Human Rights Violation Hearings — Uitenhage — 1996-08-26

MPOMPI MELFRED DLOKOLO: (Sworn duly states).

CHAIRPERSON: We thank Revd. Xundu, and we welcome you Mr Mpompi Melfred Dlokolo before this Commission. You have come to give evidence about yourself and about the way you were tortured and we are going to hand you over to Revd. Xundu who is going to question you on behalf of this Commission.
REVD. XUNDU: Thank you Mr Chairperson.  Mpompi, what is your clan name?

MPOMPI MELFRED DLOKOLO: I am Tkisa Nandebi.
REVD. XUNDU: We thank you. Could you tell us briefly about your story. Who are you, where were you born, are you married, do you have children?

MPOMPI MELFRED DLOKOLO: I don't have any wife, I only have someone living with and we have some children. I don't have a wife, I live with someone because but I am considering her as my wife because I have got three children with her. My clan name is Tsana.
REVD. XUNDU: Do you have one person living with you?

MPOMPI MELFRED DLOKOLO: Yes, I have one person I am living with.
REVD. XUNDU: Continue with your story.

MPOMPI MELFRED DLOKOLO: My clan name is Tsana Koboyi. I was born of a fat man family.
REVD. XUNDU: Thank you Ndebe. Could we now get into the actual matter? You say in 1995, what were your activities politically?

MPOMPI MELFRED DLOKOLO: I was a member of the Action Committee.
REVD. XUNDU: You have mentioned that you were a "General". What do you mean?

MPOMPI MELFRED DLOKOLO: No, that was just a name I was given - that I was the General.
REVD. XUNDU: You continue to say, could you give us therefore a full picture of what was bothering the people at the time which led to the formation of the UDF. What were the people claiming for?  I would like to know how was the situation here in Uitenhage which led to the formation of the UDF? How were the activities politically of the residents here?

MPOMPI MELFRED DLOKOLO: The situation was very bad here in Uitenhage because at the time of my arrival here, I joined people who were politically involved because I felt there was a call for it. One other thing is as an outgoing person I've got friends all over, even in Transkei and East London.
REVD. XUNDU: So what used to happen?

MPOMPI MELFRED DLOKOLO: I'm coming closer to what you want. I came back in July and we were going to play a match on a Sunday, so I came back on a Saturday evening. There were some other men who were in my company.
REVD. XUNDU: Is that just before July. In your statement you have mentioned that one of your duties as a member of the Action Committee was to discourage the operations of the Councillors. What were the names of these Councillors.

MPOMPI MELFRED DLOKOLO: They were Matibesa, Mr Vena and Mr Korbega.
REVD. XUNDU: There is one you have not mentioned, but you have written down in your statement.

MPOMPI MELFRED DLOKOLO: They were Matibesa Kwelega, Mr Vena.
REVD. XUNDU: What about Kinikini?

MPOMPI MELFRED DLOKOLO: No, Kinikini did not live in Despatch, because I live in Despatch.
REVD. XUNDU: But in your statement you have mentioned his name.

MPOMPI MELFRED DLOKOLO: No, I am sorry if I mentioned Kinikini's name, that, I am not making a mistake, I did not mention Kinikini's name.
REVD. XUNDU: Ok. Let us continue. You say you were trying to discourage the operations of the Councillors?

MPOMPI MELFRED DLOKOLO: Yes. We first asked them whether they were handling people properly, why would they go to meetings and not bring a report back to the people and then we disagreed on this matter. We then decided to raid and go for them.
 We first met their females and told them that, we asked them whether they say what was happening, but some of them were friends to these Councillors, some of them were scared.
REVD. XUNDU: So, you came back in 1985?

MPOMPI MELFRED DLOKOLO: Yes. There was a police raid and there was the day of the match Wallaby's playing against a certain rugby lot. I wasn't going to play. There is one guy from the Tsinani family that was going to play and the match was going to be very tough and they felt that he was not going to be fit to play, so I decided to play in his place, but I said to him these men are going to go round looking for him.
 I was dressed in the rugby uniform and then Herber came driving a white Sierra and he went round and turned somewhere, then there was a yellow Rover.
REVD. XUNDU: Did the match continue?

MPOMPI MELFRED DLOKOLO: Yes, it continued and we were being beaten. I said to my co-players. One of them was Smartie Kakula. That match was really fascinating, only to find that it was going to be this incident.
REVD. XUNDU: Alright, let's do it this was Ndebi. Let's now confine ourselves to the actual arrest and you had to stop playing, let's talk about that.

MPOMPI MELFRED DLOKOLO: Yes, I am going to follow that so as not to leave out any points.
 So, this ball hit the centre and he fell down and the referee was confused to an extent that he gave the points to us. I then asked our scrum half to pass on the ball and with the intention that I was going to score and I just did exactly that. It was the last time I remembered, because two people came and they held me and they said "Your name is Mpompi", then I said "No, I am not Mpompi", then they asked me to get into a hippo - and these were soldiers - and whilst in that hippo they were talking and I could see that they were talking and I said to them, they are wasting my time, I want to go and play and they said, "No, you will never again have any chance to play, we have got you", then I said "Then you don't know who you are looking for", then someone said, "You should not keep him here in this hippo" -so I gave in.
 There is one man who was clapped and fell down and I was very worried, so I handed myself over, I gave my rugby jersey to my player.
REVD. XUNDU: Then you were arrested Tsana. Just tell us exactly, you were arrested now, what happened?

MPOMPI MELFRED DLOKOLO: I was in a hippo and then I was transferred into the Rover and there were two of the players, one of them, the centre and the wing who were playing in the same match and they were asked "Do you know this person?"
 I was asking them not to say they were residents there and I was saying I was coming from Port Elizabeth. We were players in Port Elizabeth together and Gerts came and said the two should alight from the van. We went off, at the police station they did not put me into a cell. They put me outside and I could see if I had attempted to run away, they were going to shoot me because as a Xhosa boy there was something that I was using.
REVD. XUNDU: What is it that you were using?

MPOMPI MELFRED DLOKOLO: There was something that I was using, but this thing is not with me now, I left it in a particular Kombi. So what happened is, whilst I was there, Jimmy came, Jimmy Klaas, and . . .
REVD. XUNDU: What was this Jimmy Klaas?