Human Rights Violation Hearings

CASE NO: CT/00250

VICTIM: DOUGLAS ZWENI

VIOLATION: SHOT BY COMRADES

TESTIMONY BY: MALINGE ZWENI

ADV POTGIETER

Ms Zweni I am going to ask you to stand as well and take the oath because we would like to ask you some questions too, I’ll just administer the oath to you.

MALINGE ZWENI Duly sworn states

ADV POTGIETER

Thank you very much, you may be seated. Ms Zweni perhaps we must speak to you first, because we’ve got the main statement from you in connection with the death of your father. The evidence goes back to 1986 is that correct?

MR ZWENI

Yes it is correct.

ADV POTGIETER

And the incident happened in Zolani township.

MR ZWENI

Yes at Ashton at Zolani.

ADV POTGIETER

And is it also correct that during his lifetime your father was a Councillor IN Zolani?MR ZWENI:

Yes my father was a Councillor in Zolani in 1985, also my father is one who is involved to take a part at Ashton [indistinct] School at 1985. And [intervention]

ADV POTGIETER

I am just going to interrupt you - just to help us, perhaps you can try and get closer to the microphone.

MR ZWENI

Okay.

ADV POTGIETER

And if you are going to give your evidence in English then it wouldn’t be necessary for you to actually put on the headphones, then we can speak to each other directly. Would you prefer to speak in English.

MR ZWENI

Sorry I - okay I will try to speak Xhosa.

ADV POTGIETER

Okay, but then you can still just sit a bit closer to the mike so that the audience can hear you and so that we can record what you are saying.

MR ZWENI

Okay.

ADV POTGIETER

Will you be able to follow me if I speak to you in English.

MR ZWENI

Yes you can speak with English.

ADV POTGIETER

And you can - you can answer in Xhosa if you want.

MR ZWENI

Yes if I - yes Ms Pumla Gobodo she try to translate with Xhosa.

ADV POTGIETER

Ja in fact perhaps - perhaps it’s better for you to put on that headphones, just so that we don’t have any misunderstanding, just - ja I think that’s better then we make sure that we do understand each other and we don’t miss what we are saying, okay. Are you hearing the translation again now.

MR ZWENI

Yes.

ADV POTGIETER

Okay, very good - very good. Now we were talking about your father and you were saying that during his lifetime he was a Councillor in Zolani. Do you want to just complete that and then you can tell us about the actual incident.

MR ZWENI

Of the people who spoke the other day no one mentioned that my father was someone who was involved in education in Ashton and Zwane and also involved in the struggle of residents through his involvement with the education. We’ve heard mention of people who are called vigilantes or sell-outs/informers. I myself was not directly aware of what the struggle meant at that time.

As time went on in the beginning of 1986, there was someone who came from Mazakene who said to me that I should tell my father the he (my father) was a sell-out, an informer and my father said, let that person come to me himself and tell me that himself.

ADV POTGIETER

Are you in a position to proceed. You were still saying you were concerned about the safety of your father as a result of the situation in the township.

MR ZWENI

On the 25th of May 1980, in April 1986 my father came from work and didn’t tell us at home where he was going. On that day the situation was very bad in the township as far as I could see. At the corners there were all sorts of people rushing around the township but we didn’t know what they were there for. They were quarrelling, there was confusion and there were groups wondering about in the streets. That gave me an apprehensive feeling, I was very worried about that so I hurried home to see if my father was at home and I asked my sister if she would go to Masakene and look to see if she could find our father because he could die as many people had already said to us that he was an informer. That’s why we felt that his life was in danger.

ADV POTGIETER

Are you ready to proceed as you were saying that you were concerned about the safety of your father as a result of the situation in the township?

MR ZWENI

I wanted my sister to go and tell my father that things were bad here in the township and that he should not come back. We felt that my father would be attacked. I’d like people to perhaps ask me some questions before I continue.

ADV POTGIETER

Okay do you want me to assist you to take us through what happened that night.

MR ZWENI

I didn’t know whether I should carry on and tell the whole story or just tell it in small parts.

