Human Rights Violation Hearings — Soweto — 1996-07-23

CHRISTINA BUTHULEZI: With some help that I get from Friday Mavuso, he took me when I was doing my matric.  Just when he started his organisation of SHARP.  That is where I learnt so much, I was equipped.  Even today I am still working there.  The little that I receive, I share it with my family.

CHAIRPERSON: Maybe before I ask the other Commissioners to pose questions to you, can you tell us more about what you
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wish to see happening.

CHRISTINA BUTHULEZI: I do not know what to say.  I would like to receive some medication, medical treatment.  Right now I am in a wheelchair.  It is not even my wheelchair, I borrowed it somewhere.  Even on Sunday, I did not have a wheelchair.  They are very expensive.  I would like the Commission to help me in this problem.  I have a child.  I would like my child to be helped, to be paid for at school.

CHAIRPERSON: I would like to thank you and I would like also to ask the other Commissioners to ask you more about your story.  That will be Joyce Seroke.

MS SEROKE: Christina, you told us you were from a demonstration.  I would like to know whether, at the time you got shot, you were still toy-toying or you were going home?

CHRISTINA BUTHULEZI: I had already left the group.  I was around my place at home.

MS SEROKE: You told us that while you were in hospital they came to ask you questions.  They asked you whether you knew what power is.  Can you please tell us what is your understanding of power?  What is power?

CHRISTINA BUTHULEZI: I was so angry at the time and when they asked me about power I just told them that they only know the power which is in the power foam plus, the Omo soap.  This angered them very much. That is why they started bringing guns.  They started believing that I was the leader, I know everything.

MS SEROKE: According to your own standing, the way you understand power, what was power at that time?

CHRISTINA BUTHULEZI: My understanding of power as we were fighting for our rights as children, we were doing it through power.
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MS SEROKE: Maybe, in other words, you are saying while you were toy-toying you were saying power.  Power meaning amandla.

CHRISTINA BUTHULEZI: Yes, we were saying power to the blacks, power to the black people.

MS SEROKE: The last one.  You told us that you were assisted by Friday who call you to join the SHARP organisation.  Can you tell us exactly what SHARP stands for?

CHRISTINA BUTHULEZI: SHARP is an organisation for the disabled people.  It tries to end the poverty so that people who are disabled must not go to the street and ask for charity.  It gives the disabled some literacy, we also have a computer school.

MS SEROKE: What does S H A R P stand for?

CHRISTINA BUTHULEZI: It is Self Help Association of Paraplegics in Soweto.  It was for the people who are in wheelchairs, but we discovered that even the people who are limping, amputees, they are having problems same as us.

MS SEROKE: Thank you very much.,

CHAIRPERSON: Hugh Lewin, Yasmin Sooka.

YASMINE SOOKA: Christina, I just want to ask you in practical terms, what has being paralysed mean for you because it is quite important for us to be able to assess how this will impact on your life in the next few years.  How do you care for yourself and who takes care of you?  You have mentioned to us that you have a little girl, you have a child as well and that might be very, very difficult for you.  You have also told us that you do not have a wheelchair.  If you can just give us a little more detail about that please.

CHRISTINA BUTHULEZI: By being paralysed I have discovered that I
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am paralysed for life now.  Then to have a child, it was a blessing to me.  Especially a baby girl.  I was very happy when I discovered that I was pregnant, but I did not tell anybody at home.  I was afraid that they will accuse me that I am on a wheelchair and I am pregnant.  I only told my younger sister here whom I share everything with.  When I was in hospital they were also fighting that why am I pregnant because I am in a wheelchair, but I told them that I will manage.  I have managed for so many years.  There is nothing that would stop me not to be able to take care of my baby.  I will always share with her.  She is big, she is beautiful.  She attends school now.  I manage, I do not how, but God is there.  He is helping in all the ways and my family too who are very protective.  They are there for me.

YASMINE SOOKA: Do you need special medication, are you in pain sometimes?  Do any of those things happen to you?

CHRISTINA BUTHULEZI: So far I am fine, but I have got a problem since I have got injured, headache.  That I am always, even now, I am having it.  I do not know how it can be cured.  I even have a fear this day that anything can happen to me.

YASMINE SOOKA: Do you attend hospital?

CHRISTINA BUTHULEZI: Clinic.

YASMINE SOOKA: Do you have to pay for those treatments?

CHRISTINA BUTHULEZI: Yes, I do pay.

YASMINE SOOKA: How much do you?

CHRISTINA BUTHULEZI: If I go to the specialist it depends because we pay something like R70,00, but in Barras it is R13,00 sometimes.

YASMINE SOOKA: It seems quite clear that the police mistook you for Antoinette Sithole, Hector Petersen's sister.  How has this impacted on your life?
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CHRISTINA BUTHULEZI: Will you please repeat the question?

YASMINE SOOKA: It seems quite clear to me that the police mistook you for Antoinette Sithole, Hector Petersen's sister and that is why they harassed you so constantly, but how has this impacted on your own life?

CHRISTINA BUTHULEZI: Since the police have mistaken me of being Antoinette Sithole I told them they must check my uniform.  I was not dressed like Antoinette Sithole.  I was not in when I have got injured.  They must just go to my school and check the uniform and see the design.  They will see the difference.

YASMINE SOOKA: Just one last question.  You were in standard seven at the time, but now you have matric.  Did you do that with the help of SHARP as well?

CHRISTINA BUTHULEZI: No, after I was discharged from the hospital, in 1979 then my principal came to me and told me that I must come back to school fulltime.  Then I went back to school with the help of my principal.

YASMINE SOOKA: Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Russell Ally.

RUSSELL ALLY: Just two very short questions.  You did not receive any compensation you said, but have you ever received any grant, any disability grant?

CHRISTINA BUTHULEZI: Yes.  I started in 1978 to get the disability grant.

RUSSELL ALLY: And that is still continuing?

CHRISTINA BUTHULEZI: It was closed in 1982, 1980 somewhere there.  I stayed for something like five years not receiving it.  Then I started when I got my baby, Ayanda, I started to apply for it because it will help me to bring up my child.

RUSSELL ALLY: And are you receiving it now or have you not had
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anything yet?

CHRISTINA BUTHULEZI: I receive it now.

RUSSELL ALLY: And the wheelchair, were you never ever given a wheelchair, your own wheelchair when it was discovered that you were paralysed?

CHRISTINA BUTHULEZI: No, I have bought it.

RUSSELL ALLY: You bought it yourself, you were not given one?

CHRISTINA BUTHULEZI: Till today I was never given a wheelchair.

RUSSELL ALLY: Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Piet.  Is there any other things that you would like to tell the Commission?