Amnesty Hearings — East London — 1998-10-14

CHAIRPERSON: Ja.  So why didn't you give up this job,  because you were seen, and I'm being generous to you, you were seen as being party to this discrimination, sort of black apartheid.

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: The conditions were difficult because when we were discussing these matters and taking decisions that we want to leave our positions, it would be difficult because the people wouldn't leave you alone just because you have stopped being a headman.  They would continue attacking you.  Many people died because of that.

CHAIRPERSON: Yes, carry on.

ADV SANDI: Sorry, Miss Collett.
	Should we understand what you've just said now to mean that at some stage in the course of this conflict and all the problems that were taking place, at some stage you did consider resigning your position as a headman but you decided against that because it was not going to make any difference?  Is that what you are saying?

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: Yes, that is correct.

ADV SANDI: Thank you.

MS COLLETT: So the fact that you'd been appointed as the headman kept you in that category whether you liked it or whether you didn't, is that what you're trying to say?

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: Yes, that is correct.

ADV SANDI: What about your PAC comrades, did you ask them to assist you in the situation you were in?

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: They tried to help me many times but ...[intervention]

CHAIRPERSON: Are you saying the PAC accepted the fact that you were a headman in Gozo's regime?

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: The PAC did not object, to such an extent that our then President, Clarence Makweti used to go to our place during a crisis because even the PAC were being attacked in other places as well as the UDM members.

INTERPRETER: ADM, I beg you pardon.

MS COLLETT: Now did it happen that you had to leave your house?

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: Yes, I was once forced to leave my house at a certain stage.

MS COLLETT: When was that?

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: I left home on the 17th of March.  We went to a certain place called Kiep Kiep where there was a youth programme where the people whose houses were burnt down were kept.

MS COLLETT: Are you referring to the headmen whose houses were burnt down?

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: Yes, I'm talking about the headmen.

MS COLLETT: Now that was the 17th of March of what year?

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: In 1993.

MS COLLETT: Yes, can you tell us what happened after you'd left?

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: After I'd left on the 18th as a person was left behind trying to take my stock, my brother's stock, the goats and the sheep.  Just before Chris Hani's funeral on the 19th, after the, it was announced that after the funeral anything that belongs to ADM or Gozo would be attended to, therefore I was forced to leave some of these goats and sheep and left.
	On the 19th one of my brothers came who was working a night shift.  As a person who was working night shift he was attacked, everything was burnt down and he was injured and he went to another village.  That's how he escaped.  Then he came to me and he told me that the kraals, the houses that belonged to Mahayiya were destroyed, everything was taken, everything was just demolished.

MS COLLETT: Yes, and what happened?

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: We tried to meet with the police to tell them that our properties were burnt down, there's nothing left.  Even the goats that were still there were stabbed and some of them were taken by the people.  The police said they would investigate.  Even today they say they are still investigating.

MS COLLETT: Yes, and did you return to your area?

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: I could not go back.  I stayed there at Kiep Kiep until on the 24th after deciding to go back and check on my property.  I went to Mr Gangqa's place as a person who was my adviser at the time, who was also one of my relatives.  I went to his place, I knocked at the door and his wife answered and she said he was not in.  I asked her to open.  I told her that I was Mahayiya.   There was argument between myself and her and she was insulting me and she was saying that I'm Gozo's informer and she doesn't need any person who is connected to Gozo.  We struggled at the door because the door was slightly open.  I got angry and I was emotional.  I shot at her.

MS COLLETT: Now the firearm that you shot at her with, where did you get that firearm from?

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: We got them from the government at the time, Mr Gozo.

CHAIRPERSON: Why did you force your way in?  This person told you you're not welcome.

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: What made me to force my way in is because there were things that I was sure that I would get them from Mr Champion at the time because I did not have a problem with them.

ADV SANDI: But didn't she tell that Mr Gangqa was not there?

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: She said he was not there but after some time I heard him talking inside and he was asking me what was happening.  Then I realised that he was actually inside the house.

ADV SANDI: What time of the day was it, at night?

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: It was during the night.

ADV SANDI: Did you have anyone in your company?

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: Yes, I was with Zwelidinga Makalela.

ADV SANDI: Who is that?

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: It is one of the gentlemen who was from the peace force but he was not working there at the time because of some problems.  He was also with us there at Kiep Kiep.  I asked him to accompany me.

CHAIRPERSON: But whether this Champion as there or not, you were unwelcome.  You were told you were unwelcome, that she didn't like your presence there.  Why did you force your way?  Your presence there was being prohibited, on what basis did you feel that you could do what you did?

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: Because I did not have a grudge with Mr Champion and as my brother as we grew up together.  I grew up under him because our parents passed away and they left us there and he was helping us and he was taking control of some of our properties sometimes.  And he ...[intervention]

CHAIRPERSON: You say you got angry because you were being prohibited entrance?

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: Yes, I got angry at the time, that's what made me to get a shock that my brother's wife was telling me that.  So I got a shock.

CHAIRPERSON: And you shot her?

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: I was just shooting randomly.  I did not intend to shoot her, unfortunately she was shot.

CHAIRPERSON: Come Mr Mahayiya, I mean that's not what you just told us.

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: Please repeat the question, Sir.

CHAIRPERSON: That's not what you told us a few minutes ago.  A few minutes ago you said that you got angry and you shot her and you shot her with a gun that you had received from the Gozo regime.

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: Yes, that is correct.  I got angry and I shot her.

CHAIRPERSON: Ja, it's not a question of shooting randomly and she got injured by accident, not so?

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: Yes, that is correct, Sir.

CHAIRPERSON: Now why are you trying to give the impression that she got shot through an accident, or you didn't intend to shoot her?

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: My problem - my intention was not to kill her but because of the situation that I was in at the time, I was forced because there was noise and I could hear that people were coming, the people from the community were coming.

CHAIRPERSON: So you shot her because you were angry when she told you you were not welcome there in her house?

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: Yes, that is correct.

CHAIRPERSON: Is that the reason you shot her?

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: I can say so.

CHAIRPERSON: Is that the first time you had a problem with her?

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: Yes, that was the first time.

CHAIRPERSON: At the time, do you know whether she belonged to a political organisation?

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: Yes.  In that community some of us were members of ANC.  Most of the youth belonged to PAC.  I was also a PAC member, I was also under PAC.

CHAIRPERSON: Did - as you call her your brother's wife, while she may have belonged to a political party, was she an activist?

DANIEL MAHAYIYA: Yes, he was a member.