ADV POTGIETER

No it’s fine I think you can proceed - you can tell the story and when you finished if there is something that we want to ask you, we will ask it, but you tell the whole story, so you can proceed.

MR ZWENI

As I’ve said, my father was not at home at that time, he’d left us there and it was at night at about 8 o’clock in Ashton. We didn’t know where he had gone. We’d last seen him at night but it was very bad in the township at that stage. People were fighting but we didn’t actually know what the cause of this confusion was. It was dark, there no lights in the township and I was very worried for my father’s safety on such a night. My mother tried to send my sister who was born in 1972 to go and look to see if she could see where my father was as he might have been at his sister’s place.

Koliwe went up to a place called Masakene and Koliwe found my father lying there in that place. She came back and told my mother, she said she saw my father, I then went to see if I could find him and there he was, his jacket was torn by knife thrusts and axes. There was a great scar on his face where he had been hacked with an axe. A brick had been thrown at him and it was lying next to his head. It was clear that they had just treated him mercilessly to try and overcome him.

After all that we decided to quickly try and get in touch with the police. We told the other people at home that our father was there and that his left leg was broken and he could nothing. Underneath him they people who had killed him had put a knife and also an old passbook, an old reference book. I’d like to stop there at that point and see if anyone would like to ask any questions and my mother would like to say something.

ADV POTGIETER

Are you - are you able to proceed because we - I would - can I - can I ask you some questions in order to complete your evidence, are you able to carry on?

MR ZWENI

You can ask questions if you like.

ADV POTGIETER

Okay, your father was obviously was killed in that incident when you found him in the street - lying in the street he was already dead, isn’t it so?

MR ZWENI

We didn’t know whether he’d actually been killed in Ashton or at the place or where he was actually found. We thought it might have been criminals that had actually attacked him. We didn’t know whether he’d been killed somewhere else and just been left there by criminals. Nothing was clear to us as to what had actually happened to him. We didn’t know where he’d been killed or who his murderers were.

ADV POTGIETER

Now subsequently did the police arrest anybody, did they charge anybody with the - with the incident?

MR ZWENI

There were four people who were arrested in connection with the murder of my father in Zolani in Ashton.

ADV POTGIETER

And you said earlier that at one stage there was an allegation that your father was an informer, an epiempie. The people who were charged - the people who were charged with the - with the incident, do they come from any organisation - do they belong to any grouping in the township?

MR ZWENI

According to what I understand those people were the people who were involved in the struggle in the community.

ADV POTGIETER

Would it - would it be people who would be referred to as comrades?

MR ZWENI

I didn’t know whether these people were in fact criminals or whether they were people belonging to organisations. I had no clear information about what sort of people they were.

ADV POTGIETER

How old were you at that stage when this - when this incident happened?

MR ZWENI

At the death of my father in 1986, I was 16 years old.

ADV POTGIETER

Okay is there anything else that you wish to add to your evidence before we speak to your mother?

MR ZWENI

No there is nothing else that I would like to add.

ADV POTGIETER

Are there any request that you want to make to us?

MR ZWENI

I was not even prepared to come here to the Commission to ask for help because I’ve had a very difficult time in my life so I came here because my mother had asked me to come and do this because I’ve had a great struggle in my own life. It’s my mother who perhaps can answer best to that question.

ADV POTGIETER

Okay before I ask my colleagues whether they got any questions, perhaps we must just move the microphone to your mother - can you just move it to Ms Zweni.

Ms Zweni good afternoon again and thank you for coming here. Can I just ask you is there anything that you wish to tell us in connection with the killing of your late husband?

MS ZWENI

As my son has already explained, my husband was killed in 1986. He was last seen at about 8 o’clock in our house and we didn’t ask him where he was going. I sent my child to find him and when she told me I hurried there and I saw him lying there. He looked like somebody who had just been abandoned there in an abandoned place. There was no blood. On his clothes there was some blood stains and it was clear that my husband had been killed.

When I left there I went back home and went and reported the entire thing to the police and I was never told anything about the arrest of the people who were arrested in connection with my husband’s murder. I also never saw where he was been held at the mortuary. I didn’t know who had taken him there and how. There were some police who took him to the mortuary and after that I never saw him again. It was not right, it was not right at all that I should stay there in my house unknowing.

