Special Hearings — Women's Hearings — 1997-07-28

KEDEBONI DUBE: No, I haven't related this issue in church.  I am scared, because people are going to think that I've got Aids.  So of course I just can't go around relating this issue to people that I've got syphilis.
 Only now the home people, my family, do know it.  They know.  We do fight at home and my sister at home says, you have got Aids and my neighbours do hear.  Sometimes when they shout and insult me in the street, they say I have got Aid.
 That's why I am afraid of relating this issue to other people.

MS SEROKE: Now you are scared.  You realise that you think the long time has elapsed since this incident happened;  that you haven't reported ...

KEDEBONI DUBE: I thought I shouldn't come to TRC.  I was I came at the behest of sister, because Friday, because my mother gave me this fax on the Truth Commission.  She said to me the police were looking for you.  And I thought I shouldn't come here, but now this thing has passed now.
 But today in the morning, I thought I was going home and I saw this guy again.  And my heart was very sore, but I thought maybe the Truth Commission is going to help me.  If I can just see this guy having been arrested, I think I'll be relieved.  I think he must be punished.
 He shouldn't just be allowed to roam around freely, because whenever I see him, my heart is sore.  My heart bleeds.  Even if sometimes they are just - a sort of a relative at home, related to my maternal side, my mother's side;  when he comes in, I stand up and go, but my cousin asked me but why do you react like this to this boy? I just said I don't want him, but I don't relate to them what actually transpired.

MS SEROKE: Does this guy have parents?

KEDEBONI DUBE: Yes, he does have parents.

MS SEROKE: When you say you're related;  how related are you?  Don't you think you can try and request for assistance between your parents and his parents so that this issue could be resolved so that you can air your feeling and your pain about this guy?  So that when parents meet, his parents and your parents can meet, and this cousin and resolve this issue?

KEDEBONI DUBE: I just want him arrested.  I don't want anything negotiated.  I just want to see him arrested.  I think that's the only way I can feel I have been healed.  I want him to feel the pain that I have felt.
 I think they must also give back my things, my properties, because they also took my dinner set and took quite a lot of my things.  Now they don't want to return them.  When I say I want my things back, they say no, the Xhosa people took them and if you insist on getting your things from Xhosa, these Xhosa people will kill you.They keep threatening me with this Xhosa people.  I just want them to tell me what did they do with my things.  Did they share it among themselves.

MS SEROKE: Are you working now, Kedeboni?

KEDEBONI DUBE: The job that I am doing is really not a steady job.  I work at a house.  Sometimes I stay for a month and only when I have got customers I can go and submit them to my employer.

MS SEROKE: Are you staying with your parents now?

KEDEBONI DUBE: Yes, I am staying with my parents now.

MS SEROKE: Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Hlengiwe.

MS MKHIZE: You say they also got hold of your boyfriend and said why was he searching the corpse of dead people.  So when they arrested, when they kidnapped you and they raped you, what do you think about this?  Did they harass him?

KEDEBONI DUBE: I think he was saved, because when they got hold of him, the priest was there, but if they just got him from somewhere else, I think they might have killed him.  He has only managed to survive and was saved by the priest.

MS MKHIZE: The one you say you know, took you and raped you;  what is he?  Is he a comrade?  What right did he have to fight you and accuse you of searching the dead corpses?

KEDEBONI DUBE: At that time he was a comrade, but now he's not a comrade any more.  He's just a thing.  He's just an alcoholic, drinking all the time.  But during that time they were scared of him.
 That's why I also even could not report him, because he was quite a popular guy and for me - the people were scared of him and I was also scared that he was going to kill him.

MS MKHIZE: You say when he was a very known comrade;  what was he?  Was he an organiser?  Was he a secretary?

KEDEBONI DUBE: I wasn't very much involved in politics.  So I don't know.  But I do know that the big - he was popular, was highly known.  If you -  maybe if you ask comrade Uhuro of Vuga, he would know what exact position he occupied there.

MS MKHIZE: Maybe you can explain to us when did you actually realise that you have got this disease?  Here it's written that you went to Lerato.  When did you go to Lerato?  Was it just after you'd been raped that you went to the hospital or did it - did you go after a long time after you had been raped?

KEDEBONI DUBE: I only went after three months that I started having this problem after three months after I had been raped.

MS MKHIZE: So it means from 1992 up until know they're not able to treat this thing, every September?

KEDEBONI DUBE: No, it's not treatable.  It's not treatable, because sometimes I get a wound here.  That's when they saw at Lerato that I was getting this sore in my back and then they took my blood.  They were also not able to tell what is my problem. So they took blood and went for tests and that's when they realised that I had syphilis.

MS MKHIZE: And did you tell them how did you get this disease?

KEDEBONI DUBE: No, I didn't tell them, because at that time I didn't want to tell people.

MS MKHIZE: Maybe, Kedebone, that's what we don't understand clearly.  You said you didn't want to tell them even at the hospital.  I thought you didn't relate this, because your boyfriend said no, that would be a disgrace, but I think you could have related this to your doctor.

KEDEBONI DUBE: I didn't want to talk about this thing.  I just wanted to keep it my secret until the end.

MS MKHIZE: When you started realising that you were sick, you realised that wasn't a thing you could speak with your doctors?

KEDEBONI DUBE: Originally I didn't know.  I just thought it was a passing thing. I just thought it was an illness that will end.  But only now that I am explaining to the sister when they said to me when did it start, I told them.
 It's only starting to be serious now, that I realise that this issue is serious.

MS MKHIZE: Maybe we could advise you that when you go to Lerato, you must stay there and don't go to different clinics and hospitals.  Just relate this to the doctor.  Stay with this one doctor.  Relate to him that the doctor know your history.

KEDEBONI DUBE: I think in church, I believe that in church they will manage to heal me.

MS MKHIZE: Indeed, if you believe that the church will help you, but please don't stop getting treatment like going to the doctors and having all the examinations done on you so that the doctors can eventually understand your situation.
 You can go to church and pray for that, but in the meantime go to the hospital and explain to them so that - you see you must combine this kind of treatment, because it's dangerous for you to stop the treatment.

CHAIRPERSON: Kedebone, I just have one or two questions.  You talk about a witness.  Can you tell me what this witness actually saw?

KEDEBONI DUBE: Where?

CHAIRPERSON: You mention in your statement that you were left at Manzini Arms Tavern.  Tell me about that.

KEDEBONI DUBE: At the Manzini Arms, this man asked them where are you taking this girl to?  And this guy said no, these are the Swanieville people who mugged the dead corpse, so I am taking her to the church, and that's when we left the house to go to the church, and that's why he took me to this church.