CHAIRPERSON: Earlier on I had said Reverend Thema was the last witness. My apologies, please, we have the last witness, Yvonne Makgolo, who is our last witness for today and I would apologise for Commissioner Yasmin Sooka and Hugh Lewin as they have to urgently go back to the office while the Commission is in session. I will ask that you may be seated.
YVONNE MAKGOLO: (Duly sworn in, states).
CHAIRPERSON: I will ask Russell Ally to assist Mrs Yvonne to give her testimony.
MRS MAKGOLO: My child ...
DR ALLY: Hello, hello Mrs Makgolo. Sorry for keeping you waiting so long. You are going to tell us about your son, Victor, who was shot at age 16 in June 1986. Will you please tell your story to the Commission?
MRS MAKGOLO: I had sent him, when he got back he met the Boers and the Boers shot him. They took him to the hospital and when they diagnosed him they found out that they shot him in the head.
DR ALLY: I am sorry, I did not hear the translation.
MRS MAKGOLO: It was on the 16th of June. I had sent my child, when he got back, I had sent my child. It was on the 16th of June. When he was coming back he met the Boers and the Boers shot at him.
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DR ALLY: Mrs Makgolo, this was on the 16th of June 1986. Is this correct or was this 1976?
MRS MAKGOLO: It was in 1986.
DR ALLY: So this happened on a day when they were commemorating ten years of June 1976. Was that what was happening at the time?
MRS MAKGOLO: Yes, this happened at the time.
DR ALLY: And you son, was he involved in commemorating June 1976 or was he just an innocent bystander?
MRS MAKGOLO: No, he was just a bystander.
DR ALLY: The reason I ask that is because in your statement you say that your son was actually arrested by the police before this incident. You say that it was in 1986, you do not remember the day or the month, but do you know why your son was arrested in 1986?
MRS MAKGOLO: No, I do not know why my son was arrested. I do not know why he was arrested.
DR ALLY: So you do not know if on this day that the police were actually looking for your son or that the people who shot him may have known that this was your son?
MRS MAKGOLO: I just heard that they had arrested him and they had imprisoned him in Protea Police Station.
DR ALLY: And was any inquest held into his death, the cause of his death?
MRS MAKGOLO: No, there was not any inquest.
DR ALLY: It seems, Mrs Makgolo, that your son actually did have a history of political involvement because firstly he was arrested before this actual shooting took place and you also say that when he was actually buried, that there was a strong police presence at the funeral. Is that the case, did the police actually interfere in the funeral proceedings SOWETO HEARING GAUTENG PROVINCE
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when you were burying your son?
MRS MAKGOLO: No, they just came in the premises of the Church and they surrounded the Church premises. They never shot, they were never shooting. They were following us to the graveyard. They just surrounded us. They just surrounded the grave.
DR ALLY: Thank you Mrs Makgolo, I am going to give you back to the Chairperson.
CHAIRPERSON: I would refer to the others if they have some questions. I will start with Piet Meiring.
PROF MEIRING: Two questions, Mama Makgolo, if you do not mind. The first question is when your son was shot, you said that two young boys came to tell you about that. Do you remember their names or are there other witnesses who were there who could give more information?
MRS MAKGOLO: I cannot remember them because I was very confused.
PROF MEIRING: Thank you, thank you for the answer. The last question is was he your only son or are there other children also in the family?
MRS MAKGOLO: I had two daughters and he was the third one. PROF MEIRING: Who is looking after you at the moment? One of your daughters?
MRS MAKGOLO: Here is another one, but he is deaf and dumb. That is the only disadvantage.
PROF MEIRING: Can I just get that correct that there are two daughters and the one is deaf and dumb? I am so sorry, I did not get that, the translation. We just, we need to write it down. You have two daughters and one is deaf and dumb. So there is only daughter that can look after you.
MRS MAKGOLO: The one who is not normal, the one who is
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deaf, I cannot say she is looking after me because she is a little bit disabled.
PROF MEIRING: Thank you very much. No more questions. Thank you.
CHAIRPERSON: Joyce Seroke.
MS SEROKE: Mama Yvonne, you say your neighbour, another woman is the one who came to tell you that your son has been shot. She only saw the police and the children were running away from the police. What was the reason, what was the reason that made the children to run away?
MRS MAKGOLO: (Xhosa not translated).
MS SEROKE: Do you mean, is your daughter getting any disability grant? Are you getting any pension fund?
MRS MAKGOLO: Yes.
MS SEROKE: Are you staying, it is only the two of you in the house?
MRS MAKGOLO: Yes.
MS SEROKE: Is your daughter who is married, is she staying, where, somewhere else?
MRS MAKGOLO: Galibo.
MS SEROKE: Thank you Mama.
CHAIRPERSON: Maybe if I can just ask one question. Surely when you approached the Commission you had a special request in your own mind. Can you tell this Commission as to what exactly do you expect or hope to get from it?
MRS MAKGOLO: I hope the Commission will help me to get something like a tombstone so that I can remember my child.
CHAIRPERSON: The request you are making is humble enough given your family circumstances and also the fact that your child could be an asset to the family. We will certainly take this into consideration when we write up a report and
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people's requests. We thank you very much for coming forward.
I just want to thank all of you who have persevered till this late hour, half past six. We thank you very much. To us it is an indication that many people are aware that the reason why we are bringing these hearings closer to the communities is to challenge people to realise that the survivors and the victims will not heal on their own. They need a lot of support. So by staying, listening to them in such a cold hall till the end is an communication to them. You are communicating your availability, you are communicating your presence. When we started here on Sunday the Priest who was here, I should think it is Reverend Mabuso, he said the Church should open its doors for facilitating the healing and I would like to go beyond that and say that may the community of Soweto, all the structures, women's organisations, the civics, may they really open their doors too and realise that what the Commission is doing is a beginning of a much more complex task that is the healing of those who were deeply hurt and injured by the past practices.
I also want to just thank our witnesses because what they have said so far, it clearly indicates to us that this trying to recollect what happened in 1976 is much more complex than we all envisaged in the sense that they have all be struggling with a traumatic memory and in the process of doing that, each testimony is like a piece within a bigger puzzle. It fits in, it closes the wounds in some instances, it closes the gaps in other peoples minds. We could see how even the witnesses tried to support each other and said, where X could not remember, this is exactly what
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happened. I should think what the Commission has done is the beginning of ongoing work which, in this area, should continue, people assisting each other to make sense of what happened on that day.
We will continue tomorrow. We will be here till Friday and we are challenging the people of Soweto to come forward, make the statements inbetween, but also to support the witnesses. When they leave this hall they should go back to a receptive community which is prepared to hear their agonies. Tomorrow we will start at nine o' clock and hopefully we will end much earlier. We have fewer witnesses tomorrow. Thank you very much.
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