My husband was killed and I was left with children who were still young and I’ve had to struggle terribly and I’m still struggling now. I’m also struggling with bad health and my mind has actually been affected because I forget things. That is what I can explain to you today. Those people who were arrested didn’t even stay in prison, they were given community work to do in the township, those people who killed my husband and it was not clear who had killed my husband. It’s been a terribly painful year for me. We had to close the windows with hardboard because we couldn’t replace the glass.

We were called epiempies, we were called informers by the community. Children would throw stones and children would persecute us in the street, we were called all sorts of names. I never heard that Zweni had beaten any child or that he was accused of something that he didn’t do. I don’t know why they killed my husband. That’s how far my story goes.

I’ve struggled to raise these kids, even this one is still in school. She’s living on pension fund. My life goes that much ... I’m familiar with those people, we stay together but they managed to kill my husband because they were accusing him of being an informer. That is heartbreaking to me. It’s very painful even though it has been healed but seemingly it was not going to be healed but I’ve managed to reconcile. God helped me and gave me strength to heal the wounds.

That is why I’m here today but it was not my wish, I didn’t want to open the wounds that were already healed, I want God to look upon those who killed my husband. I had a terrible time because my husband was killed mercilessly. He was lying there just like a dog saying that they’ve killed Incatha, they’ve killed an informer. These things are very painful. They axed him and he was a fat man. That’s how I was affected psychologically and ever since then I am a very forgetful person. My mind was affected, I was affected psychologically. That was a traumatic time for me. I didn’t even want to come to this place, I’d rather have stayed at home but I’ve tried to come because I’ve seen people being helped.

ADV POTGIETER

Thank you Ms Zweni - I appreciate there, we - we grateful that you decided to come in fact and to be prepared to open up a wound as you’ve said, which is already healed. It is necessary for us, it’s very necessary for this process, so we - we are grateful to you that you are here.

I am now going to ask my colleagues whether they’ve got any questions for either yourself or for your son. Ms Gobodo.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA

Thank you Chairperson. To open wounds is not something which one does by law, there’s no legal requirement that wounds should be opened, it is very difficult to do that. When I think that the father of the home, to find him lying in the streets in the manner in which he was found, it’s clear that nothing could ever be the same again. To be killed by people that you stay with in the community. I don’t know where to start to talk about this.

To hear that someone is an informer by unknown people and to be called epiempie is also very difficult. To be called these names and then by the people in the community and then to have lost the father of the home and to bring up the children on your own. I want to ask about the place where he was perhaps trying to go to your sister’s house. How far does your sister actually live from where you live?

MR ZWENI

We all live in one house.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA

But we thought that ...

MR ZWENI

No we are talking actually about my older sister. We wanted to prevent my father from going up to the ... because we thought it was dangerous and we didn’t want him to come into a dangerous place.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA

I think of the anxiety and fear that you as a child of 16 must have suffered about your father.

MR ZWENI

When I saw that from corner to corner there were meetings of old people that all gave me a feeling that I must actually try and prevent my father from coming into the situation because it would be dangerous but truly he did die on that night.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA

All the efforts and all the insults that you suffered, how did you feel about that?

MR ZWENI

I’m find that I’m a very nervous person. People in the community have said many things and these things have worried me and has made it very difficult for me where I live.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA

Could you tell us about the funeral of your father, how did it go?

MR ZWENI

We buried my father at Ashton in Zolani. After we came out of the funeral we went towards the hall and the youth, even some adults behaved without dignity. I saw hanging up underwear trying to do their best to block my father’s funeral. They were clapping hands and there was no respect for my father. Some were old and some were young, lifting up their dresses and celebrating while we were crying and full of tears. It was something they enjoyed up to the full. They were also showing us that they were clapping hands for those who did these evil things.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA

Do you know any of the people who were actually glad at what had happened?

MR ZWENI

Some of them I do know because some were the same age as me then.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA

How do you feel staying with a community that disrupted your father’s funeral?

