Human Rights Violation Hearings — Durban — 1996-10-25

WITNESS:   I also greet the commissioners, as well as the audience.  My name is Virginia Ntozethu(?) Mkwanazi. I was born at Dlangezwe.  My mother is from the Dube family.   My mother was married to Reverend Shembe.  She left Reverend Shembe and went to get married to the Mkwanazi's.  That's when she gave birth to us.   We grew up as children who had problems, to such an extent that my brother, elder brother, Riot Mkwanazi, was involved in politics and he ended up being incarcerated in Robben Island.   And we grew under those circumstances.   And I, myself, realised that all the chances and the opportunities that I was supposed to have got I didn't really get.   Then I ask myself as to why my brother had joined politics, but when I realised that I couldn't go on with my education, I realised that my brother was fighting a battle.   Then at that stage I decided to give myself in.   Then in 1963, that's when I had just had my first born, and I looked at the situation critically and I wanted to follow my brother's footsteps.  After quite some time I realised that I was deep into politics, but there was no one who knew about my involvement.   And I did not want to be disturbed, nor seen, so I wanted to engage myself in some other business so that I would conduct my political activities underground.   I started selling liquor, so that I could not be recognised as a politician.   And then in 1982, I suspected that we were suspects, because a certain man from my home was arrested.   And they did not ask me anything about this very same man who was arrested, and I told him that I knew nothing because I was just selling liquor.   But they followed the matter up.  And then in 1982 I saw many cars arriving at my place.  These were police cars as well as police dogs.   And they said I should point out the weapons.   They got into the house.  I had quite a very big house at the F Section, Mazakele.  At that time it wasn't a usual practice that a person would have such a big house and they used to call my house "Hyperama" because of its size.   I was expectant with Nkananipo, when the boers came to my house.   When they got to my house they ransacked the house, checking and searching the weapons, and I was highly expectant and that time, I didn't know what to do.   But I was very sure that there were no weapons.   They searched the whole house, they couldn't find any.   And they used to frequent my place, they would even come at night, we could not sleep, because they used to come several times.  My husband was not working at that time and we felt that we were not safe at that particular place.   And even the comrades who used to come to my place were no longer safe, because the boers used to frequent my place looking for weapons.   Then in 1984 we decided that we should sell the house and move to another place called Lindelani, where we could live peacefully, because it was a place that was quite closer to town and we were able to send the children to school and also work.   We moved to Lindelani.   Within a few days, I think it was about a week, Shabalala came to Lindelani and he had also bought a stand.   He built his house.   And some others who needed help, who came to build at that place also requested help from us.  But along the way Shabalala wanted to be the boss of that place, he wanted to take everything under his control.  We stayed for quite some time and some things were happening in Lindelani.   And we could not do anything about whatever was happening, but we used to conduct certain meetings with the UDF ... (inaudible) ...

MS T MAYER: (END OF SIDE B)

MS T MAYER: 5A/0 (START OF SIDE A)

MS T MAYER: ... announcing that there was going to be a youth meeting and the youth would come.   And we would talk about the main objectives of this league as well as the UDF organisation, about the oppression that we were going through.   And later on Shabalala realised that my family was involved in politics, because whenever he used to call the youth, nobody would go to his meetings, and we also wouldn't go to his meetings because we felt we were not obliged.   We were citizens and we had a right to stay in that place.   But Shabalala later on, when we were attacked, he said he knew nothing about the attack, because on that particular day he left having given out instructions that we should be attacked, especially the business people, because I also had a shop and Shabalala had given an instruction that I be attacked.   I think at that time he went to Newcastle.   It was on a Sunday, February 1985, at two in the afternoon I was at the shop.  I had a very big tuckshop.   Because the community of Lindelani didn't have any shops nearby.   I had somebody announcing over the loudspeaker saying, "Mrs Mbatha, get out of that place".   And the children were scared, they were saying we were going to die.   And we already heard that people had died and their shops had been looted and they had taken some of the possessions as well as stocks from the shop.   I decided to go outside to hear as to what they wanted from me.  When I got out I saw a cloud of dust and I saw two groups carrying weapons.   They were carrying tin stuff, foodstuff and all sorts of things that you can get from the shop.  And I stood in front of Khanyile.   Khanyile was the one who was leading this group and he was giving the orders as to who should be attacked.   And he was the one who was responsible for all these announcements.   I stood in front of them and Khanyile said it in the loudspeaker and said, "Today we have come to the Mbatha family, Lambatha(?) has said blood must spill, but now we are carrying quite a lot of things and we would have to go and off-load all the stocks that we have, and we would come back to fetch some" and they were starting to quarrel, they wanted to take my possessions.   One was saying I am going to take the generator, the other one was saying I am going to take a fridge.   And by then somebody came and I was amongst this group called "Amabutho" and this person from the car got off his car and approached us.   Then Khanyile said the instruction was that they should come and deal with me.  David asked as to whether that was the law or the rule that a person should be attacked, we want to be told as to what we have done, what was the motive for the attack, and Khanyile looked down upon my husband.   Then he told him that they were coming back.   When the first group moved away from my house and the second one followed with the stocks that they had taken from the other shops, I said this car should come home and when my husband drove the car into my yard, I took quite a few things.   I took my TV, I took my fridges and I left the three others.  I took my children with.  And I told them that as we are going we don't know where we are heading for, but we are going to stay in the forest because we had no other place to run to.   I told my husband that we are going to stay in the forest.   We want the world to see what is happening to us because we have been writing to Buthelezi about the things that were happening in Lindelani.  We haven't yet got an answer.   Now, this attack is taking place on us personally.   Now, we should publicize this and make it known so that the world may know.   We drove to Ntuzuma Training Centre at the forest near the road.   We off-loaded the children.   We were not armed, we had absolutely nothing with us.   We stayed next to the road.  Unfortunately my generator had gone in for service.   Then certain dominees came.   They brought a tent and they said we should just cover ourselves.   They asked us what the problem was.  They said they wanted to accommodate us.  And we said they should just help us pray.