CHAIRPERSON: The next witness is Diliza Mayford Mfazwe.
DILIZA MAYFORD MFAZWE: (sworn states)
CHAIRPERSON: We welcome you Mr Mfazwe, as the last witness as we are going to conclude. We are going to hand you over to Rev Xundu who is going to question you on behalf of the Commission. We have your statement here in front of us, which is quite lengthy, we are going to read it thoroughly, so there is no need for you to mention everything that has already been recorded in this statement. But there are just a few questions that will be posed on some matters that are not very clear, so I hope you will do exactly that. Over to you Rev Xundu.
REV XUNDU: Thank you Chairperson. Thank you, I know he is going to abide and do as you have asked because this statement it quite long, and the story as well. You became a struggler from 1950 and some of the people here who are Commissioners were not born yet. I am not going to get into details. Now, could you just briefly tell us and I can see here you were a member of the Youth League in 1950, and in 1957 you were in the forefront in the struggle, and during the Sharpeville massacre, you were also locked in for 60 days, and I think you are one of the people who have been very loyal to the struggle despite of all the nasty experiences and the arrests that were happening to you.
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Now, our main point here today is to look at the gross violations of the Human Rights. I can see that there are seven things that you have mentioned about your getting to Lesotho, it is not that we disregard all these, we know they form part of the story, we are now concerned about the violation of the human rights. Now, lets look directly into this matter. There are certain things that affected your health, towards the end of your story you have mentioned these and in 1985 during the state of emergency, you were arrested and assaulted and your eardrum was punctured and this is considered as a violation. I want you to listen carefully and even to look at me. Mr Mfazwe would you look at me.
Mr Mfazwe, this Commission is asking that you should work together with it, so if you do not cooperate, people are going to be impatient and not give you a hearing and therefore this is going to disrupt your story. We read about your struggle for liberation and we were impressed. Now, we would like to focus on your health that was affected.
Something that affected your health was after the state of emergency, when your eardrum was punctured, and you were unable to hear, so therefore we want you to cooperate with us. Look at me because when you talk, I shall be interrupting because you can't go on and on and on.
Now, could you explain briefly, don't refer to any file please, put them aside, that is not going to help us, we have got your statement. Say it in brief, Sir.
MR MFAZWE: I thank you Mr Chairperson for this opportunity to explain what happened in 1985.
In November 1984 when I came to Nobuhle and I was
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coming from Dimbaza Township, I became aware that in any minute, there could be some fighting, as a result of certain things that was said by the council and the residents of Uitenhage. There was a conflict about rent between the municipality and the rent residents. The municipality wanted the people to pay the full rates and service charges, and the residents of Uitenhage were complaining because they felt that their houses were very old, they had started to occupy them from 1968.
REV XUNDU: Now which organisation did you join on your arrival?
MR MFAZWE: I didn't immediately join any organisation, I was just watching. That was the time when these people were organising the UDF and at that time, their leader was Alan Boesak, so when I met some comrades, I knew. They told me that the UDF had just been established because they had seen that it was very important that there should be an organisation. Then, I refused to join the UDF because I was a member of the ANC despite that it had been banned at the time and I was not telling the world that I was a member of the ANC at the time.
There was a meeting that was held by the council and the UDF in a certain hall and then they disagreed because the UDF did not want the rent payers to pay the charges and they felt that these houses that they were living in, they were very old and they were complaining about their high rent that they had to pay.
REV XUNDU: You mentioned something about a sound, what sound was this?
MR MFAZWE: Then, people say that this meeting ended with the councillors being stoned and then the following morning
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I was told that the councillors could not address the matter properly so I left it like that.
A few days later, I heard that Benjamin Kinikini was the only one who was going to continue as a councillor because all the others were going to resign and were being forced to resign and they did that, so Benjamin remained the only councillor.
REV XUNDU: Could you just wait and tell us about the human rights violation that affected you?
MR MFAZWE: What makes me to mention all of this, is that as time went on, since I had just arrived here, I was in panic for my children who were moving all over, going to shebeens, joining toyi toyi's and boycotts. I was always uncomfortable because I always they were going to participate in the demonstration.
Then, one day I was with my brother and someone asked me to come and see, I went and saw a crowd of the youth, I saw policemen and there was teargas that was administered. Then this caused the youth to disperse and run away. I could even feel the fumes on my eyes and I wiped my eyes.
REV XUNDU: Can we talk about July 1985, about an incident in Cradock, an incident that lead to your arrest.
MR MFAZWE: There was the funeral of the UDF members, the Cradock four, these were friends to my children Ford Kalata is my relative, Goniwe Matthews.
There was fighting in Cradock because the policemen wanted Goniwe to relocate to Graaff Reinet.
REV XUNDU: Now, you had attended this funeral to go and show your solidarity with them?
MR MFAZWE: Yes.
REV XUNDU: Then you were arrested. Then what did they do
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to you in jail. How did they torture you, because you say that there was gross violation on your person?
MR MFAZWE: This funeral ...(intervention)
REV XUNDU: No, you were in jail, start from there. What was done to you in jail, in the form of torture? Were you assaulted?
