hrvtrans HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION HEARINGS 1996-11-26 GUGULETU 7 POLLSMOOR 1 CT/00112 MBUYISELI B MTUZE FIKISWA OLGA MTUZE SHOT AND KILLED https://sabctrc.saha.org.za/hearing.php?id=55763&t=&tab=hearings https://sabctrc.saha.org.za/originals/hrvtrans/polls/ct00112.htm ADV POTGIETER [indistinct] to announce the last witness on the role before we get to the luncheon adjournment. We are not complaining. We invite Fikiswa Olga Mtuze to come forward, thank you. Ms Mtuze, good afternoon, have you got a member of your family with you - who is she? MS MTUZE It is my sister. ADV POTGIETER Welcome to you as well. Thank you for accompanying your sister and supporting her, because this is obviously not an easy process to testify - to have to recall, which is in most instances very-very difficult things to recall, but thank you for coming with. Ms Mtuze, I am going to ask you, because you are going to be giving the testimony, I am going to ask you to stand and to take the oath. Just the one, I assume it will only be the one - will both sisters talk? UNKNOWN Yes. ADV POTGIETER MS BOY My name is Audrey Boy. ADV POTGIETER I am sorry, can you...[intervention] MS BOY My name is Audrey - my surname is Boy. ADV POTGIETER Audrey Boy. MS BOY Yes. ADV POTGIETER Thank you very much. Then I will ask both of you to take the oath FIKISWA OLGA MTUZE Duly sworn states AUDREY BOY Duly sworn states ADV POTGIETER Thank you, you may be seated. Your testimony will be facilitated by my colleague, Glenda Wildschut. MS WILDSCHUT Afternoon Ms Mtuze, are you comfortable there? MS MTUZE Yes, I am comfortable. MS WILDSCHUT I wonder if we could ask the briefer just to bring your microphone a little bit closer to you right. You are going to be telling us today about the shooting of your son, Botamani Mtuze. And maybe you can start by telling us your understanding of what had happened in August, 1985. MS MTUZE Botamani was my son. On that particular day he was not at home, he was with my sister-in-law. The day of the march to Pollsmoor, because there was the chaos, I phoned Langa telling my son not to come to Nyanga from Langa, because it is too chaotic and that there are Casspirs everywhere. On the 7th day, the following week, my sister said I should go to work. She would take over. My children had no father, I had to support them. I went back to work. My sister, then told me, that ANC comrades were taking a list of children that had been lost. My sister encouraged me to go back to work the next day as well. She said that she would go with the comrades to the mortuary. They did not find the body. My sister, then went searching with the comrades, to the mortuary. My manager called me at work - saying my sister was there to tell me that they had seen my son. I did not expect my son to be dead. I was just glad that they had found my son. I put on my clothes and then I left, because they said they had found my son dead at the mortuary. This is still on the 7th day. We went home. The first thing that happened there - they asked me if I wanted to know about my son. And I said - yes. What hurt me the most, was that they showed me his pictures where he had been already shot. I asked where he had been shot. They said he was shot at 112. This was away from the station, to the house. I asked what he had done? Then somebody said - that these boers in the Casspir were trying to protect themselves, because they were not safe. People were throwing stones. I asked if there was no other way they could have protected themselves, then shooting my son in the head. There should have been a way to protect themselves - rather than killing. The Magistrate said that there was no other way they could have protected themselves. And that was it. MS WILDSCHUT [indistinct] your son was at the time? MS MTUZE He was 16 years of age. MS WILDSCHUT Was he at school? MS MTUZE Yes, he was at school MS WILDSCHUT And I suppose you had ambitions for your son? MS MTUZE Yes, he is a child who made us happy, even at home. MS WILDSCHUT Was he doing well at school? MS MTUZE Since the day he had started school, he had never failed. He was doing std 6 at the time. MS WILDSCHUT So I suppose in the minds of your family and yourself, he was - he was - there was a bright future ahead for him. MS MTUZE MS WILDSCHUT Can I just ask if your sister would say anything and add anything to what you have said right now. MS BOY When I got into the office, they tried to ask me his - for his details, I could not even think properly. I could not even remember his name. I was too much in shock. But the comrades helped me. Trying to explain to this man at the mortuary that they should be patient with me. My mind was not functioning well. We took quite a while, but I gave them all the information that they needed. What I wanted to know, is what exactly had happened to him. I thought that he had been run over by a car or a bus. Then they told me that my nephew had been shot at NY12 in Guguletu. We then left, I went to fetch my sister from work. She fainted, she had to be taken to doctors. The most painful time was when - in the interim before the funeral, the whole time there were police, pointing guns at our house. Especially on the Saturday we had a night ritual. But the comrades were wise, because the night ritual was not at our house, but elsewhere. The police - during the day, during the night, were walking around our house. We are going through very difficult times. We had lost a child and the police were still oppressing us. Even on the day - when we buried him, the UDF helped us. They made all the funeral arrangements. We had a good, big funeral. We were still under surveillance. Even when we went to the graveyard, there were Casspirs everywhere. They said only the family should go into the graveyard. But the comrades said they are already dead. They died already - they are going to go in. It was painful, but he was buried. What I want to say, is that the person who killed Botamani must go on trial. He must say exactly why he did what he did. Because even when the comrades came to me, I told them that Botamani was still a child and was not politically orientated. He never went to meetings, he was just a child. He just made us happy at home. He filled us with happiness, he knew nothing about the struggle. I though you know even if I died, it would be better, because I was the one who was in the struggle but not the child. This man who killed Botamani must go on trial and be sentenced. Thank you. MS WILDSCHUT Thank you very much. We - we are very moved by what you have just said, because what for us is a remarkable thing is, that many of the people who lost their lives at the time of this uprising and the time of the march were young people like Botamani. You have heard testimony today of the children who were very young and had absolutely nothing to do with the struggle or with any uprisings. Who were just being children. Being curious children. Being children playing and they were targeted by the police. It remains still for us to understand why children could be such a threat to Security Forces who had all the might at their disposal. It puzzled us as well and I am sure that it must puzzle you as a family - why your son and your nephew was shot in the way that he was and that he had to loose his life in such a tragic way. It is a great loss to our nation when the youth are targeted in the way they were during those days. We really do thank you for coming, but before I close - I would like to hand over to the Chairperson in case any of my other colleagues would like to ask you more questions. ADV POTGIETER Wendy Orr. DR ORR And I do hope - I know there are many lessons we have to learn from people like you, and I do hope that one of them is respect for each other and the courtesy to inform people and family when their relatives are hurt or injured ADV POTGIETER But thank you for having come. We in fact hope that through the testimonies that we have heard relating to this particular incident, this march, that it reflects a bit of the history of this particular part of the country, the Western Cape. Because there is a danger of distorting the contribution that people have made in this part of the country to what we have achieved up to today. And we are told that the United Democratic Front and the Congress of South African Trade Unions called a stay away in response on the 10th and 11th of September. I would also like to thank the members of the public and members of your families, families of the victims, supporters who have come to share the testimony. It is very important that the process is a public one and that as many people as possible participate - either by being physically present or by being informed through the media about the testimonies that we hear.