Amnesty Hearings — Bloemfontein — 2000-06-12

BONGANI KHUMALO: He then told himself that he was going with me to this place and to Odendaal and the two of us would stand before him and I just gave him the permission to go with me until we were with Odendaal.  It was known in that area that he was selling tobacco and I arrived there pretending to be someone going to buy tobacco, but I had a knife with me.  I knew that the knife would not disturb me in any way and I would use it.  It was quite a silent way of doing things.  People would not even hear that something was going on at Odendaal's.  Now this man was in the kraal and he saw us and he came out, he came to approach us.  I was together with Jabulani Shabalala.  When he arrived, I made as if I was taking out money and I noticed that I had to finish with the job immediately and I stabbed him three times.  He tried to fight, but he ended up dying and I asked Jabulani as to where the key of the safe was.  He showed me and he said:  "Search him on the back pockets".  That's where I found a knife, I'm sorry, not a knife but a key.  I found - there were two keys, it looked like two keys were those of a safe and the rest, I did not take a good look at them.  I went with Jabulani inside.  He was going to show me the place as he explained.  It's true I was behind him and he showed me where the safe was.  He said - he knew two safes in other words.  Now this one that we opened, we found firearms inside, these pump guns, many of them, really, but by the look of things, when I left this house, I noticed that they would be visible, we would not be able to hide them because I was walking, I did not have any mode of transport.
	I wanted then to go and look in the other safe and I also noticed that we had spent too much time inside already because the purpose was to wait outside and sort-of keep guard.  So he went out when I asked him to go out and when he went out he saw Anna Magwa getting into another farmhouse.  In other words she was running and this made him suspicious that she might have saw something.  He came to me, he said:  "The girl who is working here", that was Anna Magwa, "is getting into that farmhouse there, she might have seen something."  And I said to him:  "We have to leave, that is the best thing, before his sons come and get us."  He asked me:  "Don't we take anything?  Don't we take one or two firearms?" and I made him aware:  "People are watching at us and we are going to be seen right on that we are the people who committed this act."  I took one pump gun and I jumped the fence and I felt no, I would not have a chance to run carrying this because I was running in the field and I left this firearm close to the fence and we ran away towards the tarred road leading to Qwaqwa, that's where the police arrested us.  In other words, nothing was taken from that place.  That will be my end.

MR MBANDAZAYO: In your evidence you just indicated that Shabalala did not know anything about that and a Member of the Committee asked you the question and you said he did not know anything.  Now all of a sudden Shabalala now is participating as if he knew everything that was taking place.  At what stage did Shabalala become aware of what is going to happen?

BONGANI KHUMALO: Can you - I don't understand your question, Sir.

MR MBANDAZAYO: My question is that you indicated to a Member of the Committee that Shabalala did not know anything about what you were going to do on the farm.  At what stage did Shabalala know what was going to happen on the farm?

BONGANI KHUMALO: I think Shabalala was already scared and he listened to anything that I was saying, in other words, what he did was due to what I told him.

MR MBANDAZAYO: So what you are telling the Committee is that Shabalala was just responding on your instructions, he was doing what you were telling him to do?

BONGANI KHUMALO: That is correct.

MR MBANDAZAYO: Now was it the first time that you went to this farm?

BONGANI KHUMALO: Yes, it was my first time.

MR MBANDAZAYO: Did you know Anna, who you were talking about before?

BONGANI KHUMALO: No, I did not know her before.

MR MBANDAZAYO: Was it the first time on the day in question, that is on the 25th of February that you saw her?

BONGANI KHUMALO: My apologies.  I came to know Anna on the day I went to meet Shabalala for the first time at the farm.

MR MBANDAZAYO: Would I be correct to say it was the 24th of February, a day before?

BONGANI KHUMALO: That is correct.

MR MBANDAZAYO: Did you speak to her?

BONGANI KHUMALO: Yes, we were chatting because I even spent the night there, but we were just chatting about the usual things.

ADV SANDI: Explain that.  What usual things?

BONGANI KHUMALO: I had asked to spend the night there.  They agreed  or she agreed because she was the oldest and we were making jokes and just talking.

ADV SANDI: Shabalala, did he know you before?

BONGANI KHUMALO: He did not know me before.

ADV SANDI: Thank you.

MR MBANDAZAYO: Are you now telling the Committee that you slept on the farm a day before the incident?  On the day of the incident you were waking up on the farm?

BONGANI KHUMALO: That is so.

MR MBANDAZAYO: And Shabalala and this lady accommodated you though you were a stranger, they were seeing you for the first time?

BONGANI KHUMALO: Yes, the person that I first met was Jabulani and he managed to take me to that person and that's where he used to visit.  It looked like it was not his home.  He resided - his home was in Riets, the township of Riets.

MR MBANDAZAYO: Now am I correct, in your trial you were accusing each other?  Would I be correct to say that?

BONGANI KHUMALO: That is correct.

MR MBANDAZAYO: Why was that so?

BONGANI KHUMALO: Gentlemen, according to my view, he was being bribed because what he testified upon clearly indicated that he had been offered money.

MR MBANDAZAYO: No, but was he not your co-accused?

BONGANI KHUMALO: On entering the court, he was known to be my co-accused.

MR MBANDAZAYO: That is Samuel Shabalala, yes.

BONGANI KHUMALO: Yes, the same Samuel Shabalala.

MR MBANDAZAYO: What gave you the idea that he was bribed and he was speaking against you?

BONGANI KHUMALO: What gives me the idea that he was  bribed was that on our way to Bloemfontein to the court, the people who had been made State witnesses, some of them were not even present and I was just surprised to see them.  Shabalala was with me in the cell and he could walk free, the police would send him to the shops, he would wash their cars and I would stay in the cell.  That gave me that impression, especially what was happening to me when I got arrested, but he disputed anything.

MR MBANDAZAYO: When you got to court they put charges to you, that is you and Shabalala.  Did they not put the same charges against both of you of murder and robbery and you both denied?

BONGANI KHUMALO: They were mostly referring to me.  In other words I was told that I prompted Shabalala to take part in this, that was the language of the Court on that day.

CHAIRPERSON: You may continue Mr Mbandazayo.

MR MBANDAZAYO: So I was still asking you that at the court you alleged that it was Shabalala who killed the deceased and Shabalala was saying it was you.  Why did you not own up and say that Shabalala has nothing to do with this, it was myself who did this or say:  "I don't know, I haven't done it.  I have nothing to do with it"?

BONGANI KHUMALO: To tell the truth, the way I was arrested by the police was not well.  The police assaulted me.  They asked me whether I was a member of the IFP, whether I was a member of the PAC.  To them I committed this act because I was a member of a certain organisation.  They wanted me to say I was a member of the IFP and I noticed that I would be killed any moment, had I agreed that I belonged to an organisation.

CHAIRPERSON: Okay.