Human Rights Violation Hearings — Port Shepstone — 1996-08-13

WITNESS:   Yes.  And they will talk, you know, go on talking, chatting, and I will not know what they were talking about.  Now I hear that Captain Fourie was looking for me, he wanted to talk to me.  I went to Captain Fourie.  When I got to Captain Fourie he said he had already spoken to my other brother.  Now he took me - he told me that he was taking me to some place.  When we got to the police station at Port Shepstone there - you see, there are offices there of the police investigating unit.  We went to the second floor with Mr Fourie, together with other three white men I did not know.  They were driving a Cressida.  When we got there he asked me that as I come from Bhoboyi, and I am here in Gamalakhe, where are the guns that belong to the Qabane.  I said, "I don't have any knowledge."  Each time I go there I don't look for guns, I just go and visit.  You see the comrades were residing at some church somewhere.  The church that was occupied by these refugees it's in Gamalakhe.

MRS GCABASHE: What was the name of that church?

WITNESS:   I don't know the name of that church.  You see all the refugees were residing and just staying there in that church.  I don't know the name.  I told that I don't know where the guns were, and he said, "You are going to tell the truth because you are also a Qabane, and my brother is the police but you are a Qabane."  He took me into the car and we left.  We passed by the bridge at Umzimkulu.  When we passed that bridge at Umzimkulu we took a left turn at Gulf(?), and we passed Gulf and we went right into the bush.  When we got to the bush they took out some tubes, you see those things that they used to cover our faces with.  Then they put one on me, they covered my face.  They asked me and they said, "Where are the guns?  Did Mr Nzama give guns to the Qabane, and who did he give the guns to?"  I said, "I don't know."  They said, "Now you are going to tell the truth."  Then they put the tube on me.  You see I could not talk.  If I was agreeing with them I should raise up my hand.  I lifted up my hand.  Then they set me free and they asked me again, they said, "Tell us the truth."  I said, "I don't know."  Again now they assaulted me from there.  They took me back into the car and they took me back to the police station, and I was there for two days.  The third day my brother came and he told me that according to his work there is nothing he could do to those white guys, the policemen, because he will also get himself into trouble.  That was detrimental for him.  He told me also that the people who are leaders of ANC - he told me the names, Dr Kwele ... (intervention)

MRS GCABASHE: Who is that?

WITNESS:   Dr Kwele.  He said he will try to get in touch with them and explain this problem.  I don't know really how far he had gone with that.  He came.  Fourie came also, and I had ran away.  I had ran away at that time.  I escaped from the prison.  No, I escaped and I just disappeared, because I knew that he was going to be running after me.  I just disappeared.  One day at night, when I was passing by from another house, I was shot suddenly.  Being shot I was unconscious, and regained my conscious in the hospital the following day.  When I looked at myself I could see my intestine.  I saw my intestine.

MRS GCABASHE: What hospital was that?

WITNESS:   Port Shepstone Hospital.

MRS GCABASHE: Go on.

WITNESS:   When I asked - after regaining my consciousness I asked my wife and my mother - I asked my brother and my mother what has happened, because they were already there.  They said, "You were trying to steal a car at Mr Nxamu," if I am not mistaken.  I think it's Nxamu.  Truly the police came and I was arrested.  They put on handcuffs on me as I was lying in the hospital bed.  Mr Nxamu had lost is car, or what?   ---   No, they said it was an attempt, trying to steal that car, otherwise the car was there.

MRS GCABASHE: In other words this means you were shot by the police claiming that you were attempting to steal the car?

WITNESS:   Yes, it was the police from Margate that I don't know.  After I was discharged from the hospital a case was opened, and on April 24 I was sentenced.  I was sent to Simpson Prison for nine months.

MRS GCABASHE: At Mafusa?

WITNESS:   Yes, at Mafusa.

MRS GCABASHE: You were there for nine months?

WITNESS:   No, I spent six months and they sent me back to Shepstone.

MRS GCABASHE: And that's where you finished up your sentence?

WITNESS:   Yes.  You see, there in prison the conditions were unacceptable, and I was discharged in October 23.  It was 1992.  I was released.  I went back to Gamalakhe.  When I got there I found out that the comrades had gone back to Murchison, and I also went back to Bhoboyi, because I was born in Bhoboyi.  After that between IFP and the police who were attacking us, up until what my brothers have already said right now.

MRS GCABASHE: We have almost missed an important story from you.

WITNESS:   You see another thing, the way the police were so troublesome, irksome to us, one day we just told ourselves that we will go to the police, and we went to the police.  That day it was in 1995, June, on the 5th.

MRS GCABASHE: When was it?

WITNESS:   1995, on the 6th - on the 5th of June.  We found ... (incomplete)

MRS GCABASHE: The violence was still going on in your area?

WITNESS:  Yes, it was not so much going on, but still the police were irksome, troubling us all the time.

MRS GCABASHE: According to this Commission we go as far as 1993, not beyond that.

WITNESS:   You see the letter is the one we received when we went to the police.  The police we found there was Captain Cabiner.  It was the first police we - and that is the police we saw when we took ourselves to the police, and he gave us this letter.   That letter, what does that letter say?  Maybe we will get a copy of that letter later on.   ---   No, I think even if you can take this copy, because I have another copies.  You can have it.

MRS GCABASHE: We have already heard the way you have been harassed, and what you have gone through, and the people who went through this with you.  Maybe we should ask you this question.  What is the - let me hand back to the chairperson.  There would be questions, and then we could find out at the end what their wish would be from the Commission.

COMMISSIONER: Any other questions?

KHOZA MGOJO: Sithembiso, I want you to explain this.  You say you were shot because they thought you were attempting to steal Mr Nxamu's car.  Who is this Nxamu?

WITNESS:   He is in Gamalakhe.  I don't know his whereabouts now, but then he was residing in Gamalakhe.

KHOZA MGOJO: What was he doing, this Nxamu?

WITNESS:   I don't know his work and I didn't know then.  But he is holding some position in Zulu Government long back, but I don't know what that position was.

KHOZA MGOJO: Now, do you think they had heard from him that you were attempting to steal his car, or where did they get that?

WITNESS:   I will say he is the one, because when I was in the court of law he was there with his family, and the other one was the police who shot me, so I think he's the one.

KHOZA MGOJO: Even though you don't know where he was working where was he residing though, where was his house?

WITNESS:  His house is closer to a place called Sikhotipola in Gamalakhe.  You know it's those houses that are built recently with five rooms, not so far away from the clinic.

KHOZA MGOJO: Do you think he's related to Inspector Nxamu?

WITNESS:  Yes, I think so.

KHOZA MGOJO: Do you think he's the brother, or he's the one?

WITNESS:   No, I think he is the one with the bald head.  Then he was driving a yellow Mercedes.

KHOZA MGOJO: Did you ever have any altercations with him?

WITNESS:  No.

KHOZA MGOJO: When you were sentenced to nine months' did you have any fine?

WITNESS:   No, I was not granted any fine.