hrvtrans 1 T V APRIL, HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS, SUBMISSIONS QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 1996-11-12 KRUGERSDORP 2 T V APRIL https://sabctrc.saha.org.za/hearing.php?id=55433&t=&tab=hearings https://sabctrc.saha.org.za/originals/hrvtrans/krugers/april.htm CHAIRPERSON Vuyukazie April. Thelma April. Good afternoon Thelma. MS APRIL Good afternoon. CHAIRPERSON We appreciate the fact that you have been able to come before this Commission. Can you hear me quite well? MS APRIL: Yes, I can. CHAIRPERSON I will hand over to Dr Randera so that he can lead you in asking questions or in taking of the oath. DR RANDERA Ms April, good afternoon. Will you please stand to take the oath. Can you stand? Hold on. Ms April, hello, if you will just repeat after me. Can you hear me. Cannot hear. Okay. Just repeat after me. THELMA VUYUKAZIE APRIL (Duly sworn in, states). CHAIRPERSON We are going to ask Piet Meiring to lead Vuyukazie April. PROF MEIRING Thank you. Ms April we are still busy with that fateful day in Swanieville when the massacre took place and so many people were killed or got hurt. You are going to tell us the story of your fiancee who was also killed that day, but before we start may I ask you about yourself. What you do, what your family circumstances are, do you have children, are you working at the moment? Please tell me about yourself? MS APRIL I have one child that I am staying with presently KRUGERSDORP HEARING TRC/GAUTENG 2 T V APRIL and he is attending school. He is standard seven. I am presently not employed, but I do have some piece jobs that I do. PROF MEIRING Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you very much and now Ms April please tell us what happened on that day on the 12th of May with you and with your fiancee. MS APRIL On the morning of the Sunday we were still asleep. I woke up in the morning and I switched on the radio because I wanted to listen to some choral music. I heard some noise from outside. I switched the radio off and I heard some gunshots. We could not go outside because the people had surrounded the shack in which we stayed. Then I woke my boyfriend or husband and he asked me as to what was happening. I alerted him as to what was happening outside and we went out and hid ourselves in a certain bedroom. They started breaking the windows. My door was of corrugated iron. They opened up the shack. They had axes and all sorts of weapons. They opened up the curtains and at the time I screamed. We were with a certain woman. They pointed guns at us and they said they wanted the man. I told them that my boyfriend was not there. They came to us and we had hid my boyfriend underneath. They discovered him. At that time I tried to run towards them. There was a certain group that restrained me from going to the other group. As I was still standing there they took him out and he fell at the door. When he fell I screamed and one of the members of the group called one of the others and said they should shoot him. I threw myself over him and they pulled me away from him. That is the group now that was throwing me away from my boyfriend. One was having a gun. Then this one came closer KRUGERSDORP HEARING TRC/GAUTENG 3 T V APRIL and he shot my boyfriend just below the eye. They kept on throwing me away from him because I was throwing myself towards him trying to protect him. They also axed him. That is how much I know. PROF MEIRING And then after he was killed was he taken away or were you able to look after the body? MS APRIL He was not taken. Immediately after they killed him they left him lying there. I saw a Casper coming down and I had a hope that help was at hand. When the police came they blew their horn and they shouted, the ones who were standing there. That is the killers or the perpetrators and the group ran towards the Casper. A certain woman came towards us, running, telling us that her shack was burning. She said we should hold her and we should take her away from the fire. That is when the other men or other members of the residents, who were from Vuka, took him and put him aside. We sat there waiting for some help because we could not go anywhere. PROF MEIRING Ms April, are you comfortable, can we go on with the questions? MS APRIL Yes you can go on. PROF MEIRING Thank you. So your fiancee, your husband was killed and were you then able to bury him? MS APRIL Yes, I was able to bury him because I sent people to his home to report that he had been killed. PROF MEIRING Did you receive any financial help from any group, political group? The ANC or any other organisation who helped you with the funeral costs? MS APRIL No, no one helped me. PROF MEIRING Thank you. What puzzles me, that night or early the morning when the people came and surrounded your KRUGERSDORP HEARING TRC/GAUTENG 4 T V APRIL shack, why did they select your shack? MS APRIL They did not particularly to my