REV FINCA: Our next witness is Knosinathi Gontshi. It looks as if Knosinathi Gontshi is not here so could we call Francina Wheeler?
REV XUNDU: Francina Wheeler will you stand to take the oath?
MRS FRANCINA WHEELER: (Sworn states)
REV FINCA: June Crichton?
MISS CRICHTON: Thank you Mr Chairperson. Good morning Francina, you are here to-day to tell us about your husband Boyce Michael and his death on this day on the first of May ‘93, is that correct?
MRS WHEELER: That’s correct.
MISS CRICHTON: How are you feeling are you feeling relaxed?
MRS WHEELER: Nervous.
MISS CRICHTON: Nervous. Well just relax and I’m going to ask you one question before you start and then I’d like you to go through you story. I see you have a statement there do you, that you’d like to read?
MRS WHEELER: Yes.
MISS CRICHTON: The question I want to ask you relates to something that is in your statement which I’d like to clarify. How did you hear about your husband’s death?
MRS WHEELER: Through his friend that was with him.
MISS CRICHTON: I see because in the statement it says something different. Will you continue now and tell us exactly was happened.
MRS WHEELER: My children and I were at home watching videos and my husband had gone to the High Gate for the first time. One o’clock came and the children had gone to bed so I went to bed. I was fast asleep when I heard banging on my door so I got up thinking it was my husband who had lost his key. I opened the door and saw my husband’s friend who had gone with him to the High Gate and he asked if he could come in. I opened up and we went through to the lounge and sat down. I knew something was wrong. He said to me Dave is gone and I didn’t understand and when he said Dave is dead I apparently fainted. When I came around he told me what had happened. He said they were sitting having a drink and their backs were facing the door. They heard like fire crackers and apparently my husband still said someone is happy they are shooting fire crackers. Just then they burst in and started shooting. My husband saved my friend’s life because he was sitting next to her and he pushed her down on the floor and that’s when he was shot. He died instantly.
For two weeks I was on tranquilisers and I didn’t know what was going on. People came to see me but I cannot remember who came. From then on we suffered. I lost my car because I could not afford to pay it as my husband used to pay it. I couldn’t afford the rent so I had to sell some of my furniture and move in with my father who had a small house. My children suffered at school. Their marks were down as they were out of school for two weeks and they are still very bitter.
MISS CRICHTON: Is that your statement completed?
MRS WHEELER: Yes.
MISS CRICHTON: Alright. Some questions to you, what was the age of your husband when he died?
MRS WHEELER: He was about forty two.
MISS CRICHTON: Was he working?
MRS WHEELER: Yes, he was working.
MISS CRICHTON: Where was he working?
MRS WHEELER: He was working at Grosvenor Ford.
MISS CRICHTON: Were you assisted by the firm after his death?
MRS WHEELER: No.
MISS CRICHTON: Not at all?
MRS WHEELER: No.
MISS CRICHTON: You’ve spoken about the effect on you from an economical point of view but how has it affected you emotionally?
MRS WHEELER: I’m still very bitter and upset because of what we’ve had to go through and what we’ve lost.
MISS CRICHTON: In terms of treatment for that have you had any psychological treatment, any care in that respect?
MRS WHEELER: No.
MISS CRICHTON: Was your husband on a medical aid?
MRS WHEELER: Yes, but the day he was killed the medical aid fell away.
MISS CRICHTON: So he wasn’t on any kind of pension scheme at work either?
MRS WHEELER: No.
MISS CRICHTON: You’ve heard the other witnesses from that event being asked questions about their attitude and you’ve said that you’re bitter but just as they were asked I would like to ask you too what your feeling would be about being faced with the perpetrator asking for forgiveness for what they did? How would you feel about that?
MRS WHEELER: No, I wouldn’t like it.
MISS CRICHTON: You wouldn’t want to either receive a request such as that or to accept it.
MRS WHEELER: I wouldn’t like to see them, I wouldn’t like to come face to face with them.
MISS CRICHTON: Are you feeling the same way as the other witnesses about amnesty?
MRS WHEELER: Yes.
MISS CRICHTON: Would you like to just explain what you’re feeling?
