REV XUNDU: Edith Vangile Mpande, please stand up.
EDITH VANGILE MPANDE: (Duly sworn in, states).
REV XUNDU: Thank you. Mr Chairman, she has been properly sworn in.
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Mrs Edith Mpande. Ntsiki Sandi will lead you with questions on behalf of the Commission. Did you ask to testify in English?
MRS MPANDE: Yes.
CHAIRPERSON: You have asked to testify in English, okay.
ADV SANDI: Okay, thank you, Mr Chairman. Mrs Mpande, you have made a request to come and testify about your son, what happened to him in 1978. What are the full names of your son? Is it Madalane Makwenkwe Mpande?
MRS MPANDE: It is Makwenkwe Madalane.
ADV SANDI: Mpande?
MRS MPANDE: Yes.
ADV SANDI: How old was he when he was shot and killed by the police?
MRS MPANDE: 16 And a half years.
ADV SANDI: Can you tell the story, without interruption from me, what happened in 1978, how was he shot?
MRS MPANDE: In July 1977, Makwenkwe and a few some other peoples were arrested and charged for arson. (Indistinct) School was burnt to the ground in Tunkie location, locally. They were found not guilty and he was discharged, but even then the security police were after him. He could not go to town, they would chase him. So, we ultimately fled to PE with some other pupils to go and join their Comrades in PE. He was shot there while he was setting a bakery delivery vehicle alight.
We had asked a neighbour of ours, Mr Mdana, Nane Mdana, to make arrangements for the funeral, but Nane, he was detained on a daily basis. Makwenkwe was shot on the 15th of March 1978 in PE. Nane was detained on a daily basis from the 16th to the 25th. I think the security police must have heard that he is organising the funeral and he was only let free on that Thursday, the day of the funeral, a day imposed on us by them. Makwenkwe, when Makwenkwe died, he died nine months after the birth of his daughter, Phumeza, who is still with me and whom I have adopted legally. She is at technical college and I am fully responsibility. She is under my care, being a widower and a pensioner.
ADV SANDI: Was anyone taken to court for shooting and killing your son?
MRS MPANDE: Pardon.
ADV SANDI: Was anyone arrested for doing this?
MRS MPANDE: We went for an inquest in PE. I do not know who that policeman, it was a white policeman, he was found not guilty.
ADV SANDI: Was there a lawyer for the family?
MRS MPANDE: Was a what?
ADV SANDI: Did you have a lawyer, an attorney for the family?
MRS MPANDE: No, we did not.
ADV SANDI: What was the outcome of the post-mortem? What
did the post-mortem results say?
MRS MPANDE: I would not tell, but what I saw when we went to look at the mortuary in Mount Road, I could see he was stitching here in the chest.
ADV SANDI: What happened when you had the funeral service? Was that in Grahamstown?
MRS MPANDE: Yes, it was in Grahamstown.
ADV SANDI: Were you able to hold this service without interruption from anyone?
MRS MPANDE: There was a lot of interruption. Every night they use to surround the fence. They use to ask the people, what do you want here, go away and what. The roads were blocked from Beaufort Street top up to upper Ragland Road, cars could not go past.
ADV SANDI: Were any people arrested on the day of the funeral?
MRS MPANDE: Not that I know of, beside that Nane was detained for a few days.
ADV SANDI: Is that the gist of your story?
MRS MPANDE: Yes, that is the gist of my story.
ADV SANDI: Surely you have a purpose by appearing before this Commission. Do you want to make any request?
MRS MPANDE: Yes, I have. Makwenkwe was in the prime of his life. I would have had somebody working for me now. He left a child behind who I adopted legally, because it is Makwenkwe's child. I have got to support and everything. I would like to see her educated. I have got no means because I am a pensioner and I have no husband, my husband is late. So, I would like something to be, someone must see to the education of Phumeza and they must see to myself too, because my son would have worked for me now. He has got his friends here, the same age, you know. I really feel hurt when I see them going past me and see them working for their parents.
ADV SANDI: Is that all you have got to say about this, Mrs Mpande?
MRS MPANDE: Yes, that is all that I want to say.
ADV SANDI: Thank you very much, Mrs Mpande. Thank you, Mr Chairman.
CHAIRPERSON: June Crichton.
MS CRICHTON: This is nice that I do not have to ask you to put on earphones. I just want to ask you when did your son actually leave, was he 16 and a half when he left, together with that question.
MRS MPANDE: Yes, he left in October 1977.
MS CRICHTON: So, he was not even 16 yet?
MRS MPANDE: Yes, he was born ...
MS CRICHTON: He was 15?
MRS MPANDE: ... the 13th of September 1961.
MS CRICHTON: And who did he stay with when he was in Port Elizabeth?
MRS MPANDE: He was just staying with his friends, his other pupils and staying around.
MS CRICHTON: And the friends that he made in Port Elizabeth, have you had contact with them? Were they able to give you any information about his activity, politically, in Port Elizabeth?
MRS MPANDE: No, what I just found the other, that same day when I came back from work was another CD car with another lady in there that had come to tell me that a friend has sent them to come and tell me that Makwenkwe has been shot, shot dead.
MS CRICHTON: And they could tell you no more than that?
MRS MPANDE: They could not tell me no more than that.
MS CRICHTON: And when you say that he was politically involved, perhaps I did not hear you clearly, how do you know he was politically involved? Was there harassment at the house?
MRS MPANDE: I know, because all his ANC people were there, his friends, the strugglers, were there. The funeral, they did not want to see that they had a donkey cart there, to cart him to church and from the church they had the box on their shoulders and when they came back, there was chaos in the location that whole night. Police were marching up in eights, up and down the street, they did not want to see anybody in the streets.
MS CRICHTON: Thank you, Mrs Mpande. Thank you, Mr Chairperson.
CHAIRPERSON: Mama Edith Mpande, you have shared with us and, indeed, have shared with the nation the pain of losing your son. To see you shed tears makes us realise, again, the price that mothers had to pay for the freedom, for the liberation of our land. Mothers paid, indeed, the highest price, because in most of the cases they did not even know what their sons were doing and they had to be confronted by dead bodies which they had to collect and bury like you did to Makwenkwe. We wish to convey, on behalf of the Commission, our deepest sympathy and an assurance that we will, as far as we are able, pursue every case that is placed before us. There is, of course, no guarantee that we will be able to solve every case. We are beginning to realise that there are a number of cases which are going to remain unsolved given the time allocated to us as a
Commission, but we are grateful that you have brought this case to us and we will do what we can to answer the questions that you have raised in your statement. I do wish, however, to point out that our office has noted that your statement is very scanty, that they would like to have more information, more background information than is provided in the statement. So, I wish that, perhaps, as you are led down from the stand, somebody from the staff of the Commission must sit down with you and, indeed, get the details which are essential for us to have if we are to have any meaningful investigation of your matter. For now, we salute you and we thank you for coming to testify.