MR ZWENI

At the moment we have no problem, we are reconciled, we are living in peace and there is not a problem with the community now.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA

Did you have the time to communicate with those who were the participants then?

MR ZWENI

No, I think even today I don’t think my friends would like us to share this thing of my father’s funeral?

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA

Is it the first time you are talking about it here today?

MR ZWENI

Yes, it is the first time I’ve never spoken about it to anyone as I told it today.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA

Is there any desire that you have, something that you would like to say to the community or something that should be done in order to reconcile yourself with the community, something that would create a real reconciliation with the people that you live with? Is there any way that we could help to put things right between you and the people who treated you badly in your house?

MR ZWENI

I don’t know how that could be put right because today I have no problem actually, I mean every day as I speak to them and we chat together. That enmity is finished, there is no more enmity between us.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA

So there is co-operation between you even though that pain is still with you?

MR ZWENI

Yes, there is co-operation and reconciliation between us.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA

When you sit and think about all these things, I’m trying to understand, are you truly reconciled to what has happened or is there any other way that you can think of that you can bring about this reconciliation between you and those people who at that point were called comrades and who called others informers and left houses empty without fathers, without parents? Is there some way you can thing of?

MR ZWENI

I still have a very bad feeling towards the people who actually did this thing. I had a very bad feeling about them, I thought I was going to take revenge because we were also going to die if we didn’t escape what was going on because there were many insults and things that we received after my father’s funeral.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA

Are these the things that your mother has mentioned, like putting hardboard on the windows?

MR ZWENI

There were times that there were people who wanted to come through the windows while my mother was at work. My sister had a little baby so I had a great fear that people would come inside and take us. I was wondering, not knowing what they were looking for because my father had died so we didn’t know what they were looking for. I wanted to leave Ashton then because I had no friends and I was thinking that I was an informer as well. I thank God that I’m still alive.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA

Thank you very much.

ADV POTGIETER

... this is really if you can. We’ve heard a lot of evidence today about a group of people who were named Amasolomzi in the township of Zolani. Was your father ever involved in that group?

MRS ZWENI

My husband was a Councillor during that time.

ADV POTGIETER

What was the relationship between the community Councillors and the people in Zolani in April of 1986?

MRS ZWENI

They would say that the Councillors were not wanted at that time, they were being killed, they were not wanted and they were told that they should leave their office there and then. They were told to leave office immediately, that’s why the Councillors were killed, they were not wanted. The first Councillors were not in fact killed, they were elected.

ADV POTGIETER

Were the Councillors seen as part of the Amasolomzi?

MRS ZWENI

The Zolomzi’s were a separate group, the Councillors were quite separate and distinct from them. I don’t know if I’m becoming confused but as I understand it the two groups were quite separate. There was a lot of trouble in the township between them.

ADV POTGIETER

Do you want to add something Mr Zweni?

MR ZWENI

I can’t remember some of the things as I’m forgetting. I don’t if there is anything that you are going to ask from me. In the beginning in Ashton there were Councillors who were wanted by the people of Ashton and there was no killing and no deaths amongst those first Councillors. That was the time that the Councillors were actually ruling. There was one of the Mayor’s who was in fact involved in the killing of my father who changed from being a Mayor to being involved in the struggle in Ashton. As the time went on and the community was involved in the struggle, this Mayor was involved as well in those community struggles.

ADV POTGIETER

The names that we’ve heard in the course of evidence today from people who were testifying about the situation in Zolani that conflict between what was referred to as the Amasolomzi and Vigilantes and members of the community, those names that were mentioned, Klaas, there were a number of names, you were present when that evidence was led, do you know anyone of those people?

MR ZWENI

As I said, I came today to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and I wanted to speak about the death of my father. Those people, my father is no longer with us. I thought there was someone who would come forward and testify saying I was one of the vigilantes and gave witness to the death of my father including those people who helped to kill my father. I thought they would come forward and I’m so disappointed that no-one has come forward.

ADV POTGIETER

I’m just going back in an attempt to try and clarify, to get an idea as to why this possibly could have happened or what the motive could have been. Some names were mentioned today of people who were clearly identified as part of the Amasolomzi, various names were mentioned today, do you know whether your father had any relationship with any of those people who were named here today?

