Special Report Transcript Episode 27, Section 3, Time 23:16

1990, Umgababa. When the ANC men came to kill them, two of Mrs. Shandu’s sons had already been killed. Now they rounded up the rest of the family and herded them into their house. // When they got there they made them face the wardrobes with their hands up and they stood behind them. The one person who survived there was a young man who opened the wardrobe and got inside. They shot the first one then they stabbed him. Every time they shot one, they’d stab them. I heard their voices. No one screamed twice. Each one screamed just once. Then I’d hear the next one. And another one until they finished them all. When they were all finished only one had survived. They poured petrol over their corpses inside the house and they lighted them. The fire burned. Just when it hit the wardrobe my grandchild came out with flames on his body. Lindo and Thulile were crying, trying to get out of the fire. Lindo and Thulile were not shot; they were thrown into the flames. Mafi was the last. After they’d burned all the corpses I was still in the hole. I heard Mafi crying running around the house I was in. One of the killers inside the house shouted, I want him dead, don’t let him go, I want him dead! I heard him crying and they shot him. They burned him outside. They put a plank as big as a door on him. They poured petrol and they burned him. My children’s voices crying are still ringing in my ears and the pain of poverty, because all of them supported me.

Notes: TRC testimony: Nomusa Shandu (mother); List of people killed: Mafika Shandu, Lindo Shandu, Zopporah Shandu, Primrose Shandu, Thulile Shandu, Khumbulani Shandu and Bethuel Shandu.