Human Rights Violation Hearings — Durban — 1996-10-25

WITNESS:   At Throbo there is a - it is a new location that has just been allocated.   The place is quite scary, because these children have given themselves or allocated themselves people's houses.   I am not the only one whose house was taken away from me, some other people decided to go to the rural areas, the children are staying in those people's houses.   If the children could come to you and say they are asking for forgiveness, and they want to come back to the location, they want to re-integrate into the community, we can forgive them because they are children.   I believe they did not know what they were doing.   It was agreed amongst the community that they should go back to their parents, so that everybody could  get his or her house  back, but they flatly refused.

CHAIRPERSON: (Inaudible) ... us your story.   I think one of the difficult problems that the commission has to deal with is the question of those people who have been displaced from their homes.   And that has happened right around the country through vigilantes.   The commission is looking into it.   You know that in Kroonstad recently the amnesty committee of the commission has heard about the story of the Three Million gang.   We will be investigating this matter.  And the commission will have to come up with some kind of policy to make sure that people like yourselves are about to return to their homes. We thank you and the previous witness, who have come all the way from Kroonstad, to share this day with us, and to tell the story of your own suffering and your own plight.  We have heard it, and we will see what we can do about it.  Thank you, Mama.

CHAIRPERSON: We will now break for tea until a quarter past eleven.
SHORT ADJOURNMENT
/ON RESUMPTION
ON RESUMPTION

SYLVIA NOMHLE DLAMINI: (Sworn States) (Through Interpreter)

CHAIRPERSON: We normally assign a commissioner to assist witnesses with the telling of their stories.   In this instance, I will be helping you.   And I will ask you to tell us a little bit about yourself, how old you are, your own family, whether you are now the sole breadwinner in your family, and then you can tell us what you have come to share with us.

WITNESS:   My name is Nomhle Sylvia Dlamini.  I am residing in Sobantu.   I am the only one left at home.   We were six.   I am the only one left.  And the other kids who aren't members of the family.  I am staying at home and I am not working.   I couldn't work all along, because I wasn't allowed to.   Even I tried to take myself to school, but I couldn't and this other kids who are my siblings, I was the one who was supposed to maintain them.   In this past years, I was staying with my mother.   She was a Christian and she didn't know that we were comrades.   One window at the back we removed the burglar guard, after my mother had gone to sleep, we used to remove that burglar guard and went out and she'll think we are still asleep.   One day policemen came at home.  When they arrived there they found that we were not there and my mother realised that we were not at home, and police asked my mother where we were and she didn't know truly and they took my mother with them.   When we came home the next day, we asked our neighbour and the neighbour told us that we mustn't go to our house because police were all over the place the whole night.   During the day my mother came.   I waited there until 5 o'clock and I went inside the house.   I asked my mum, "Mum, what's going on?" and my mother didn't want to talk to me.  She asked for painkillers.   I left to look for the tablets and later on when I came back she told me police came and they took her and they wanted her and she tried to find out from me what was going on.   I couldn't explain this thing to my mother that I am a UDF member.  And her age, she was too old at that time, it wasn't easy for me to explain everything to my mother.  Later on, I saw one man and I knew this man, he was a SB.   I took a child and then I escaped through that window.   Later, police got hold of me, they arrested me. They took me to Hilton and they locked me there.   They didn't take me to court.   I wasn't asked whether I know why I was arrested or not.   They were harassing me.  They used to use a wet towel to hit me.   They used to take me and put me through the window and make me scared and tell me that they were going to drop me down.   Some things I used to know them, letters, meetings, but I didn't say I knew them to the police.   Later on, because I was locked alone, I couldn't speak to anyone, I was confused.   I was interrogated.  They released me.  I found things were not okay at home.  They were looking for my brother, who escaped, up until today we don't know where he went to.   Some of my sibling went to Hammarsdale, and this other one they followed him to Hammarsdale and they shot him, and he survived.   After he was shot, I looked for a place for him to stay.   We went to the rural areas and I put him there, just to hide him there.   I used to send things for him.  Later my mother was taken by police, harassed all the time, and later then she got a heart attack, heart disease, high blood pressure.   And she couldn't get pension.   And later on she died.   In hospital they took time to give her medical attention.   When she died clots were coming from her nose and from her mouth.   I went back home.   Police came.  It was on Wednesday.   They told me I couldn't wait to - for the funeral, we must bury and it mustn't be a big funeral.  It was not easy for me to arrange that.   People came.   Some were from exile, and they came.  I don't know how they came there.   At the night vigil it wasn't good, police were all over.   On Saturday - the body came on Friday and it was a night vigil and the funeral was going to be on Saturday.  The programme was changed and the reverend told me he is only going to do the service at 10 o'clock and we didn't do anything in church.   We were sent to the cemetery.  And while we were there, people came, a lot of people.  I didn't know where they were coming from, but some of them were Inkatha members, and then now people were fighting.  My aim was to make sure that the coffin was going down and people were talking and then I removed the blanket on me, I threw it away.   And I was talking to Thembinkosi and people were shooting each other, fighting.  After we finished - by the time we finished people were injured, and my relatives were not there.   It was just me who was supposed to see what to do.   We went back home and that's where I realised that my mother died because of me, and this was the last time I saw my family. I stayed alone from 1986 up until today.

CHAIRPERSON: I want to ask you some questions to make sure that I have all the facts clearly before us.   How old were you at the time when the - you were a member of the UDF?

WITNESS:  /I was

CHAIRPERSON: I was 15 years at that time.

CHAIRPERSON: What were you and the group that you belonged to, what were you involved in, in the township?

WITNESS:   In Sobantu we were lucky, we didn't have so much problems because we didn't have Inkatha/ANC fights.  We were lecturing or educating youth about politics.

CHAIRPERSON: You mention in your statement that you were also earning R45,00 a week, were you working during this time as well?

WITNESS:   Yes, I was working.  When I was 16 years I had to leave school because I was taking care of other kids whom I was staying with at home.   From this R45,00 I used to take care of a lot of things.  We used to pay rent, buy food for everyone in that house.   I was the only one who was working.

CHAIRPERSON: You were not able to tell your mother that you were involved in the UDF.  Can you share a little with us why that was not possible?