Special Hearings — Trojan Horse Hearings — 1997-06-02

MRS RYKLIEF: As I've said, I knew that I was shot but I did not know what had happened. I was taken away after that and l returned later. I had been shot in my left shoulder.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: You have told that you weren't able to help Mrs Abrahams because you yourself were shot.

MRS RYKLIEF: That is why I could not help Mrs Abrahams, she was screaming, but I could not help her although I did not say to her that I had been shot because I had to take care of everybody also my own children.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: ...  to ignore, almost, the fact that you had been shot, so that you could be upright and brave and there for those children that you had brought into your house.

MRS RYKLIEF: Ja

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: This story about one of the kids who tried to roll to safety. So one of the children jumped into the rubbish bins and rolled the rubbish bin so that they could be protected by the rubbish bin, Can you just tell us who that child was and how he got into the rubbish bin?

MRS RYKLIEF: This was on a Tuesday, so the rubbish bins were standing at the front of the house because that is the day the rubbish is removed. He was not able to run into the house, so when he got to the rubbish bins, he was hiding himself and he was sitting in or inbetween the rubbish bins. Then I opened the back door for him. He came out the rubbish bin into the house. That was my nephew and his name was Shafiek.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: You say he wasn't shot?

MRS RYKLIEF: No.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: Okay. Then the child who went into the chicken run ....

MRS RYKLIEF: That's my own child.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: He also ran into the yard and ...

MRS RYKLIEF: The door was locked so it was impossible for him to come inside the house, so he ran into the chicken coop. But then I was looking for him because I could not find him in the house, so I opened the back door and noticed him in the chicken coop. I noticed that he was choking the chickens so that the police could not hear what was happening. And that is why he choked the chickens to death.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: ... the chickens quiet, so that the police couldn't actually hear that he was there. Right, so it all leads to the fact, I'm just trying to establish there also, the behaviour of the police. So the police weren't just in the street, they'd actually followed the kids, the children where they went into the house, they went into the backyard as well. So they actually followed right into your bedroom.

MRS RYKLIEF: Yes.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: Right. Now the children who had run into your bedroom, Shaun, Magmoed, and who was the other? Was it your sister's children?

MRS RYKLIEF: Yes.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: Yes. And they were shot, so they landed up on your bed?

MRS RYKLIEF: Yes.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: So your bed in a sense was soaked in the blood of the children who actually were shot and landed on your bed.

MRS RYKLIEF: Yes.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: And that was the bed that you feel you couldn't sleep in and the fact that...

MRS RYKLIEF: I then said to my husband that he had to buy us a different mattress because in the evenings when I would lie on the bed, then I would imagine it. I would see the whole event happening again. It would come back to my mind again every night.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: .... mattress and new bedding and so because you really couldn't actually experience being there again in that bed.

MRS RYKLIEF: Shaun Magmoed threw himself onto my bed and died there on my bed.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: It's very hard for you to sleep and to really make sense of this incident.

MRS RYKLIEF: Ja.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: You talked quite a bit about how you needed treatment, you needed to see a psychiatrist, you had to be supported by a social worker and so on. How are you feeling now?

MRS RYKLIEF: Some weeks before today I could not sleep. This morning at 4:15am I phoned my social worker and told the social worker that I have a headache and that my tummy is sore. I told her it's as if I reliving all of the events. This is how I feel now, I will never forget that day.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: ...to people that it really is very difficult to relive the experiences again, and for you to come. And I really deeply from my heart want to say to you that we do appreciate your coming here today, because it has been a terrible ten or so years, more than ten, twelve years now, for you , where repeatedly you have to go through these experiences and today again to experience this. But I wonder whether any of my colleagues would like to ask you questions or make some more comments before I continue, so I hand over to the chair.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Members of the panel? Dr Ramashala.

MAPULE RAMASHALA: Mrs Ryklief, that's where I needed to ask the question - how soon after the children left the house were the shots fired? When did you hear the shots fired?

MRS RYKLIEF: As I opened the door, the moment I opened the door, as they left out they immediately ran back inside. I waited until they all ran back inside, locked the door, although there were still two children, one of mine and one of my sister still outside. I still had to go and look for them.

MAPULE RAMASHALA: Tell me how far was the crowd on the street from your house? Just a quick estimate.

MRS RYKLIEF: I worked in the back in the servants quarters and the pavement is not a minute's walk - that's how I could say it.

MAPULE RAMASHALA: Shaun was with the rest of the children...

MRS RYKLIEF: He went out with the children. He was in the house, he was a friend of one of my sons. They were at the same school.

MAPULE RAMASHALA: When the children left the house they didn't have any stones?

MRS RYKLIEF: No. How can they have a stone when they're in the house?

MAPULE RAMASHALA: And Shaun didn't have any stones?

MRS RYKLIEF: No.

MAPULE RAMASHALA: Shaun was wearing what colour shirt? Can I ...

MRS RYKLIEF: It must have been a yellow or a cream shirt.

MAPULE RAMASHALA: Shaun left the house with the rest of the children, and a few seconds later the shots were fired, the children came right back to the house, including Shaun?

MRS RYKLIEF: Yes he was also with them.

MAPULE RAMASHALA: Thank you very much.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Thank you Dr Ramashala. We will ask Ms Wildschut to make some closing comments.