Human Rights Violation Hearings — Pietermaritzburg — UNKNOWN

UNKNOWN: and protect themselves.  These people went back into the  hall.  When they came back to the hall they discovered that there were police, and they told the police that these people had already killed people outside, but the police didn't take any cognisance of that, they did absolutely nothing.  Instead they chased these members who came to report and they pointed them with guns.  They protected the people who had actually killed the others.

UNKNOWN: Now, what you want to say is the attackers were working hand in hand with the police.

WITNESS:   That's my suspicion, because that's exactly what happened.  The police were in collusion with the attackers.  I expect that if you commit a crime you must be arrested, not protected.

UNKNOWN: Now, where did these people come from?  Were they from Mpophomeni?

WITNESS:   I wasn't really sure as to where they came from, but after this occurrence some of the people moved away from the location.  That is when I realised that these people were members of Inkatha, because some of them went out of the location.

UNKNOWN: In your statement you said some people who were attacking were coming from the chiefs' places.

WITNESS:   That's another occurrence that took place on a totally different day.  That disturbed me quite terribly.  Our location is quite further down in the south, and further up there are chiefs' places.  At the location there was so much violence, and there would be a police Casspir or police van that was standing right there at the top looking down and guarding the people at the south.  And now at some stage we just saw a crowd of people coming down towards us, coming to attack us.  They were from the

UNKNOWN: chiefs' places. Which chief was that?

WITNESS:   It was Chief Mkhize's place.  They were coming from the direction of Chief Mkhize.  They were also coming from Haza's place.

UNKNOWN: Now, this violence affected you.  Just tell us what happened to you in 1990.

WITNESS:   We just saw people coming towards us at the location, and at some stage they had come to kill another neighbour.  Now, we decided to go out and look as to what was happening.  We met them along the - just next to the Catholic church, and they were busy shooting.  They were shooting the people living in the surroundings of the church.  There ensued a fight, and the police from the top in a Hippo came down to this particular area where there was a fight.  Now, the people decided they didn't want to run because they believed that the police would help us.  I was one of the people who stood there who was very stubborn, and I told myself that I wasn't going to run away.  When the police came in a Hippo a miracle happened.  They didn't even talk to us.  They left the people who were coming to attack alone.  They shot the ordinary civilians.  And I was one of the people shot.  I could not run past them because they had already started shooting and some people were dying.  We hid just behind the Roman Catholic church.  As we were hiding there they kept on shooting the people.  Apparently they had seen us when we were hiding.

UNKNOWN: Did you see the policeman who shot you?

WITNESS:   I saw him, but I cannot point him out.  It was a white person.  Both of them were white.  They shot all the other people and then proceeded to come to us.  When they came back they came from different directions.  Both of them

UNKNOWN: were having guns.  Unfortunately the person I was hiding  with tried to run.  Then the policeman shot him and he fell and died.  I spoke to this other policeman, I told him, "Please don't kill me."  He asked me what is it that I was looking for.  I told him that we had come to protect the community.  Then he said to me I must run very fast.  I ran very fast.  I don't know whether I was lucky.  He left me to run for a distance then he started shooting me.  Maybe when I talked to him he sympathised with me.

UNKNOWN: Who was this other guy who was shot dead?

WITNESS:   I have forgotten his name, but he died.

UNKNOWN: After having been shot did you go to the hospital?

WITNESS:   I went to Dr Hampshire.  He is the one who treated me.

UNKNOWN: Were there any bullets in your body?

WITNESS:   I had bullets all over my body, and some are left inside because they are in such delicate areas which cannot be tampered with.  I was given injections but the bullets were not taken out.

UNKNOWN: Are you working now?

WITNESS:   I am not working.

UNKNOWN: How do you support your family?

WITNESS:   We plough the fields.  We came together as people who had no jobs and we decided to come together and plough the fields.  Then we sell the produce.

UNKNOWN: Now, as you have lost your job I think your family was affected, your children, your wife.  Where's your first wife now?

WITNESS:   She is present.

UNKNOWN: How is she?

WITNESS:   She is mentally unstable.

UNKNOWN: Does she see any doctors?

WITNESS:   No, she isn't seeing any doctors.

UNKNOWN: Who is helping her in this situation?

WITNESS:   Nobody

UNKNOWN: is helping her. Why?

WITNESS:   I don't have money to take my wife up and down to doctors.

UNKNOWN: Maybe Dr Magwaza would like to speak to you about that.

UNKNOWN: I just want to make a follow up.  What is it that's wrong with your wife exactly?

WITNESS:   I think she is mentally unstable.  She is behaving in a very funny manner.  She is not behaving as other people behave.  She is having a problem, a real problem.

UNKNOWN: Now, even when we don't look at what she is doing let's just look at the circumstances that led to her being like this so we may get work.

WITNESS:   I think my losing the job affected her quite drastically because I could no longer support them.  All the harassment that took place was from the strike that we had at Sarmcol, but it ended up affecting our lives, so much so that it became part of our lives.  And one other thing was that the perpetrators were busy harassing people.

UNKNOWN: What I would like to know is was there any change in your family that took place, apparent change?  Now, if you have any expectations - maybe had this not happened you feel you would have been somewhere else.  Where do you imagine yourself to be, or what are your expectations from the Commission?

WITNESS:   My wish is that - I wish the Commission to help the people of Mpophomeni who were harassed during the Sarmcol strike.  There are so many people who were affected.  When we were - at that time we were 1 000, but now due to the deaths that are taking place I think there's about 300 people who are left now.  We didn't say we didn't want to work, but we just wanted  our grievances to be addressed.  I want the Commission to

UNKNOWN: conduct a thorough search and find out as to why these people were being chased away, and we want to be paid back our monies that we lost at that time we were working there.  We were very much willing to work and we want to be able to support our families.

UNKNOWN: Your request or your expectation is quite genuine.  What we want to tell you as the Commission is that we take all the requests, we pass the recommendations to the President and the Parliament.  They are the ones who actually draw conclusions out of the recommendations that we have submitted.

WITNESS:     There are so many people who have been harassed, who have been criminalised, who have been traumatised.  Many of them are not working, and even if you do wish to work there's that stigma attached to the strike that took place.  I think it's the firm, Sarmcol, that has done this to us.