Human Rights Violation Hearings — Sebokeng — 1994-08-05

MRS HLUPHEKILE NKABINDE: I was working for Van Wyk, Kobus van Wyk.  It is through Riva.  It was on the 20th December 1985.  He asked me to come along with them to Amanzimtoti
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for Christmas.  We arrived on Friday.  On Monday at quarter to nine on the 23rd they asked me to go the shops to buy Stay Soft.  I said to them I don't know where the shops are.  Then the wife by the name of Nicolene van Wyk said I should take along the kids, Marisa and Willem van Wyk, they will show me the shop.   Yes, I took them along and just before we crossed the street - we managed to cross the street and Marisa was five years and she went into the cafe to buy some sweets and quickly she came by again and told me that the Father Christmas promised her some sweets.  I didn't see as to what happened to the kid because we were together.  I had Willem by the hand.  I just heard some shooting and my shoe just went up in the sky flying and I was wondering where is my shoe and what took out my shoe.  I heard suddenly something hitting me on my left-hand eye.  I saw blood just throwing.  I suddenly have the thought of probably these are things we watch on TV and we don't know what is happening.  I left back and when I touched my left-hand eye to touch and feel what is happening I just heard something pulling me from the back and I suddenly thought that is my eye and I dropped down and I fell on my left-hand arm.  I saw the kid changing and the head just went white.  I had blood all over my eyes and I didn't know what is happening suddenly.  I just heard someone touching my hand and apparently that was the doctor.  And this person kept holding my hand up until -and that was - I just felt that was the end of me.  I was unconscious, I could only regain consciousness on Thursday.  I was thinking I was a corpse already.  The nurses told me that when I arrived they opened the curtain over myself and they realised that I was still alive.  I spent the time in hospital until boss Van Wyk came to transfer me to the other
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ward where Marisa was admitted and he said if I am taken into that ward Marisa will live.  I was really transferred into that ward and I could realise that Marisa's operation was from the chest downwards and her father requested me to come closer to her and speak to her and I said "Marisa, Marisa" and then she opened her eyes.  When she saw me she asked me why am I having bandages on my head.  She asked me for a drink and I gave her to and then she asked me where her brother was and I said I do not know and they took me back to my ward.  After that incident I have been to the treatment and then people from the media came.  They wanted statements from me and the police also came, I was discharged.  They said I was discharged just because I was staying here in Vereeniging and then this child will be buried here in Vereeniging.  We arrived on the 1st January here in Three Rivers.  On Thursday we went to bury that child.  On our return Nicolene van Wyk wanted me to carry on my duties.  My thigh was still bandaged because the bones were cracked.  Now this eye was out and then the other side was also bent.  I went to work in that condition and I asked her to phone my mother at Sasolburg so that she can come and replace me as to the conditions.  That is the time where we started fighting with Mrs Van Wyk, she has been taking me up and down until I lost my mind and then I was taken to Baragwanath Hospital, that is where I was left.  I can't remember how many months did I spend at Baragwanath.  They wanted to operate me on the head and the other one on the chest and the leg one until they requested Mr Richard Mdone whom I stay with and Richard Mdone came on August 2nd and then I was released, I went back home, I spent some time at home and I got very sick.  And I received letters from
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Durban saying that I have to appear before the Court in Durban.  Now these white people, I don't know anything because I have never been to school, but these - my bosses were hiding my letters.  At one stage I stole one of the letters and I gave it to my husband because it was a plot where we were staying.  My husband read the letter and he said to me this is a letter from the Durban court.  You are wanted, you have to go and tell them what injuries did you sustain.  And then when my boss came back I said to her do you know this letter and she said no and then I told her that I took the letter to my husband and she told me that she will never go to Durban because the person who planted the bomb was a black person and that her son was dead and I am still alive.  We have been in conflict with this white woman for quite a long time until such time that she said boss Specs(?) who stays at Three Rivers take me to.  I can't remember, we went to court in Durban.  We were told that it would carry on for 20 days.  It was between Durban and Cape Town.  When we arrived there I was the first one to be called as the witness.  I stood up.  I was taken then to an office with two lawyers.  They wanted my statement and I said no I didn't give any statement to anyone.  They opened their books and they said in your statement you stated that on the 23rd you took the children to go to the shops to buy them sweets.  I said to them no, on that day I didn't have money because I was smoking.  They asked me on that day, my boss, do you have cigarettes and I said yes and the woman gave me R10 and then she said please keep this money.  When I arrived at home my children took that R10 note and then they washed it clean and they bought themselves some sweets.  And Andrew Zondo appeared.  He was between us, you know he was HRV/207 brought from/...
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brought from a basement in the court.  I was asked whether do I know him, I said no, I only saw him on TV and I know him from behind.  Because when they took photos of him he was hiding his face.  They could only manage to take photos of his behind.  They asked me where were you working at the time, I said no I wasn't working here in Durban.  We were here with my bosses on a holiday.  And the Court stopped there and when we were about to go back home I was called aside and the Court gave me a cheque R360.  Now the father to my boss took the cheque, they folded it shabbily and they threw it away.  You know I thought they would give their daughter this cheque.  The following day I asked her did your father give you a cheque from Durban and she said no.  And we started exchanging words and then she was asking me whether do I think her father can eat that little amount from a poor person.  I was so angry and I decided to go.  I didn't know where to go and they came behind me with their cars, they told me please not to go to the police station and I went back to work until that time where boss Specs (?) arrived.  When he arrived he insulted me and they said I should drive with Kobus van Wyk and he was going to drive with his wife and his daughter.  They were driving to police station at Vereeniging.  When we arrived there the police shouted at me.  They were making a lot of noise. I had this artificial eye.  Now I cannot put it on for quite a long time because you know water was still flowing and the police were shouting at me, telling me that they would even take me into custody.  I took out this eye and I threw it at them.  I said it will be better if you take this eye so that I can be charged and this thing must just come to an end.  But now this Van Wyk, who is my boss, said we will pay the money
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that his father-in-law took.  That is the R360.  Well he did pay that.  Until I left the Van Wyks I have been up and down to doctors and I would request my boss to give me money and she would say to me and Andrew Zondo is the one who injured me. I don't have to ask money from her.  I went to the doctor around and the doctor said you will not work for the rest of  your life because you have a vein at your back that is injured.  And then when I got back she said she will take me back to the same doctor.  Well she did but after the examination she went alone back to the doctor and I said to the doctor please tell my boss what is happening with me.  And the doctor was now insulting me.  They pushed me outside and you know I realised that there were two versions of this story now.  That is when I decided to come back home and I told my younger brother who is coming after me and he spoke to his brother-in-law and they decided that we should come to Everton because these white people will keep on harassing me.  Until this day Van Wyk has done nothing to me.  The papers from the Durban hospital, the records, I refer to has been with him for quite a long time.  I have requested them but he refused to give me those documents.  That will be the end of my story.