MR ZWENI

As I’ve said from the beginning, as from 1985 I was till at school where it was the beginning of the uprisings. These people came from work and they wanted to prevent the boycott that was happening. They came from work straight to school. According to their minds they thought that they were there to protect the people and I thought my father was affected by this because he was one of the people who was trying to organise peace in the township and in schools.

ADV POTGIETER

Just one last issue which could be of some assistance. You testified that amongst other things there was a reference book, an old passbook found close to your father, who did that book belong to, whose book was that?

MR ZWENI

This passbook that we are talking about was a blank passbook. I think the culprits or the murderers put it underneath my father because maybe they were trying to camouflage the information as there was also a big knife under his body.

ADV POTGIETER

As a family you never found out whose passbook that was?

MR ZWENI

We couldn’t know whose passbook it was because policemen from Ashton were investigating the whole case and they couldn’t tell us about the proceedings of the case. We only heard one thing and that was that those who killed my father but how it went, we don’t know. As they were sentenced we never knew what procedures were taken and we didn’t know why they were sentenced. At the time they were sentenced to serve the community by the Cape Town Supreme Court we were not informed.

ADV POTGIETER

Thank you very much. Mr Zweni, Mrs Zweni thank you for coming, thank you for sharing your story with us. It is as I’ve said earlier as important as any of the other stories that we’ve heard earlier in the day and we thank you for your patience. It is an unfortunate fact of our history that we come from a system which has turned communities against each other, neighbours fighting one another and by sharing your painful experience and your loss with us, again it can only contribute towards a better future for all of us and we are indebted to you, thank you very much for coming and to the sister who has accompanied you as well, thank you very much.

MR ZWENI

I would like to ask a question. I thought maybe you as the Commissioners of the Truth of Reconciliation Commission were going to call the culprits because I never heard their names being mentioned and by coming here today I thought I was going to hear the names and to get the reason for the killing of my father from them. I thought

that this was going to be disclosed. I would like to go home today knowing who the killers were.

ADV POTGIETER

We have noted that as well. That is obviously something that you would wish the Commission to try and do. Perhaps I can just explain the procedure to you. We have listened to all the evidence, we’ve taken notes of everything that you’ve said, we have also noted your request now in connection with an explanation as to what happened and why it happened. We give all of the evidence that we’ve received as well as the requests, we give instructions to our office to look into the matter to investigate it and we eventually make findings about the case that was brought to us and we notify you about those findings eventually once all the work is done. It’s not the end of the case today in fact in a way it is the beginning of the case but we will come back to you and to your family.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA

There’s one more thing. You said that there was a Mayor who was involved in this murder of your father, am I mistaken in thinking that you said so? Where is this person is he still the Mayor?

MR ZWENI

He was a Mayor in 1980.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA

XHOSA - NO TRANSLATION

MR ZWENI

No, because according to the things that he said and because he had said to me that I should tell my father that he is an epiempie and my father died in that year that he told me those things, it seemed to me that he was involved. It was him that said these things about my father.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA

Are there other threatening things that he may have said that may have caused you to think that he had some involvement in the death of your father?

MR ZWENI

There were many fights and exchanging of words about what happened, seemingly he was still not happy and you still have the pain of losing your father.

ADV POTGIETER

Well I thank you again, it’s not the end of the case. Thank you for sharing the evidence with us. We thank you very much and we want to call upon you again when you leave to just put the translation devices on your chair. We repeat again that they are useless outside of this venue and we need to recharge the batteries, so leave them like that and you can use it again to-morrow. I also want to thank my colleagues on the panel. They will continue to-morrow with the proceedings and they will start at 9 o’clock. My two colleagues on the panel will be joined by other Commissioners who will do the last day’s proceedings to-morrow. Thank you very much and good night. Will you stand while the witnesses leave.

Hearing adjourns.

STATEMENT FROM WITNESS

It was on a Friday 1986 in April when we last saw our father [Mr Douglas Ndakuthini Zweni] at home at about 8pm in the evening. The situation in Zolani township was very tense in that there were tension between the community and the Councillor.