MR MFAZWE: The very first day I was in jail, I met Neil, I met Xhoko, I met Mzimasi. We were excited over each other, but I told them that I had been assaulted. I was coming from Uitenhage.
REV XUNDU: Did you know any of these people who had beaten you? Did you know any of those people who had assaulted you, I mean the police?
MR MFAZWE: They assaulted me at the time I was going out of the house. A policeman punched me here on my forehead and I fell on my back. They beat me anyhow, vigorously, kicking my whole body and there was blood coming out of my ear.
REV XUNDU: So there is no policeman that you identify amongst those policemen who were beating you?
MR MFAZWE: One of them I knew amongst those police was Gerben. I didn't know the other young black policemen.
REV XUNDU: So, you say that they took you to a doctor because you were injured?
MR MFAZWE: The following day they took me to a doctor and this doctor was the doctor who used to attend prisoners in jail.
REV XUNDU: Now you say that this doctor was present at the time you were being assaulted? So, he examined you and gave you medicine?
MR MFAZWE: Yes, he gave an instruction that I be given some medicine and some other ointment to use on my ears.
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REV XUNDU: Then when you could not hear, did you get any attention for loosing your hearing? As a result of this attack, did you see any doctor?
MR MFAZWE: Yes, they were forced to take me to the Livingstone hospital.
REV XUNDU: Then, when you were released, in December, how did you feel? Where you still getting some treatment?
MR MFAZWE: When I came out of jail, I stood there at Madale.
REV XUNDU: When did you get your hearing aids?
MR MFAZWE: I got them there.
REV XUNDU: Let us conclude now and ask, what are your wishes that you would like to put forward to this Commission?
MR MFAZWE: I want some assistance because the people who attacked me damaged me for the rest of my life and now the government of De Klerk is compared to pay the compensation for this damage. I need this compensation, starting from 1985 up till now.
REV XUNDU: What kind of payment do you want? Do you want medical treatment or medical aids?
MR MFAZWE: Yes, I want some medical treatment, because I do not have any medical aid.
REV XUNDU: Do you get any pension?
MR MFAZWE: Yes, I do get a pension.
REV XUNDU: In one minute, could you just tell us any other thing that you would like to say to this Commission.
MR MFAZWE: My other wish, Mr Chairperson, is that I do not have any accommodation because of these policemen, because when they beat me they made things very difficult for me such that I was unable to pay rent and I had to buy a house, UITENHAGE HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
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so these policemen should pay back my expenses for having to buy a house. I had to sell my house.
REV XUNDU: Thank you Mr Mfazwe. The Chairperson has heard everything, and I am now going to hand over to him and he is now going to conclude.
CHAIRPERSON: We thank you Mr Mfazwe for your testimony, we know that you had a very long story, but because of our position as a Committee, you decided to therefore to cut it short and you focused mainly this matter on gross violation of the human rights.
Some of the things you have asked from us are going to be referred to the President of this country, but some of them will be attended to by this Commission. I wouldn't like to ask you to go back to your seat because I would take this opportunity to say, we are now closing this hearing, I thank the mayor of Uitenhage, the members of the council, by allowing us the use of this venue and not even charge us a brass penny.
I don't know whether the Mayor is here, if he is not here, could someone extend my word of gratitude to him. We thank the Ministers who were conducting the prayers, and even for their contribution for this hearing.
We also thank our Interpreters who are seated here behind us, they have done it efficiently and we have enjoyed it.
We thank people from the VW, who gave us transport so that we could transport the witnesses to and from.
We thank the policemen who kept order in this hearing, in such a way that it had to continue, through yesterday, we get an explanation after, we therefore extend our gratitude to them.
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We must thank the community of Uitenhage. I don't want us to forget that for quite some time, the whole of yesterday and Monday we had no problem, it is only that certain people wanted to disturb all this because in whatever we do, we have got to do it with respect.
I would like to thank the victims support group of Uitenhage. We would like also to extend the gratitude to them for the wonderful work that they have done. This hearing in Uitenhage has been a success during the three weeks. We wouldn't have been able to have done this without your support.
We thank all the community structures of Uitenhage, that have support to this hearing. We thank the residents who came here in great numbers and mainly they gave us the full respect as a Commission which we can never forget, though it was disturbed towards the end by some people who are unruly.
We therefore wish to thank the panel, beginning with the Commissioners, Denzil Potgieter, Mapule Ramashala, who come from the Western Cape. They have been with us in Queenstown, and I think they have been with us before that and indeed we have gotten used to being with them in hearings and we do wish to record our thanks to them, record our appreciation of the effort that they make towards assisting us in handling this hearing. We are indeed taking you as our friends and our comrades in our work.
We wish to thank our staff, regional manager. Our staff members for their support, and lastly but not least, I would like to thank our colleagues, Ntsiki Sandi, Tiny Maya, Mcebisi Xundu, not only for the hard work that they do, but for their spirit of working together that we have
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achieved and the friendship that continue to get.
Lastly, I would like to say this hearing now has come to an end. We shall meet in two weeks time as this Commission at Bisho, for the Bisho massacre. I thank you all.
PANEL MEMBER: Excuse me for a moment, I would like you to give the Chairman an applaud so that he can go away smiling, thank you.
