Human Rights Violation Hearings — Pietermaritzburg — UNKNOWN

WITNESS:   There's a person that you say used to go by your place, and you suspected the person, his behaviour and the questions that he used to ask.  Just shed some light on that person please.   ---   There's a person who was my husband's friend.  I know his name, but I don't want to mention his name because I want the investigators to do their job.  This person, who was my father's friend, went to stay in Umtata, where I was staying with my husband's children.  This man used to come every day at my place and ask me as to what Thobekile is saying about my husband's death.  I used to say to him there's nothing to say.  At times he would even wait when I had gone out.  And when I phoned my mother he would ask what was being said, and I would say nothing was said.  As he used to come almost every day at my place one particular day he told me that my patio door that had a couch in front o it, that won't ever be seen by any body that it was open.  He asked me whether I knew that my patio door was open.  I asked him how he saw it, because I knew that nobody would be able to come in because there is a certain manner in which we close the door, and a person who doesn't know my place wouldn't be able to open that door, or know that it's not closed.  That made me doubt, because probably there's something that he tried to do but he wasn't able.  And the third time this man came into the house it was at night.  It was round about nine.  I didn't see him with my own eyes because I was asleep.  My children were watching TV at the lounge.  They say it was 9 o'clock.  This man went through the patio door and came to my bedroom window.  That really didn't matter.  Then later on, when I got a call - I didn't doubt or ask myself as to why he had done that, then thereafter I got a call which told me that there is a person in Umtata who has been put there to kill all the Maphumulo children.  I didn't really believe that, but on that very same day I received a call in Umtata.  I got the message from a certain house.  I will mention the person who brought me the message.  He said I must be told that there is a certain person who was pretending to be Maphumulo's friend, but he wasn't really Maphumulo's friend.  He had been sent to come and kill the Maphumulo family.  Now, when I got this call I was told that a person was being planted in Umtata.  I reported this matter to the police.  The police came, they stood guard at my house.  This man came as usual.  On this very day he didn't stay for long.  I asked him why on that day he was going around in circles in my house, because usually he gets into the house and sits.  The answer that still puzzles me even today is that he said to me, "I had come to tender the grass."  This answer still puzzles me even today, because I want this person to tell me how he could want to tender grass at 9 o'clock in the evening?  What sort of grass was that?  What did he mean by that?

MR DLAMINI: Is there anything that you want to say, Mrs Maphumulo?

WITNESS:   One other thing is that another friend of Maphumulo was behaving in a very mysterious manner.  I remember three occasions where I had taken him to the taxi.  Each time I was from buying him Kentucky or provision I wouldn't get him at the taxis, and he used to come and visit me in the house.  He was from Natal.  On the second occasion I took him to the bus, to the Translux bus.  I went to buy that particular person something.  When I came back to bring it he wasn't there ... (incomplete - end of Side A, tape 4) ... I went out.  I came back and he wasn't there in the taxi.  Then on the way to Kokstad, when I was driving to Kokstad, I saw the person hiking along Dabankulu.  This is the person that I had made to board to a taxi to wherever he was going.

MR DLAMINI: These two people, have you ever seen them?

WITNESS:   After the police came to my place they never ever came back til today.

MR DLAMINI: We thank you very much, Mrs Maphumulo, because this kind of testimony is helpful for us to try and retrace the steps.  We've heard your request that you want this matter to be re-investigated and the case re-opened.  We shall take that into consideration, as well as your request to be helped with supporting the children.  Such requests are taken as recommendations and sent to the State President.  He is the one who takes a resolution as to what should be done.  When he weighs the evidence that has been given then he decides what should be done in each particular circumstances.  I would like to hand over to the Chairman.

UNKNOWN: Just a question with regard to Nkosi Maphumulo, Chief Maphumulo.  We were very close.  He was one of the chiefs with whom I have worked closely in 'Maritzburg.  I want to know whether you know Sipho Madlala's whereabouts?

WITNESS:   No, we don't know him.  We don't know where he is.  We last saw him on the day of the inquest.  We never saw him again.

UNKNOWN: Where was he staying then?

WITNESS:   They were saying he is staying in Umlazi and saying he is staying in Imbali.  We just didn't understand where he stayed.

UNKNOWN: What about Bhengilise Shembe?  Was he there at the funeral?

WITNESS:   I never saw him.  I don't know whether other people saw him.

UNKNOWN: Where does he stay?

WITNESS:   He stays in Inanda.

UNKNOWN: We just want to clarify this little matter to set the record straight.  When Chief Maphumulo died his followers were harassed, especially the ones who were with him at the time of his death.  At that time when he died I kept some of them at the seminary.  What I knew is that he had already got himself bodyguards because his life was threatened.  On the day of his death where were his bodyguards?

WITNESS:   According to the testimony that we got in court it's as if he was all by himself at the time he was killed.  We don't know where the bodyguards went.  Maybe Ma Shembe would be of assistance to you with regard to that question.

MR LYSTER: Mrs Maphumulo, the both of you, we have with us a number of newspaper cuttings relating to your husband.  Some of them concern statements which he made while he was still alive, and other cuttings relate to his death and his funeral.  One of the cuttings relates to an assassination attempt on your husband in 1990 in the Table Mountain area.  Do you recall that event?

WITNESS:   Yes, I do remember that.  Firstly he had gone to a meeting where he took a taxi, and then Deda Hlope, as well as two other men from the Kunene family - I don't remember the other one - they hired a car.  Then he took a taxi.  It means they were following him because they knew that he was getting to the meeting.  At the time that they shot at him they were sure that they were shooting him, only to find they were shooting Deda, who was driving the car at that particular time.  Then the two Mr Kunenes died.

MR LYSTER: (Inaudible) ... time your husband was driving in front of the vehicle in which Mr Alson Kunene and Mr Nelson Kunene were travelling, and they passed a large group of armed men, and it seems clear that what happened is that the group of men believed that your husband was travelling in the vehicle with Mr Alson and Mr Nelson Kunene, and these two men, who were friends of your husband, were killed when hundred of bullets, literally hundreds of bullets, were fired into the vehicle in which they were travelling.  I'll also quote from another newspaper report here in March 1991, which says that,

MR LYSTER: "There are reports of discontent in

MR LYSTER: /"KwaZulu