Human Rights Violation Hearings — Worcester — 1996-06-25

MR ZWENI: I didn't know whether these people were in fact criminals or whether they were people belonging to organisations.  I had no clear information about what sort of people they were.

ADV POTGIETER: How old were you at that stage when this -  when this incident happened?

MR ZWENI: At the death of my father in 1986, I was 16 years old.

ADV POTGIETER: Okay is there anything else that you wish to add to your evidence before we speak to your mother?

MR ZWENI: No there is nothing else that I would like to add.

ADV POTGIETER: Are there any request that you want to make to us?

MR ZWENI: I was not even prepared to come here to the Commission to ask for help because I've had a very difficult time in my life so I came here because my mother had asked me to come and do this because I've had a great struggle in my own life.  It's my mother who perhaps can answer best to that question.

ADV POTGIETER: Okay before I ask my colleagues whether they got any questions, perhaps we must just move the microphone to your mother - can you just move it to Ms Zweni.
 Ms Zweni good afternoon again and thank you  for coming here.   Can I just ask you is there anything that you wish to tell us in connection with the killing of your late husband?

MS ZWENI: As my son has already explained, my husband was killed in 1986.  He was last seen at about 8 o'clock in our house and we didn't ask him where he was going.  I sent my child to find him and when she told me I hurried there and I saw him lying there.  He looked like somebody who had just been abandoned there in an abandoned place.  There was no blood.  On  his clothes there was some blood stains and it was clear that my husband had been killed.  
 When I left there I went back home and went and reported the entire thing to the police and I was never told anything about the arrest of the people who were arrested in connection with my husband's murder.   I also never saw where he was been held at the mortuary.  I didn't know who had taken him there and how.  There were some police who took him to the mortuary and after that I never saw him again.  It was not right, it was not right at all that I should stay there in my house unknowing.  
 My husband was killed and I was left with children who were still young and I've had to struggle terribly and I'm still struggling now.  I'm also struggling with bad health and my mind has actually been affected because I forget things.  That is what I can explain to you today.  Those people who were arrested didn't even stay in prison, they were given community work to do in the township, those people who killed my husband and it was not clear who had killed my husband.  It's been a terribly painful year for me.  We had to close the windows with hardboard because we couldn't replace the glass.
 We were called epiempies, we were called informers by the community.  Children would throw stones and children would persecute us in the street, we were called all sorts of names.   I never heard that Zweni had beaten any child or that he was accused of something that he didn't do.  I don't know why they killed my husband.  That's how far my story goes.  
 I've struggled to raise these kids, even this one is still in school.  She's living on pension fund.  My life goes that much ...  I'm familiar with those people, we stay together but they managed to kill my husband because they were accusing him of being an informer.  That is heartbreaking to me.  It's very painful even though it has been healed but seemingly it was not going to be healed but I've managed to reconcile.  God helped me and gave me strength to heal the wounds.  
 That is why I'm here today but it was not my wish, I didn't want to open the wounds that were already healed, I want God to look upon those who killed my husband.  I had a terrible time because my husband was killed mercilessly.   He was lying there just like a dog saying that they've killed Incatha, they've killed an informer.  These things are very painful.  They axed him and he was a fat man.  That's how I was affected psychologically and ever since then I am a very forgetful person.  My mind was affected, I was affected psychologically.  That was a traumatic time for me.  I didn't even want to come to this place, I'd rather have stayed at home but I've tried to come because I've seen people being helped.

ADV POTGIETER: Thank you Ms Zweni - I appreciate there, we - we grateful that you decided to come in fact and to be prepared to open up a wound as you've said, which is already healed.  It is necessary for us, it's very necessary for this process, so we - we are grateful to you that you are here.
 I am now going to ask my colleagues whether they've got any questions for either yourself or for your son.  Ms Gobodo.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Thank you Chairperson.  To open wounds is not something which one does by law, there's no legal requirement that wounds should be opened, it is very difficult to do that.  When I think that the father of the home, to find him lying in the streets in the manner in which he was found, it's clear that nothing could ever be the same again.  To be killed by people that you stay with in the community.  I don't know where to start to talk about this.  
 To hear that someone is an informer by unknown people and to be called epiempie is also very difficult.  To be called these names and then by the people in the community and then to have lost the father of the home and to bring up the children on your own.  I want to ask about the place where he was perhaps trying to go to your sister's house.  How far does your sister actually live from where you live?

MR ZWENI: We all live in one house.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: But we thought that ...

MR ZWENI: No we are talking actually about my older sister.  We wanted to prevent my father from going up to the ... because we thought it was dangerous and we didn't want him to come into a dangerous place.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: I think of the anxiety and fear that you as a child of 16 must have suffered about your father.

MR ZWENI: When I saw that from corner to corner there were meetings of old people that all gave me a feeling that I must actually try and prevent my father from coming into the situation because it would be dangerous but truly he did die on that night.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: All the efforts and all the insults that you suffered, how did you feel about that?

MR ZWENI: I'm find that I'm a very nervous person.  People in the community have said many things and these things have worried me and has made it very difficult for me where I live.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Could you tell us about the funeral of your father, how did it go?

MR ZWENI: We buried my father at Ashton in Zolani.  After we came out of the funeral we went towards the hall and the youth, even some adults behaved without dignity.  I saw hanging up underwear trying to do their best to block my father's funeral.  They were clapping hands and there was no respect for my father.  Some were old and some were young, lifting up their dresses and celebrating while we were crying and full of tears.  It was something they enjoyed up to the full.  They were also showing us that they were clapping hands for those who did these evil things.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Do you know any of the people who were actually glad at what had happened?

MR ZWENI: Some of them I do know because some were the same age as me then.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: How do you feel staying with a community that disrupted your father's funeral?

MR ZWENI: At the moment we have no problem, we are reconciled, we are living in peace and there is not a problem with the community now.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Did you have the time to communicate with those who were the participants then?

MR ZWENI: No, I think even today I don't think my friends would like us to share this thing of my father's funeral?