My father at the time was also one of the Councillors. So my father did not come that Friday night in April 1986. All of us at home were worried at home especially my mother.

My mother [Ms Nolusapho Zweni] asked my younger sister [Kholiwe Zweni] to go and look for my father around the area. This was on a Sunday morning when she went to look for him. Within a few minutes my sister came crying and running telling us that she saw our father lying on the street between the squatter camp area called Masekani an area called Seven Steps here in Zolani.

My father went out alone to the spot where my father was. When she arrived there she saw my father lying down on his back in the street. At the time I was not at home but I heard the news and went to the spot to witness this. When I arrived I saw him lying on his back, one leg was bent and one was flat while he was down. There was a big knife next to him. Also an old reference book was found underneath his body with no name or identity.

A certain Mr Lenk who was a policeman from Ashton and Mr Mpiko who worked with my father at Langeberg went to pick up my father. His body was put into a police van driven by Mr Lenk. His body was taken to the mortuary.

About three months before my father died a man from the neighbourhood, just next door by the name of Mr Timothy Tyalisisu said to me that I must tell my father that he is an informer. This Mr Tyalisisu was once a Mayor before but was later converted and became a political activist. So he said this while he was a political activist. When I told my father what Mr Tyalisisu said, he said, let him come to me and say that to me.

To come back again to my father’s death. While he was lying down he had a big deep scar across the nose. Seemingly he was hacked with an axe. We are also told by Mr Qotose Maqolo who was a State witness at the Supreme Court in my father’s death case. He told us that in order to overpower my father the murders/killers threw a brick at my father’s head in order to put him down on the ground. More information can be found in Cape Town Supreme Court [1987/88]

Investigation were done initially by Mr Lenk because he was the first to take fingerprints and other things. Other investigations were done by other detectives, perhaps from Cape Town.

Arrest subsequently were made, people arrested were:

* Mr Tyalisisu

* Mr Samuel Mangcola

* Mr Kikise Msoki

* Mr Lemi Mhlomi

All of them were and are still in Zolani but Samuel is no longer here in Cape Town. They appeared in the Supreme Court in Cape Town and were given suspended sentences and had to do community work. But that came as a surprise to us to see the murders going free without imprisonment.

Although my mother asked me not to say anything which might lead to other tensions there were many threats from the people at Zolani directed to us. For instance there were verbal abuses and death threats even after the death of my father. We were blacklisted in the social and political circles. We were a very isolated family in Zolani. There was also stone throwing on our roof by faceless/invisible people because when we go out to check them, they were not there.

Also the relationship with our next-door neighbours were very cold but I must confess that we are in good terms with them, we have forgotten what happened in the past.

RESEARCH NOTES

Mr Douglas Ndakuthini Zweni 62 a community Councillor from Zolani township was found stabbed to death in a field in the morning of Saturday 26th April 1986. Mr Douglas Zweni was implicated in a number of Amasolomzi actions in Zolani. Police later raided Zolani community and arrested 81 people of whom 47 were juveniles.

By the time of Mr Zweni’s death the Supreme Court of Cape Town had already issued out an interdict restraining Amasolomzi from their activities in Zolani. A member of the Zolani community claims that Amasolomzi and the police continued with their activities despite the interdict.

Four people were later charged in connection with the murder of Mr Zweni and other charges. They were acquitted on murder charges but found guilty on charges of malicious damage to property and sentenced to community service for two years. Basically, the community service they had to perform was to pick up dirt from the streets in Ashton. The four accused were:

* Mr Lemi Mhlomi

* Mr Timothy Thyalisisu

* Mr Charles Msoki

* Mr Basie Mangcola

The controversy surrounding Mr Zweni’s murder is that:

Mr Zweni was alleged to have been a member of Amasolomzi who patrolled the streets of Zolani at night.Amasolomzi moved in groups during their patrols and Mr Zweni would be expected to have been part of a group.Due to Amasolomzi patrols it would be expected that no members of the community would be found roaming the streets at night.