Human Rights Violation Hearings — Pietermaritzburg — UNKNOWN

MR SINGH: Thank you.  Mr Sishi, how old are you?

WITNESS:  I am 34 years.

MR SINGH:  Where do you currently reside?

WITNESS:   I am residing at a place called Moscow.

MR SINGH:  And what is the other name for this area called Moscow?

WITNESS:   Madinyane.

MR SINGH:  For how long have you been resident in this place you refer to as Moscow?

WITNESS:   Since I was born in 1962.

MR SINGH:  You are still residing there presently?

WITNESS:   Yes.

MR SINGH:  You have been called upon by the Commission to give evidence regarding the incident that we have termed the Seven Day War, which began on the 26th of March 1990.  Do you recall that incident?

WITNESS:   Yes.

MR SINGH:  At the time of the commencement of that incident where were you resident?

WITNESS:   I was resident in the same place.

MR SINGH:  Yes, thank you.  Can you proceed and tell the Commission what happened?

WITNESS:   To start off with I would like to outline the immediate causes of the Seven Days War, rather than to just go on explaining the war itself, because I feel that by leaving out those causes the Commission may not get the full picture of what happened before and what happened after.

MR SINGH:  Yes, thank you.  You may proceed then.

WITNESS:   Yes.  Firstly what I would like to say, just to outline the beginning of the Seven Day War.  There are certain reasons that I would like to put forth.  I would just like to put them before this honourable Commission.  Firstly there was a boycott, the Sarmcol boycott.  So many people were dismissed, more than 800 people were dismissed, and we came together as members of the community, because some of the people who had been dismissed were residents of my area, and some we were related to.  The union that was existent at that time had also requested the workers to be part of the union and come together in order to help the people who had been dismissed.  In that way the community came together and we decided to launch a boycott, and we did not want to go and buy at the shops in Howick, as well as 'Maritzburg.  And this boycott to help the Sarmcol staff went on.  But at that time we were trying to mobilise people and try to educate them as to why we were coming up with this boycott.  It was not just a simple boycott, but we wanted to come to the aid of the people who had been dismissed, and some of them had worked for many years in that company.  And when we tried to educate people along the bus stops, informing them about the reason why the union and the communities have decided to take up the boycott, the police came and they told us that we were preventing the people from going to work, and the company itself was opposed to this and it did not want to negotiate with the dismissed workers, and as a result there was a fight with the company as well as outside.  Now, we thought it was a human right that you should be able to boycott, and we thought that that was the weapon which we could use in order to fight off apartheid.  I would like to add that even companies, certain companies, contributed to the violence, because they did not want to understand the plight of their workers.  They only wanted to see them in shop floor doing the work, but what happened outside that did not concern them.  And it was not only the case of Sarmcol.  Many such similar cases followed thereafter where, when there was violence in a particular place, the employers will not listen to the reasons that the workers gave.  And thereafter one incident that took place, and that really caused the Inkatha as well as the then KwaZulu Government to think that the UDF was a threat to them, they wanted to take all the supporters, was the formation of COSATU.  And that was part of the reasons that actually made or created some animosity.  They also came up with another union called WUSA.  And at that time what happened within the community was that people would go straight to the companies, and we heard about people being killed within the same companies because they aligned themselves to certain political parties.  Then in 1987 there were certain leaders.  Amongst them there were UDF leaders as well as Inkatha leaders, and the Chamber of Commerce in 'Maritzburg, and that was thought to be a mediator.  And when the negotiations went on we were hopeful that we were going to bring an end to the violence.  And the very same leaders who were prominent in the negotiations were detained.  They were detained without trial and without reason, and there was a lot of dissatisfaction within the community that the very people who were brought forth as mediators were now being detained.  Thereafter there was a sporadic outbreak of detention, especially of leaders within the community, and many people were left out without leaders, and they were destitute, they did not know which path to take.  I would just like to remind the Commission that at that time there was the state of emergency, and most of the time the communities had no leaders at that time, but you could see that there was a certain or a specific political group which was not affected by the state of emergency.  I do not remember the leaders of this particular organisation being detained under the state of emergency.  One other thing - the civil workers.  I was one of the civil workers.  We were told that we should sign a certain agreement that we would not defy Buthelezi, and we would not defy his government, and we would not complain or have any complaints against his governors.  I wanted this Commission to look very deeply into this because these are some of the reasons that led to the violence that took place then, and it actually made people hopeless with the governments of KwaZulu ... (inaudible) ... I mentioned that were made by IFP, that buses were being stoned along Edendale Road.  To people who don't know Edendale Road, Edendale Road is like a corridor which links us with the Vulindlela area, the area that is mainly administered by Amakhozi, and as people were being forced to leave their homes in the Vulindlela area they came to seek refuge in our place at Edendale.  And they knew the people who killed their brothers, who killed their mothers, who burned their homes, and they could see them passing along this corridor, and when there were some stonings the whole community was blamed by the same people who knew who were the people who had done this.  And on this issue of stonings I was trying to respond.  And again another point I might raise, still on the issue of stonings, is that when there were some Inkatha rallies, and they had to go past our places along Edendale Road,  the people will stop because they wanted to relieve themselves.  And the whole bus of 80 men who were carrying spears, guns, at will, because most of the time the buses that were going to Inkatha rallies were accompanied by convoys of police, and along the way there were police who were stationed there.  And so one could see, you know, that their action of stopping a bus and relieving themselves along our homes was an act of provocation.

MR SINGH:  Just a minute, Mr Sishi.  Can I interrupt you for a minute please?  Are you now leading up to the events that led to the break out of the Seven Day War?

WITNESS:   Yes.

MR SINGH:  Yes, thank you, you may proceed then.