Human Rights Violation Hearings — Grahamstown — 1997-04-02

VUYANI RICHARD BETE: No but when I would walk around these little boys would come to me, they liked me a lot, I was very popular with them, but they would come to  and say, you know the people are sorry about what happened to Bucks because they are saying that a mistake was made, and I would just look at them and say, okay well, because there was absolutely nothing that we could do about it then, the person was deceased.

JUNE CRICHTON: Mbuyiselo's family, where are they?  Are they his parents?

VUYANI RICHARD BETE: They are still living here in Grahamstown.

JUNE CRICHTON: Have they not made a statement themselves?

VUYANI RICHARD BETE: No Mbuyiselo lived with us, not with his family.

JUNE CRICHTON: Alright Mr Bete, now perhaps you'd move on to what happened to you and the damage to your property and how that happened?

VUYANI RICHARD BETE: What happened was after Mbuyiselo's funeral on New Year's Eve which was a couple of days later, I was expecting friends from Mdansani who were going to come and visit me.  It was even difficult to walk around there because even if you went into a shebeen or something there would be remarks that there was someone evil here and things like this, and much as I wanted to go to Xolani, I couldn't go and I said to my mum, I wanted to go to Xolani, and she said, rather don't go, you know what happened. And I mean as someone that loves liquor it was very difficult for me.
 When I went to the shebeen and got there, this lady said she'd like to see me, and she said that I should please take my things or she'll send them with children because children are saying this, that and the other. And I was still quite relaxed there but then I had to get out and jump over the fence and I was quite disappointed because I was enjoying myself there. I decided to just buy my stuff and go home but now what happened was once I remained at home and out of the community it was like I was aligning myself with what my brother was doing and I couldn't move around the community. And when I moved around there they'd say there was somebody dirty, there's somebody evil here and I was wondering what's so dirty about me? And I then took my car and went to Xolani that evening and when I got there my friends were very happy to see me and they gave me some money to go and buy some cigarettes and whatever we needed in town.  I went to town and I came back and I realised that I didn't have enough petrol but I didn't have money and I counted the money for cigarettes and I realised that I could possibly still get petrol from this. I asked my brother  if he didn't have an empty bottle for me to go and get petrol with in town, and he said he didn't.  I then found Sandile and said to him to him let's go and get some petrol.  When I got there Sandile dropped me and when I opened the petrol tank I felt a tap on my shoulder and I looked back and I thought, oh my God, I saw these guys who said they wanted to see me. I asked them what was up and they remarked that this car was bought with police money.  I denied it and said that I was working and bought the car with my money. On chap said that there was nothing wrong with me and the others told him that he was delaying them.  They took out a fire arm and there was a shot fired right next to me. I started to urinate in my pants and then this guy remarked that the gun is too small and they took out a much bigger gun and they started shooting and I thought, me I'm going to run now. I ran around the car several times and then I ran around the house and when I looked back, my car was on fire.
 I thought, my God where am I going to get another car, because I was unemployed.  I then got to the police station somehow and we came back and my car had been burned out, and it seems as if what happened was that there were some people who had been working there and had stripped the car of whatever they could use and I found that some kind of weird game was being played here.  The car was burned and these people who were responsible were arrested but they'd be released soon thereafter and when I'd go to the police station and enquire I would be told that the case had been withdrawn and I wanted to know how that was possible, I had not been informed? 
 Long after my car had been burned I was walking down the road and I saw police up ahead. I'm policeman's brother, there was no need for me to be assaulted by the police and by the community, that's the last thing I expected. I was asked where I came from and before I could answer I was knocked with a shot gun on my head and I passed out and I was taken to hospital for stitches.  I laid a charge against that policeman and when I got to court I was told that the matter was being finalised and, in spite of me pointing out the policeman that had assaulted me I was told the matter was finalised and that's my story.

JUNE CRICHTON: When you say finalised, what do you mean finalised, that they were acquitted or that they were convicted?

VUYANI RICHARD BETE: These people would go to court and the matter would be postponed and you'd never hear anything about it again after that, and all you could do was to become friends with them again.

JUNE CRICHTON: Mr Bete you've given us a very full story.  There's an Afrikaans, 'tussen die bas en die boom', or 'between a stone and a hard place', I think that is where you found yourself, and although we have laughed, it was serious and what you've lost has been a lot. Thank you for giving us such a full story.  I am quite sure that the rest of the Commission members will want to ask more questions about this.  The only thing I need to ask you is, the car, when it was burned out, and when your house was burned down, there was a separation in time, what was the date of the car burning and the house burning?

VUYANI RICHARD BETE: My brother died and Mbuyiselo died and we were unhappy at home.  My mother asked me what these people still want from her, because this person is dead and then we wanted to know why they were still burning our house because the policeman is dead?  And then there was a policeman that
lived somewhere there and a group of toytoying people came right up to our gate because the person whom they didn't want had long since been killed but they were still attacking our house.
 There was someone who came to the crowd and wanted to know what they still wanted there because before they said they wanted the policeman and now he was no longer there, what more did they want? That was when they stopped.

JUNE CRICHTON: Thank you very much Mr Bete, I'm going to hand you back to the chairperson now.

MR SANDI: On this day you say you were assaulted on your head with a firearm on your head by a policeman, who did you say was next to the house, was it Nciquelelo?

VUYANI RICHARD BETE: Yes they were next to Nciquelelo's house when people were in the house and I was walking up the road, I could see that police were busy assaulting people.

JUNE CRICHTON: Who was that Nciquelelo?

VUYANI RICHARD BETE: He was not there but it was in front of his house.

MR SANDI: What are your older brothers full names?

VUYANI RICHARD BETE: Maxim Simpiwe Khade.

MR SANDI: Where's he now?

VUYANI RICHARD BETE: He has died.

MR SANDI: How did he die?

VUYANI RICHARD BETE: He had a stomach problem.

MR SANDI: Did you ever speak to him about this problem about him being a policeman.

VUYANI RICHARD BETE: When I did he he'd want to assault me and it was better for me just to leave him alone.

CHAIRPERSON: There are a few questions which we would like to ask for clarification.  Before Anele and Mbuyiselo Khade died, was there ever and inquest held at court.