MRS WHEELER: I think that those who were involved should actually be punished.
MISS CRICHTON: So you’re not happy about the amnesty process not for anybody?
MRS WHEELER: It doesn’t matter what colour you are everybody must pay for what they do wrong.
MISS CRICHTON: What are your expectations from the Commission Mrs Wheeler?
MRS WHEELER: I would like financial help for myself and my children.
MISS CRICHTON: Would you like to explain what kind of financial help, in what area for our children?
MRS WHEELER: School fees and medical aid.
MISS CRICHTON: Are you working at the moment?
MRS WHEELER: No.
MISS CRICHTON: Where you working before?
MRS WHEELER: Yes, I’m starting work on the first of July. I’ve been out of work since October last year.
MISS CRICHTON: As a result of the effects this has had on you?
MRS WHEELER: No, the company closed down.
MISS CRICHTON: Oh I see so you are actually starting another job?
MRS WHEELER: In July yes.
MISS CRICHTON: I’m glad about that. Is there anything else you would like to say Mrs Wheeler to the nation because you are speaking to the nation about this event?
MRS WHEELER: I just hope there’s going to peace in the world amongst all of us.
MISS CRICHTON: Do you have that hope that there will be?
MRS WHEELER: Yes, I’m sure that there will be.
MRS WHEELER: And in this country particularly?
MRS WHEELER: Yes.
MISS CRICHTON: Thank you very much I’m going to hand you back to the Chairperson now.
REV FINCA: I wanted to say a word of thanks to all the people who have testified from the High Gate Massacre but I see that others have already left the room. We are talking about a tragic event and I think we all have sensed the pain and a lot of anger which has come out in the hearing of this matter this morning. We are dealing with an event which has been roundly condemned as a brutal act of senseless violence and I think a number of people in this region and throughout the country have condemned it as such and what has been very difficult to come to terms with is the fact that the event happened at the time when negotiations were taking place for a peaceful transformation of this country. So we are dealing with an event which causes a lot of pain and indeed we have heard this morning how much bitterness and anger there is from those who testified to us. I want to say just for the sake of the record that the APLA command has made a request to the Commission that they would like to have a meeting with the victims and that is why we have been raising the question constantly about how those who have testified to-day feel about meeting the perpetrators. The APLA Command has requested us to facilitate such a meeting because they believe that having done what they have done they would like to meet with the victims in a spirit of reconciliation. We will pursue that discussion. From what we have heard here to-day it is not going to be a very easy decision. The pain and the bitterness has been made evident in the testimonies that we have listened to but we are committed to a spirit of reconciliation and our task will be to continue to knock on your doors and even after our time has ended I’m sure there will be somebody who will continue this process because it looks to me as if there is no alternative. The country has no alternative we either come to terms with the ugly past in which we have inflicted pain on each other in various ways and begin to say to each other we are sorry and those who have been hurt to begin to say we forgive you. It’s going to be a very difficult route judging by the testimonies that we’ve heard this morning. We are extremely happy that you have come and we are pleased that you have spoken so frankly and so openly and I think that it’s brilliant that it has happened here in Mdantsane that we hear you rather than anywhere else. These are two communities which have suffered tremendously.
Yesterday we were at the Eggerton Station where we were listening and hearing the stories of the pain of people who were brutally killed in a senseless act of violence which in many ways is similar to this one. People were going to work and they were forced not to board the train which they usually used for their transport, forced to go into buses. We heard a story of a mother who was sitting at home doing her washing and was hit by a stray bullet which messed up her life. These are stories of pain and I would hope that somehow this country finds a way in which those who have done these things own up to what they have done and begin to say they are sorry and how by God’s grace perhaps it possible for those who have experienced extreme pain and continue to suffer the anguish like the gentleman who was here this morning who continues to suffer the consequences in his own body of what has happened perhaps to find the grace to say for the sake of the future of this country we are prepared to forgive. We thank you very much.
We will be taking an adjournment and we will be going to High Gate this morning to go and just remember what happened there. Thank you. If we can adjourn for lunch right now and the victims can go straight to lunch we’ll start again at one thirty, thank you.
HEARING ADJOURNS
