Human Rights Violation Hearings — Witbank — 1997-06-05

DR RANDERA: Can I welcome the Right Reverend Bishop Inkomishi from the Catholic Church.  Welcome to you, Sir.  Good morning Ma'am.  Can you first tell us, is it Mrs Faku or Fako?

UNKNOWN: Faku.

DR RANDERA: Faku.  Thank you.  Mrs Faku, welcome.  Would you please introduce the people who are with you this morning?

UNKNOWN: This is my sister.  This is the deceased child behind me.

DR RANDERA: Welcome to all of you.  Mrs Faku, you too are from Witbank.  You're taking us back to 1985 when Elsie Nonhlanhla Faku was shot and died subsequently.  Miss Hlengiwe Mkhize is going to be helping you as you tell your story but before you do that, can I ask Mr Malan to help you with taking the oath please.  Can you stand.

MR MALAN: Mrs Faku, will you please swear that the evidence you will be giving will be the truth and only the truth?  Say, so help me God.

UNKNOWN: (sworn states)

MR MALAN: Thank you very much.  Please be seated.

DR RANDERA: Miss Mkhize?

MS MKHIZE: Mrs Faku, we welcome you.  Can you hear me?

UNKNOWN: Yes, I can hear you.

MS MKHIZE: I would like you to explain you story.  Please feel free.  The Commissioners will help you to give your evidence.  As the Chairman has already mentioned, you are here to talk about your daughter, Nonhlanhla.  Can you please tell us her age as well as whether or not she was politically involved at the time?  Just give us a picture of what kind of person she was.

UNKNOWN: She was about seventeen years old.  She had a child and this is the child behind me.  This child was one year old at the time.  I don't know much about her political involvement because sometimes you might or might not know about your children's' involvement at their early ages.  I was at work.  When I came back from work some people came towards me and told me that Nonhlanhla has been injured.  I asked then where she was.  They said she was at Doctor Kani.  I said that the doctor will take care of her and if she is seriously injured, the doctor might take her to hospital.

MS MKHIZE: You can take off the earphones.

UNKNOWN: I said to them, Doctor Kani will take her to hospital if she is seriously injured.  My younger sister came, not the one presently with me, and said we better go and visit her and I told her that I'm still waiting for my husband because he used to knock off past five.  Later we went to Doctor Kani.  When we arrived, we found her lying on the floor.  Doctor Kani and his wife were at the surgery.  When they wanted to take her to hospital, we were told she died.   I picked her up to see how she was injured.  When I tried to let her sit, she started crying and the blood was oozing through her nostrils.   She was vomiting blood.  We also saw some substances in the blood.  As the blood was oozing from her back as well, they held her.  My husband looked at her but he did not feel well and had to get outside.  Later he came back and the police arrived.  They took her to the mortuary.  After that we started making arrangements for the funeral.  We thought we would bury her on Friday but we decided to do it on Saturday.   We managed to, after the funeral we had to get a lawyer from the Government who helped us and we didn't pay anything.  We went to court.  The court hearing lasted for about two days and the police denied that they shot her.  We went to the mortuary and they investigated, or they did something like a post-mortem and they discovered that she still had some cartridge substances in the body.

MS MKHIZE: Thank you for your story.  In order to help you give us a clear picture of the story, I'm going to ask you some questions.  As you said, you were called by one lady to tell you that your daughter is in hospital.  In your statement it's written that children were stopped from going to school by the police on that particular day.  Briefly explain to us what was happening at that time.

UNKNOWN: I don't know because I was at work.  I didn't know that the children were stopped from going to school but I will say that it was the time that police were running around the location.

MS MKHIZE: When you arrived at the surgery, there were many children there?

UNKNOWN: Yes, that's correct.

MS MKHIZE: Do you remember how many children were at the surgery and what was their condition?  Do you know if any people died and if so, how many?

UNKNOWN: I think there were three that died on that particular day.  One of them was mine.   The Diani child died at her home because they passed, shooting, she was hit and died.  I would say there were three who died on that particular day.  The others were just being attended to by the doctor.

MS MKHIZE: I would like to ask you some further questions in order to get a clearer picture as to the situation and the time she got shot.  You said you are not sure about the children who were involved themselves in demonstrations, however if something happened in a township, there's normally a rumour.   I'd like to find out whether you yourself ever heard any rumours from the community regarding what was happening.  Were there children singing, were they fighting?  Was there some stone throwing?  After such incidents, there should be some rumours.

UNKNOWN: I heard that the children were marching and she was also in their company and that's when she got shot.  I wasn't there personally.

MS MKHIZE: Maybe if you try to remember the way in which you buried her, did the people, tell us about the people who came to the funeral.  Was it attended by the fellow Comrades who were also involved in the march?

UNKNOWN: I would say there were many children at the funeral because when we were transporting her to the funeral, there were so many people that we had some taxis and buses conveying the people.  I would say there were many children.

MS MKHIZE: Maybe I should take you back to what they said.  Was there any conflict between the police and the children or was it just the police who were marching around and shooting at the people?

UNKNOWN: I didn't hear anything about that.  I just saw the children who were injured.  I don't know what was happening at the scene.  I was also so confused that I couldn't think much about that because it was such a terrible time for me.

MS MKHIZE: Maybe you can further explain to us about the court case.  Did you get any help from political organizations or from the South African Council of Churches?

UNKNOWN: No, we didn't get any help.  We were working closely with one of the lawyers provided by the legal aid.

MS MKHIZE: What was the main aim, what was the problem?  You said you had to exhume the body of the child.  What was the problem?

UNKNOWN: Yes, we were not in agreement.  Some people said they didn't shoot, or find the child, so the court said we have to exhume the body in order to investigate further.  It's then that they had to find the other  evidence that I've just related.

MS MKHIZE: After she was exhumed and it was discovered that she was shot, did you have any progress in the matter?

UNKNOWN: No, we didn't.

MS MKHIZE: In your statement you said, someone agreed that he shot her.  When did that happen?  Was it in court?

UNKNOWN: Yes, it was in court.  There were twelve policemen and the eleventh one said, I did shoot the child twice.

MS MKHIZE: Did the court try to help you by asking questions as to why he shot the child?

UNKNOWN: He gave evidence that the child was holding a hand grenade and the Prosecutor asked him, how was she holding this hand grenade?  He couldn't explain. After investigating everything it found that he wasn't injured in any way that could show any sign of a hand grenade having exploded so it couldn't be proved that she had a hand grenade.

MS MKHIZE: I would like to thank you.  I'll hand you back to the Chairperson.  Maybe the other Commissioners could help you by asking some questions.

DR RANDERA: Mr Malan?