KHOLEKA PATRICIA MANYAMALALA: (Duly sworn, states).
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, you may be seated. As is our practice I have assigned a Commissioner to assist you with the leading of your evidence. We have asked Commissioner Wildschut on my right over there to help you. I hand you over to her.
MS WILDSCHUT: Thank you, Irene Malunga. Thank you very much for coming. Maybe I can ask you to press the red button on your microphone. Thanks. Do you hear me clearly?
MRS MANYAMALALA: Yes.
MS WILDSCHUT: Maybe I should ask you to begin by telling us a little bit about yourself and then also proceed then to tell us your story as it is reflected here in your statement.
MRS MANYAMALALA: Thank you for being here today. My name is Kholeka Patricia Manyamalala, I am a lady teacher in Hector Pietersen. My husband is Thandabantu Manyamalala, we got married in 1977. We were in Transkei by the time, we got married in Kokstad on the 25th of September 1977. We had three children. Two girls and a boy. In Transkei Thandabantu was a public prosecutor. Due to certain circumstances we decided to come to Johannesburg to join our family, the Manyamalala family, because most of the family
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members of Manyamalala are in Gauteng. When we arrived here he was working for Stannic. He didn't work there for a long time. He was working for the SABC. He used to like going to church, his congregation was Presbyterian Church Southern Africa. He was an elder there.
In the beginning of my story of his death. On the 8th of September 1991, it was on a Sunday evening, Sunday evening. I wasn't at home, because we are staying in Fullers in Kagiso. He was left at home with our younger child who is four years old. I was with the other one, the second born. The eldest one was in Kokstad boarding school. The people came to fetch me, the family members, telling me that my husband had died. The manner of his death, when the people told me, the person who was with him and from the information that I got from the newspapers, as I have already told you. I will go back again a little bit. He used to like his church. He was an elder in the Presbyterian Church. By that time the shacks in Muchanga Village were burnt, people didn't have a place to stay. Even right in church there were people who needed some assistance. On that particular day when he was from church, he was with another woman to fetch that woman's property. He was going to take his furniture to a place where he got a place to stay. When they were on their way on that particular day, there was a rally in Jabulani Amphiteatre, an IFP rally. It is said that while he was driving from Fuller down to Crossroads, the people who were in that particular rally, the IFP people, it was already in the evening, the rally was over. They were escorted by the police, police Casspirs. As they were driving down to Crossroads, they saw a group of people in Crossroads, people SOWETO HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
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of this rally. They were approaching this group of people from the rally when they were next to (indistinct), he just decided to make a U-turn to go back to avoid the group of people who were approaching. Unfortunately there were other people who were already out of his group which was being escorted by the police. They were from Shangu Village, the direction of Shangu Village. They shot at her. He couldn't get control over the car and the car came to a standstill. They were there already, within a short time, a group of people were there. Four them, or the men who were there, it is said that they are the people who killed him. When he stopped the car, they pelted the car with stones. They opened the door of the car, they took him out of the car. When I was identifying him in the mortuary, he was hit by a knobkierie on his forehead and his clothes that he was wearing. He had a lot of wounds. There was another one that I think it was the worst wound, which was on his ribs. I don't even know whether it was a spear or if it was a knife. There was no bullet wound. You could see that they used spears or knives to stab him. What is hurting, when I was reading the newspapers, because this thing was published in the Nation newspaper and in the Sowetan. When I - and from the witness also that had the information. Fortunately there were journalists from Sowetan who were following the car who actually saw everything. It is said that those people, the people who were in that mob, in that group of people from the rally, or IFP people, they managed to stop the car and drag him out of the car and beat him and stabbed him. But all that time police couldn't come to his rescue.
Secondly, the people who were doing all those things, it is obvious that they had weapons, because he had stab
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wounds. They could take those people and with their weapons and arrest them, but unfortunately they didn't do that. After that the police Casspirs, as I was told, the police were in those Casspirs. They spread tear-gas to disperse the mob. A lot of people died in Crossroads and Mfulu on that particular day. Because these people, the IFP people were killing randomly. It was a Sunday evening, people were coming from their churches and others were coming from their community societies. But there was - the help was not sufficient because the people died.
When I was told this in Kagiso, I was very shocked. It was the time that people were being killed in large numbers by the IFP.
After the funeral I tried to make a statement in Protea police station. When I arrived there, I was not satisfied the way they treated me. Because we were told, even my relatives were also told, that all those cases of that particular day, they are still investigating them. There is no evidence which is enough, which was enough. I waited that maybe I will get a letter or something which will be summoning me to the case from the police station or whatever. But till today I never got anything. There was no evidence. I don't have knowledge, I am still in the dark.
MS WILDSCHUT: Thank you for telling us your story. Maybe we should just ask a few questions which would help us to clarify some points. You mentioned that your husband was involved in church, the Presbyterian Church and that he was an elder in the church. Was your husband at all involved in any political organisation that you are aware of?
