hrvtrans HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION HEARINGS 1996-11-27 GUGULETU 7 POLLSMOOR 2 CT/00108 ZABONKE KONILE TSHERDEN MBENYANA SHOT AND KILLED BY POLICE https://sabctrc.saha.org.za/hearing.php?id=55762&t=&tab=hearings https://sabctrc.saha.org.za/originals/hrvtrans/polls/ct00108.htm ADV POTGIETER Good Morning Ms Konile. MS KONILE Morning. ADV POTGIETER And with you is Mr Mbenyana. MR MBENYANA Morning. ADV POTGIETER Morning to you to, welcome. We have got a written statement from Mr Mbenyana, but Ms Konile will also be giving evidence. So, I am going to ask you both to take the oath and for that purpose to stand please. ELSIE KONILE Duly sworn states TSHERDEN MBENYANA Duly sworn states ADV POTGIETER Thank you, you may be seated. Ms Konile, we will start with you. You are the mother of Zabonke Konile who was one of the seven young men that got killed in the incident that we are looking at today. MS KONILE Yes. ADV POTGIETER Are you - are you resident in Cape Town or where do you stay? MS KONILE I stay in Village in Ndwe ADV POTGIETER So you have come a long way to attend the hearings and we thank you for that. Now, would you like to tell us what kind of child Zabonke was, what he was doing and what you know about this incident and how he was killed? MS KONILE I was then put on a mortuary Kombi, they took me to the mortuary. I was with [indistinct] at the time. When I got there and I saw him, I could not even breathe, I was gasping for air. He was just lying there, dead. There were a lot of bodies, but his was the first one there. I could see that this was my child, Zabonke, but he was filthy, absolutely filthy. All swollen up around the head. I just fell over, I was taken and put on a bed. Somehow I had been transported elsewhere. I was given medication. They asked if I was feeling better - I said yes, even though I could sense that I was not fully conscious. I insisted that I had felt better, we then were put on yet another car. Yes we were taken to KTC where he used to stay. There were a lot of people there already. They somehow referred to him as a hero. We were then taken by the same Kombi - we were asked to choose a coffin. There were quite a few ladies, mothers to the deceased. There were seven coffins. After that, we left. The next morning we went to the grave yard. When we got to the grave yard and all seven coffins were there boers came. They pointed - they pointed their guns at all of us. And we could not continue with the funeral. People dispersed they were running away. ADV POTGIETER Are you feeling a bit better - if so then you can complete the testimony, but take your time. MS KONILE At the funeral the boers came and people dispersed, but we continued with the burial - we were taken home. I was never happy in my spirit again. Zabonke has a daughter she was still crawling at that time. ADV POTGIETER Thank you Ms Konile, have you ever been at any of the court cases? Have you ever heard testimony of what had allegedly happened when your son was shot and killed? MS KONILE I did not get any report except for the time we were called - when they just wanted to ascertain who the mothers of the deceased were. ADV POTGIETER Now as it was indicated earlier, our investigators have looked into the incident and as I have indicated earlier, there are certain conflicting evidence of what happened. And one of the important purposes and reasons for having you present at these hearings over the next two days, today and tomorrow, is for you to listen to what the various witnesses say happened. Tomorrow we will listen to the testimony of the police - some of the police. Who can testify about the incidents so you will be able to hear, today - what some of the eye-witnesses saw things happening, what they say and you can hear tomorrow what the police are saying. And you can listen to the results of our own investigation. So we thought it is important for you to be present and to at least hear now for the first time some evidence about what happened. I just thought I must explain that to you. If you have nothing to add, then I am going to ask Mr Mbenyana to add to your testimony what he wants to add. MR MBENYANA Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity. I am going to talk about my brother-in-law John Zabonke Konile. He came to Cape Town with me. I found him a job in a company called Western Province Hardware. After a while, he went to stay in KTC, I was staying in Site C, Khayelitsha. Around March, 1985, I saw in the Cape Times on a certain Tuesday - I read an article about the Guguletu 7, they were referred to as the heroes. They were referred to as terrorists, sorry. They were not identified, their names or surnames were not in the newspaper. It was very shocking, I then went and told the brother in a church. We then all went together to KTC to find out from the community exactly what happened. Mr Chairperson, we found Civic there who was handling the whole matter. They told us, they confirmed that Zabonke Konile had truly been shot. He, as he was working for this timber company, he was able