Human Rights Violation Hearings — Duduza — 1997-02-07

MS SEROKI: We thank you for your elaborate explanation, we shall ask you a few questions.  I'll start with the incident where you were shot.  You said that you used to take the
5 o'clock taxi.  Now according to your own opinion, do you think that probably somebody knew that 5 o'clock you'll be at the taxi rank.

JOHANNES DHLOMO: To answer your question I would say that I do not know whether I was shot by a person who knew me or who knew as to what time I boarded the taxi, but there was some conflict between the hostel dwellers and the residential area dwellers.

MS SEROKI: Now as a hostel dweller, were you a member of any political organisation?

JOHANNES DHLOMO: I do not want to dwell much on politics because at that time I was not fully conversant with politics but I ended up being a member of the IFP.  I was a Zulu before but I ended up being affiliated to the IFP and I'm presently a member of the IFP.

MS SEROKI: When they shot at you were you the only target or were they just shooting at the taxi?

JOHANNES DHLOMO: I wouldn't be able to say as to whether they wanted me in particular, I was the one who was shot and when we came back we had to use alternative routes, and when we got to the location we discovered that there was a lot of damage that took place while we were absent or while I was hospitalised. That was how the whole thing started and that's where I think I realised that we were being killed because we were Zulus and maybe they thought we belonged to a certain political organisation.

MS SEROKI: What happened prior to the attack, what had happened the previous night that led to the attack in the morning?

JOHANNES DHLOMO: What I could say is if we had known beforehand that something had taken place, probably I wouldn't have gone to work the following morning because I would have known that there was an ensuing attack or there was going to be an imminent attack upon us as Zulus or as hostel dwellers.  We did not hear anything, we just heard people singing and chanting, but we did not know that chanting would have a bearing on the attack that took place in the morning.

MS SEROKI: Now you mean that evening there was a toytoy?

JOHANNES DHLOMO: During the night when the people were chanting we didn't hear any gun shots, people were just chanting so we thought probably it was just one of those things somewhere just coming from the taxis and the trains.  We didn't pay much attention because we didn't know that it was aimed at us.

MS SEROKI: You said after you were shot your brothers took you to a hospital. You didn't want to be taken to Natalspruit Hospital.

JOHANNES DHLOMO: Even yesterday there was a witness who testified to the fact that at Natalspruit Hospital hostel dwellers were not welcome, they were being ill treated by the nurses.

MS SEROKI: Was this reality or is it something that you thought would probably happen to you?

JOHANNES DHLOMO: I would say that there are certain people who went to the Natalspruit Hospital but they died thereafter due to not receiving any medical attention.  That is when the rumours started that they were not attended to because they were Zulus. That is when the whole thing started and it's when we noticed that there was differential treatment.

MS SEROKI: As the leaders, you were calling yourselves leaders at the hostel.  Did you ever go to report this matter that you were not getting equal treatment from the Natalspruit Hospital, you were encountering problems between yourselves and the hospital authorities?

JOHANNES DHLOMO: We wished to report this matter but there was no way that we could go to the superintendent or an authoritarian body where we could report the matter.  It was difficult for us to go to the residential area or Natalspruit itself.

MS SEROKI: Let's come to this incident of the military soldiers who were from Mozambique who were attacking on that day of April 1994, what had happened at the hostel the previous night, or that preceded their attack?

JOHANNES DHLOMO: Nothing had happened. I had noticed nothing amiss but they used to do this ever since 1990, the soldiers as well as the police would come into the hostel and they would conduct searches during the day as well as during the night.  That is how at the end of the day we got these identification cards so that we could identify ourselves as hostel dwellers.

MS SEROKI: Now these police who came that night, were they the same police who came in 1994.

JOHANNES DHLOMO: No at that time it was the SADF that had come, not the ones who came before, that is the ones who could not speak Zulu.

MS SEROKI: Now you said Jeffrey was with you and you were leading the way, you were followed by others, were you armed or not?

JOHANNES DHLOMO: No we were not armed.  I even produced this card to show them that we had a right to want to speak to the commander of the police before he conducts a search, so that we could be present when he conducted the search his crew, but they did not allow us to speak to the commander.  WE wouldn't have attacked the soldiers because they were trained to kill and we were not and did not even have the arms, so we wouldn't have been able to attack them.

MS SEROKI: Is there any case that you opened up with regard to Jeffrey's death and other people at the hostel?

JOHANNES DHLOMO: Yes there is a case that we opened.  I do even have some documentation to that effect.  The matter was being dealt with in Alberton Court but the matter could not be finalised. I do not know even now as to what is happening with the case. I was called in January 1996 on the 7th, 8th and the 9th to go and render testimony as to how Jeffrey died, I went there and the magistrate cross-questioned me but later on I told them that I will not be able to continue with the matter if his wife or his relatives were not called, and I saw all the men or the perpetrators present, and I was not able to continue.  They told me that if I was not able to they would call me later on, and I was never called at any sage

MS SEROKI: Now this AK47 that you spoke about, did you see him having this AK47 in his possession.

JOHANNES DHLOMO: He did not have any AK47, he had a torch in his hand and I had nothing in mine.  He had a torch because our aim was to go and try to speak to the commander.  He did not have any AK 47 with him but the police alleged that he had one and they said that he had been shot by the hostel dwellers and not by the police.  Because I was there as an eye witness I denied this allegation and Jeffrey was very important to us as a leader and when they said to us we  the ones....(turn over tape)....me even the most.

MS SEROKI: Did he have any wounds?

JOHANNES DHLOMO: Yes he had a gunshot wound that they showed me from a photograph Jeffrey but I denied and I told them hat I had no knowledge of Jeffrey being shot by one of the hostel dwellers.

MS SEROKI: We thank you very much Mr Dhlomo.

DR RANDERA: Mr Dhlomo has Mr Sibiya's family made a statement to the Truth Commission?

JOHANNES DHLOMO: It was difficult for me to locate his family because they do not stay here and I wasn't able to contact them. They are very far away, they are in Nongoma in Zululand and I was not able to get in touch with them because the information that I got was that his wife had gone back to school and I don't know which school that is.