MRS MANYAMALALA: I can't say that he was involved, but what I can say, he was interested and he used to respect the ANC
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organisation.
MS WILDSCHUT: Could we then - could you help us understand why it was that your husband was targeted by these people who were at the rally, to be shot at and to be murdered in such a way. Do you understand what the motive was?
MRS MANYAMALALA: I don't even know, as I have already told you, I don't know, because if a person is coming from a church that evening, wearing a uniform of the particular organisation, if the organisations are fighting, what is the reason of his death? Because he was just driving, he didn't have any weapon with him.
MS WILDSCHUT: Any of the - was he driving alone or had he at that point already dropped off the person who was with him? So was he alone at that time?
MRS MANYAMALALA: He was not alone, because he was with this other woman who was taking him to a place where she was going.
MS WILDSCHUT: So she witnessed the whole incident as well?
MRS MANYAMALALA: (Speaker's mike is not on).
MS WILDSCHUT: Yes, can you please repeat your answer again, please.
MRS MANYAMALALA: Yes, she actually witnessed everything, because she was there, they were together.
MS WILDSCHUT: Right. Do you know who this person is and are you at liberty to tell us what her name is?
MRS MANYAMALALA: The woman's name is Sobetwa, Mrs Sobetwa, that's the name of the woman.
MS WILDSCHUT: Thank you. You went, after you were informed about the attack, you went to report this at the police station. Am I right?
MRS MANYAMALALA: Yes.
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MS WILDSCHUT: What was the reaction of the police at that time? Did they take a statement from you or did they dismiss you and say that they are not prepared to take a statement from you?
MRS MANYAMALALA: They took a statement, but they were saying the evidence is not enough, a lot of evidence that used to take place, that took place on that particular afternoon, all of them, they are going to combine them and they will make one statement or I can't remember clearly, but they said all the incidents of that particular day, and the people who were killed and the people who were injured, their statements, they are still investigating their statements. Therefore they said they are going to call us again and tell us about the follow-up.
MS WILDSCHUT: There was no follow-up?
MRS MANYAMALALA: No, there was no follow-up.
MS WILDSCHUT: Can you tell us, at the time of the funeral, were you harassed at all, how did the funeral go down with what happened, at the funeral?
MRS MANYAMALALA: At the funeral there was nothing, there was nothing unusual. Everything was just normal.
MS WILDSCHUT: I would like to just find out from you, this was an incident that happened to your family, it was completely unexpected, you didn't expect this to happen. As you said your husband was involved with the church but not actively involved in any political organisation. What was the impact of this incident on your life and in the life of your family? How did it affect your family?
MRS MANYAMALALA: My family was affected, especially the children. My children, they don't have peace. Even when they are writing their compositions at school, the essays,
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they still have a question mark, although they are small children, they don't actually have an opportunity to voice out, but when they write down, I can see that they are emotionally affected, they are emotionally affected.
MS WILDSCHUT: Do they talk about their father at all, and what are the kind of things they say when they talk about him?
MRS MANYAMALALA: They talk about him, especially when we are happy, when we are relaxing, maybe on Sundays, if we are going to church, they remember things that we used to do while he was still alive.
MS WILDSCHUT: We normally try to find out from people who come and appear before the Commission, what it is that they would like the Commission to assist them with and to for them. I would like to find out from you, what would you want the Commission to do to help you to deal with this incident, what is it that the Commission can do for you?
MRS MANYAMALALA: I would be grateful if the Commission can try, if a person is in charge of something, like a person normally in charge of escorting people from the rally and any person who is in charge, he must try and use his powers. I think he was callous, because there was no reason for a person to be killed, whereas there was a person who was in charge.
Secondly, if the Commission can help me financially, because I have children and even Thandabantu, his mother is very old and she can't do anything for herself. I am the only breadwinner, I must support the children, I must maintain and take them to school.
MS WILDSCHUT: We have noted your requests. We also have to make recommendations to the President that would help the
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President formulate policy that will ensure that human rights violations don't ever occur again in our country. Maybe you had an opportunity to think about this before. So I would like to find out from you, what are the kind of things that you think that we should be saying to the President, so that we can ensure that this does not happen again.
MRS MANYAMALALA: To the President, I wish the Commission can emphasise that as I have already said that the police, so that the police must help confidence, they must do their duty completely.
MS WILDSCHUT: I have no more questions to ask you, so I will hand you back to the Chair. Thank you.
CHAIRPERSON: Mrs Manyamalala, I am going to ask the other Commissioners if they have any questions to ask you.
MR LEWIN: Mrs Manyamalala, could I just ask, I would like to get a clear picture of what you know from the people who were with your husband. What actually happened in terms of the actual incident where they stopped the car and attacked him, because was there for instance, anyone who gave a command, the person ....
END OF TAPE 3 - DAY 5 - (FOLLOWING TAPE 5 - DAY 5) - WRONG CASSETTE IN HOLDER - NO TAPE 4, DAY 5.
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