own shack, they had already burnt other shacks down and killed people. PROF MEIRING Do you think that they, maybe, do you think that maybe they thought that you or your husband, fiancee was politically active, known as ANC members and, therefore, they wanted to get at you? MS APRIL I think that is the reason why we were attacked. PROF MEIRING Because the people knew that you belonged to the ANC? MS APRIL Nobody actually said it in so many words, but the way the attack was orchestrated, it was apparent. It was very obvious that that is the reason why we were being killed. PROF MEIRING Thank you. You told us about your daughter who is now in standard seven or your child. Is it a daughter or a son? MS APRIL It is a daughter. PROF MEIRING A daughter. Was she present that night in your house when it happened? MS APRIL Yes, she was present. PROF MEIRING Does she still talk about it? Was she traumatised? Was it a very bad thing that happened to her? MS APRIL This year she failed her studies. I think she was effected. PROF MEIRING Thank you Ms April. Those were the questions I wanted to put before you, but I think that some of my colleagues would like to add questions. CHAIRPERSON Dr Randera. DR RANDERA Ms April I want to, I do not know whether you were listening earlier on when Mr Caluso was talking and Ms KRUGERSDORP HEARING TRC/GAUTENG 5 T V APRIL Seroke talked about somebody called Swanepoel and Rens and a threat by Mr Swanepoel to bring people into attack the residents. Do you know anything about those things? MS APRIL Yes, I do know about the Swanepoel matter. DR RANDERA Can you please tell us something about that? MS APRIL When I went to stay in that area, when we moved into that area we paid R415.00 and Swanepoel told us that R150.00 is for the stand, R350.00 is for the toilet facility and thereafter he required us to pay some rent, that is R50.00 per month. That is where the whole thing started because we refused to pay that amount of money. That is when the fight with Swanepoel started. DR RANDERA So were you paying your rent then to the Committee in Swanieville? MS APRIL There were certain people who were receiving the rent who were in office who were Swanepoel's people. They were employed by him. DR RANDERA When was the last time you had paid rent to him or to his agents? MS APRIL I do not remember, but I use to pay rent. Then thereafter there was a meeting where we were addressing the issue with Swanepoel. DR RANDERA Now, you said to Professor Meiring that it was quite obvious that this attack had to do with the ANC. Were you a member of the ANC or your fiancee, was he a member of the ANC at the time? MS APRIL I was the member of the ANC. He was a Reverend or a priest. DR RANDERA And what role was the ANC playing in Swanieville at the time? MS APRIL I would not really know. KRUGERSDORP HEARING TRC/GAUTENG 6 T V APRIL DR RANDERA You also said that the people who attacked your house and killed your fiancee then jumped into the Casper. Is that right? MS APRIL Yes, that is correct. They climbed into the Casper. DR RANDERA And the police were driving the Casper? MS APRIL That is correct. DR RANDERA They were in their uniforms? MS APRIL Yes, they were in uniform and after they left there were certain police boots that were left and we knew that they did not belong to any of us. When we ran away we also left those boots there. DR RANDERA Did you lay a charge? MS APRIL Yes, I went to report the matter to the police. DR RANDERA And what happened after that? MS APRIL We were told that we should go to Johannesburg to attend the case and we heard that the matter had been finalised. DR RANDERA You were not called as a witness at any time? MS APRIL At no stage was I called. DR RANDERA Did you attend any of the court proceedings because we heard earlier on that seven people were charged and then they were acquitted. Were you not part of those proceedings? MS APRIL No, I was never called. DR RANDERA Thank you. I do not have any other questions. CHAIRPERSON Vuyukazi, we sympathise with you. We hope that now that you have spoken about this matter, you will feel that a certain load has been taken off your shoulders. What I want to know is, is Swanepoel still in Swanieville. MS APRIL No, he is no longer there. KRUGERSDORP HEARING TRC/GAUTENG 7 T V APRIL CHAIRPERSON Who is in control of the area? MS APRIL I do not know who controls the area at the present moment. CHAIRPERSON Are you still paying the rent in the same manner? MS APRIL No, we no longer pay any money for the rent. CHAIRPERSON Is there any peace prevailing in Swanieville? MS APRIL Yes, according to my own observation, I think there is peace. CHAIRPERSON We appreciate the fact that you have showed up. We shall try by all means to investigate the matter. As you know the matter was heard and the perpetrators were found not guilty. That is what we can tell you. Thank you very much. KRUGERSDORP HEARING TRC/GAUTENG