DR ALLY: Could I ask if Wilheminah Ngakane is here ?
DR RANDERA: Maybe, whilst we’re deciding people can just take a stand up and ......
DR ALLY: Mrs Ngakane ? Welcome. Have you brought somebody with you ? The person sitting next to you, is it a family member ? Could you introduce her to us
MRS NGAKANE: Gloria
DR ALLY: How is she related to you ?
MRS NGAKANE: She’s my daughter.
DR ALLY: It’s your daughter. Welcome to you too Gloria. Mama Ngakane, I know this is very, very hard and very painful. We’ve been listening to witnesses that have been speaking about what happened in July 1990 and about Japhta and his role and his involvement. This is an opportunity for you as a family member to give your account and your understanding of what happened. Doctor Randera is going to assist you. If at any time you feel that you want to have a break, please do so or if at any time you feel that you can’t continue, please do so. Try and be as relaxed as possible. I’m going to ask you now if you will please just raise your right hand to take the oath. Do you swear that this testimony you will give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God.
MRS NGAKANE: (sworn states)
DR ALLY: Thank you very much. I will hand you over to Doctor Randera.
DR RANDERA: Wilheminah, good afternoon and to your daughter.
MRS NGAKANE: Good afternoon gentlemen.
DR RANDERA: Wilheminah, first of all just tell us, tell the audience your relationship to Japhta and then if you will, tell us something about him.
MRS NGAKANE: Japhta was my brother. I came just after him. I am the last borne in his family. Japhta died a very tragic death. I was at my home at Wach. Japhta came to me early in the morning and said to me, I should go and fetch my mother. I went home to fetch my mother to take her to my house and he told me that he was going or a bucket system meeting and he said that I should attend to my mother because my mother was very sick. After a few minutes while waiting for him to take our mother to the doctor I heard that my brother’s house was burnt down and my brother was nowhere to be found. I left for home to see this with my own eyes. I was later told that he was caught while trying to run away and I was told that he is dead, next to the railway lines. When I left my home one person said behind me, you must bring him alive, don’t kill him. I know the person’s name but I will never say it now. The same afternoon I said to my husband he should go to the police station to find out whether it was my brother Japhta who died and my husband and my brother’s son said, please get into bed so that we can tell you the whole story. They told me that he was unidentifiable, you couldn’t even see his face. We only identified him by his feet and the nose that it was Japhta.
DR RANDERA: Wilheminah, do you want to continue. We can stop is you like.
MRS NGAKANE: I will continue. ........ that he will bury him. The people driving a Mitsubishi went to Germiston, they met the ANC people in Germiston and they said he was not going to be buried in Germiston at all. He should be buried in Balfour. At that time the preparations were already made to bury him in Germiston. We had to now come back to Balfour. We were not given a chance to bury him properly. We were six in number, the people who buried my brother. My eldest brother was the only one who put the soil back into the grave. I a here on my own. I’m all by myself. I’m left with nobody else. I don’t know, maybe my daughter would like to say something.
DR RANDERA: Gloria, do you wish to say something ? Will you switch on ..........
MISS NGAKANE: There is this that I want to say. We can’t really say anything to them because when we conducted the funeral on that day, they were all around the township, at every corner singing and toyi-toyiing.
TRANSLATOR: The speaker’s mike is not on.
DR RANDERA: My apologies. At the end of the statement it talks about Japhta having other family members, two children. Is that right ?
MISS NGAKANE: Yes.
DR RANDERA: Was your uncle married ?
MISS NGAKANE: Yes, he was married.
TRANSLATOR: The speaker’s mike is not on.
MISS NGAKANE: He was married and he divorced.
DR RANDERA: He was married but he divorced. He didn’t have children with the wife he divorced but there were two children, a boy and a girl, whom he was supporting.
DR RANDERA: Your mother earlier on said that your uncle came to see her that morning where she was living. Was she living in Siyathemba ? She mentioned some other place.
MISS NGAKANE: Yes, I live in Siyathemba but she was staying at Wach. My uncle came to tell us that he was leaving for Bloemfontein for Church gathering.
DR RANDERA: How far is Wach from Siyathemba ?
MISS NGAKANE: It’s quite a distance.
DR RANDERA: Okay. You live in Siyathemba. Sorry, how old are you ? I don’t want to put these questions to you if ... How old are you now ?
MISS NGAKANE: I am twenty seven years old.
DR RANDERA: You said you were living in Siyathemba at that time. Were you living far from your uncle’s house.
MISS NGAKANE: Yes.
DR RANDERA: Were you aware of this protest march that was going to take place that day ?
MISS NGAKANE: I was still indoors because of a little baby that I got just a month before but I heard rumours of this protest.
DR RANDERA: I’m just interested to know, if you can’t answer this I will understand. Earlier on I think, one of the other people said there were many, many police present on that day in Siyathemba.
MISS NGAKANE: I heard later that the police were present because one member of my family was a policeman.
DR RANDERA: What intervention was there on the part of the police on that day ?
MISS NGAKANE: There was no intervention at all. They didn’t help at all.
DR RANDERA: If I can come back to your mother. Is she willing to answer any more questions ?
MRS NGAKANE: I am willing to answer questions.
DR RANDERA: Wilheminah, it is now seven years since this, I don’t think you can describe it in any other way, it was a horrific day for your community, for your family and for other families who are sitting here to-day. Can you tell us how you feel ? What do you feel can happen to bring the many families who have come to-day to talk about the deaths that took place in their respective families, your own family and perhaps the community together ?
MRS NGAKANE: Sir, I don’t have forgiveness. They should go and ask forgiveness from him. I am deeply disturbed. To-day I am an orphan, I’ve got nowhere to run to. We don’t have a family, we don’t have a home.
DR RANDERA: Thank you, Wilheminah. Chairperson, I have no further questions.
DR ALLY: Wilheminah, thank you very much for coming and to your daughter. These incidents, these kind of incidents are always very, very difficult and it is really for the families, at the end of the day, who will have to decide how they will deal with this, how they will live with each other. The role of the Truth Commission is not there to dictate to families. It’s to create the opportunity for people to come and speak, to see what kind of reconciliation there can be, to assist, to facilitate but that is ultimately a decision that you have to take with the other families. What responsibility we do have as a Commission is to treat all incidents of Gross Human Rights Violations the same. I think that is the thing which people often don’t properly understand that we cannot make distinctions when it comes to Gross Human Rights Violations to the acts. People who lose their lives, people who are tortured, people who suffered severe ill-treatment, people who would disappear as a result of the political conflict. That is where the Truth Commission really has to be even-handed and where we have to listen to all sides of the conflict, to all accounts and to treat all of those accounts in the exact same manner. We all have different political views. That is inevitable. We all have different views on what the nature of the struggle was about but there are many of us, many in the Commission who believe that the struggle which people fought to end oppression, to end apartheid was a correct struggle but when it comes to the violations that were committed as a result of that struggle, there as a Commission we have a duty to treat everybody the same and we hope that this opportunity which you have had to come and speak about what happened to your brother, the way he lost his life, notwithstanding how we may feel about the politics of that conflict but the opportunity that you have to come and speak about the gross violations which your brother suffered helps in some way. We certainly hope that some means may be found for the families of all those who were caught up in this horrific event, that some means can be found for them to speak, to try and find some peace, to try and find some understanding. Thank you again and when we make recommendations with regard to rehabilitation and to reparations, that will be for all victims notwithstanding which side of the political conflict they were on. It will be for all victims. So, thank you very much to you and your daughter for coming to speak to us. We will break for lunch and we will come back at half past two.