to build shacks. He worked especially for the ladies and the women in the community, building up their shacks during weekends. We then had no choice, but prepare for the funeral. The police gave orders that nobody was to be buried at home. We wanted to bury him back home, but there was no way, the police refused. Even to get the corpses, and have our own program, it was very difficult. It is the UDF attorneys that helped us. Even they requested a company called Mashlobe to help clean up the corpses so that they could be buried. We then prepared for the funeral. We went to the stadium, because it was a mass funeral. We prayed and we continued to the grave yard. There was a helicopter hovering above us. When we were just about to finish off, covering the coffins, there is a field between 108 that divides 108 and N2 - there were no shacks at the time. It was just an open field. The police emanated from there with Army vans. They came closer and as they approached, they were taking photographs. As you will remember, these were very young men. The entire youth that was at the funeral was extremely grieved. They did not see the police as they approached. The police then ran away towards N2 - there was a fence around. They drove over it. That day was almost a calamity, because actually the youth wanted to attack all the N2 vehicles that were there, the police vehicles. It is the priest that helped, trying to stop the youth. The youth then came back after the police had run away. Since 1985 we never heard that the case had been taken to court. We just got a short letter from an attorney Ebrahim, from Athlone, around August or September 1989. We were then staying in Mandela Park. The address that you have on your records at the moment. He was informing us that we should go and listen to the case. I went the one day, because I was working. It was difficult to be there the whole time. I went the first day in Wynberg. The Magistrate there told us that he - he was appointed to handle the whole case. There was a man next to the magistrate - he told us that this man was a professor from the Stellenbosch University. He has also been appointed to help with the case. This Magistrate then continued to say that Mr Vlok had an attorney for the police. The evidence that was given by the police was contradictory even within themselves. The one said I had a huge gun and the other said I had a small gun in my hand. They were contradicting each other. The professor from Stellenbosch then asked a question. Asking the police - he then said you are saying this people were fighting and attacking you. How come, why is it that not even one single police has a wound? The police could not answer, but their attorney arose asking the Magistrate if the Magistrate wanted the police to be shot as well? As the police would go up and down the witness stand, they showed photographs of these young men who had deceased, they were full of blood. They did not show us the photographs, they were actually showing each other. There was just blood every where in the photographs. We did not get any concrete conclusion about the whole case and it was difficult for me to pursuit the whole case, because I was actually working and my company did not appreciate us being absent at work. They would give us a report that there was - the production was very low at work, because I was constantly absent. I then could not attend the court case as regularly as I aspired to. ADV POTGIETER Thank you Mr Mbenyana. As I have indicated earlier, perhaps some of those questions that are still unanswered would be attended to during the course of this hearing. Zabonke was not married, is that correct? MR MBENYANA ADV POTGIETER MR MBENYANA Yes, I know, there she is here. ADV POTGIETER Oh! very good - thank you very much - is she living with you? MR MBENYANA No, she is living with one of our family member, she is a nurse in Mandalay. ADV POTGIETER She is also present here? She stood up at the back here. MR MBENYANA Ja. ADV POTGIETER Well thank you very much. Thank you for your testimony, I will hand you back to the Chairperson. CHAIRPERSON Yes I just wondered whether the dog barked hard enough. Pumla Gobodo. MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA MS KONILE MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA And we understand when you said that Zabonke was your only child, you mean that he was the one who was supporting you and you have lost a lot because of his death. CHAIRPERSON Mary? MS BURTON No thank you. CHAIRPERSON No okay, we thank both of you for coming here. For coming to testify in this Commission. We do feel your pain with you and you must know that many people are with you in your pain. A day will come when God will show them that he is the one who is ruling this world and that come - the time is - the time is now that we are investigating and we are trying to find out the truth about what happened in the past. We thank you a lot. Thank you - I am instructed to suggest that we take a break for tea. Can we please stand as the witnesses go out. MEETING ADJOURNS FOR TEA