dullah Omar, Tony Leon, a lot of people, who are assisting me to expose Joe Modise further. I totally don't have respect for him. I wish he was here, because I know him as I know my palm.
 I would like to hand over to the Chair now. I have no more questions to ask you.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much. I will ask other fellow Commissioners to assist you in thinking more about the other aspects of your story which you would like to come forward with. I will start off with you, Tom Manthata.  Yasmin Sooka?

YASMINE SOOKA: I just have one question.  You talked about the June 16th Detachment of which you were a member.  Can you tell me a little more about that.

OLEFILE SAMUEL MNQIBISA: Yes, June 16 is composed of people among them students and us workers who left the country immediately after the Soweto school uprising. So we are named June 16 detachment.  We are the first detachment to open a military camp in Angola.

YASMINE SOOKA: The other thing that comes through in your evidence is that you say that you still suffer from the trauma of what happened to you in the camps.  You mention specifically that you were counselled last year.  At this point in time is counselling still continuing or has that stopped?

OLEFILE SAMUEL MNQIBISA: No, presently it has stopped, because I am tied up at work, the type of work I am doing, keeps me all the time at the camp, but again, last year I underwent counselling in Bloemfontein Military base whilst I was undergoing training, by one White captain who was working
SOWETO HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
23 O S MNQIBISA
for our medical services.  That was after I was admitted to Bloemfontein Military Hospital, suspected of suffering from malaria.  But this came about because I was thinking too much about the past and the recent happening at Walmersdal.

YASMINE SOOKA: Does the past in a way still obsess you, are you able to forget it through work or do you find that it constantly haunts you?

OLEFILE SAMUEL MNQIBISA: This is a lifetime thing.  You can ask my younger brother, he is here.  I am a person who is always angry, emotionally.  They don't understand me at home.  It is the type of life I have led. He can tell you. I am always emotional.  Sometimes I feel like gripping someone, doing away with him, but fortunately I am from a Christian family, that also helps me.

YASMINE SOOKA: Whilst you are in the SANDF, is there opportunity for you to study?

OLEFILE SAMUEL MNQIBISA: Yes, there is.  We are told we will be sent to go for further training, because that also helps in our military ranks, I mean, in promotions.  But presently I am still waiting.

YASMINE SOOKA: Are you waiting to be accepted?

OLEFILE SAMUEL MNQIBISA: I mean, I am waiting to be undergoing this training.

YASMINE SOOKA: Do you feel a great sense of frustration for the fact that in a sense your youth, the best part of your life actually went in the time you spent out of this country and that even your present position in the Defence Force is affected by the fact that you are not able to even be graded properly.  So there isn't even a sense of acknowledgement of the time that you spent in exile?

OLEFILE SAMUEL MNQIBISA: Ja, very much so, I am very much frustrated.
SOWETO HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
24 O S MNQIBISA
I am just there in the Defence Force because for survival.

YASMINE SOOKA: What will it take in a sense to make you feel that at least you have something to achieve in life?

OLEFILE SAMUEL MNQIBISA: Can you repeat your question?

YASMINE SOOKA: What do you think it needs in a sense for you to feel that your life, in a sense, has been worthwhile?

OLEFILE SAMUEL MNQIBISA: Ja, because what I left the country for is being achieved gradually.  I can see the fruits of our sweat, although lots of our friends have died, they lie in shallow graves in African countries, wherever ANC operated from.  But I think we will reach the point.

YASMINE SOOKA: Thank you.

OLEFILE SAMUEL MNQIBISA: Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Joyce Seroke?

MS SEROKE: Mr Mnqibisa, what attempts are you making to be reunited with your wife who is still in Tanzania?

OLEFILE SAMUEL MNQIBISA: Ja, because of financial constraints, let me first say, my mother is a pensioner. I have become her sole breadwinner. My younger brothers, some of them are not working. One is a hairdresser, he is earning a little. I have just managed to build her two rooms and a garage and a bathroom.  So I am in financial restraints to bring my wife in.  Because a return ticket to Tanzania is something like R2 000,00. So I am still raising funds so that she can come and visit us, maybe for two weeks, and that we discuss whether she wants to join us or not.  Because she is crying a lot about the daughter, because I am with the daughter, she is with my mother.

MS SEROKE: So your mother is looking after your daughter?

OLEFILE SAMUEL MNQIBISA: Yes.

MS SEROKE: How old is she?
SOWETO HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
25 O S MNQIBISA

OLEFILE SAMUEL MNQIBISA: She is now nine.

MS SEROKE: And what does she do?

OLEFILE SAMUEL MNQIBISA: She is in Std 2.

MS SEROKE: Thank you.

OLEFILE SAMUEL MNQIBISA: Thank you.