DR RANDERA: Our next witness is Samson Tibane. Mr Tibane, good afternoon. Mr Tibane ... (interrupted)
MR TIBANE: Thank you.
DR RANDERA: Could you stand to take the oath.
SAMSON TIBANE: (sworn states)
DR RANDERA: Mr Tibane, my name is Doctor Randera, I’m going to help you as you tell your story. You are taking us back to 1986. To Tzaneen itself and you’re going to tell us about the shooting and subsequent death of your son, Wilson Tibane. Can you take your time and tell us your story.
MR TIBANE: Thank you very much. In the year 1986, that’s when people started discussing fighting for their country. On that particular day when they started making a slogan these children they went to a very clear ground which was called Dan. They had left, they’d marched towards Dan to go and discuss issues about the new government, that they wanted a new government. My child was one of this group of children who were making the slogan towards Dan when they started talking. I as a parent was at work. When I came back from work that day, I was working on a night shift, I was the watchman of one of the companies, when they marched to Dan, just as they were approaching this area, they had not completely approached the area where they were going to discuss the issues that’s when they were going to discuss that they wanted a new government.
So there were a lot of police of Gazankulu that appeared. They had not yet started discussing what they had wanted to do. Issues that would assist them in, in that year, in this period that we’re on. The police approached and there were lots of them. The police just started shooting, because there were lots of these children. There were their leaders and all other people who were there. When the police started shooting one of the bullets hit my child and he fell. When he fell he could still speak. There was nobody. We were not there. We were not there among them while they wanted to discuss issues about the new government and once he was shot by these police, it took quite a long time before they took him to the hospital.
At home there’s a man from Magwalane who was a detective. He came to my home and he found my wife and he knocked hard at my place and my wife came out and he said, hey there’s a child there, who’s there but when we asked him he said, he’s a Tibane child, because I realized that I knew the father is my priest. I’ve run to come and inform you here and then they ran together and went to another man, a fellow church man who has a car. This man has since passed away, who’s Juster Machebe. He’s the one who came to fetch me at work and said things are very bad at home. The police have really damaged things, they’ve killed your son.
And I couldn’t walk, as you can see even now, I’m not able to walk properly, but they took me to the hospital and I asked my child, what had happened my son ? He said, the police has shot me and the police were there and say, why do you leave your children to go to these meetings, but just look now, you’ve lost your child now. I said to this policeman, that is good, you’ve done what you wanted to do. God will see you.
The following day, because the police had taken this child to the hospital the following day when I knocked off from work I went home. The hospital people came to ask me to sign something, because apparently the bullet had lodged itself inside. They asked me to come and sign and they took him to Garamkwa hospital but he didn’t arrive, he didn’t reach Garamkwa hospital, he had died along the way. So they came back to me to explain to me that my child had died but that wasn’t the end of matters.
When I hear from other people who were with him that they were arrested, they were arrested and, and tortured quite a lot. That they were assaulted. I even heard that they went to court but, because I was so disturbed and I wasupset I had thought that they should have shot me so it’s lucky that I wasn’t shot at that stage but I feel I should have been killed together with my son. I should have been shot. So they went to court with some lawyers but, and the police were found guilty but I don’t know what happened thereafter but things, matters didn’t end there and eventually I buried my child but this thing disturbed me very deeply.
When we came back from the funeral there were lots of people. When we went to the funeral the police people were there hiding, ambushing, wanting to ambush us. After the funeral they followed us. Just before we arrived at Unxoxoa they started shooting again. They shot people with teargas and rubber bullets. So at home people didn’t arrive. When, what really worries me a lot, I’d made a lot of food for the audience. The cow that had been slaughtered for the family that had come to join the funeral brought it. There was people who couldn’t come to eat at home because of police.
DR RANDERA: Mr Tibane I have only one question to ask. From what you have said already your son was very heavily involved in the political situation in this part of the country. Influenced by the launch of the UDF. In 19 ... (interrupted)
MR TIBANE: That is the truth. In 1986.
DR RANDERA: I understand the UDF was to be launched here in 1986. Can you just tell us how old your son was? Was he still a student at the time ?
MR TIBANE: He was sixteen years old and he was still at school.
DR RANDERA: How many children are you left with Mr Tibane ?
MR TIBANE: I only have five children. Those are the surviving children. Only five.
DR RANDERA: Thank you very much.
MS SEROKE: Tate Tibane, you say that the police disrupted the funeral. Had they told you how many people should be at the funeral or you were just allowed all to go to the funeral ?
MR TIBANE: There were a lot of people. A lot of people went to the cemetery but they went to, the police went to hide themselves somewhere. As we were coming back from the funeral, that’s when they disrupted the crowd and said they shouldn’t come to my house.
MS SEROKE: Oh so there were no restrictions as to the number of people who should attend the funeral. I’m trying to ask this because I want to ... (interrupted)
MR TIBANE: There were restrictions so there were only family members who came. A lot of people who had wanted to come were prevented from coming, because there were road blocks by the previous government.
MR MANTHATA: Mr Tibane, did you take the matter up with the police ?
MR TIBANE: No, I didn’t pursue things further with the police, because the very place where I would pursue this matter with the police, are the people who killed my child.
MR MANTHATA: Was there ever an inquest?
MR TIBANE: No, there was no investigation but the police came to me to get a statement because I couldn’t even walk even if I wanted to make any efforts to pursue this matter, I couldn’t walk.
MR MANTHATA: Had you instructed any lawyer to act on behalf of the family ?
MR TIBANE: No, I couldn’t do that, because I couldn’t walk. Even now I’ve been carried and brought here.
MR MANTHATA: Thank you..
DR ALLY: Mr Tibane, this is one of those cases that have repeated themselves so often in the history of our country where people are shot and killed at demonstrations and particularly where people were demonstrating against structures, the governments which were imposed upon them. Homeland governments or community councils and the police and the army would often come in and there would be a confrontation and there would be live ammunition and your son is one of those tragic victims.
In the statement that you gave to us, you did indicate that the people who were on the scene that day were part of the South African police. They have been informed. We have written to them. We have sent them a copy of the statement. We have asked them to comment and to give us information on which unit of the police force was present at that date. We’re still waiting for a response from them but we will certainly let you know as soon as we hear from them.
I see in your statement also you do say that for the families, the survivors and what is very important is to recognise the victims, those who lost their lives, by the erection of tombstones, by the building of schools, by the erection of monuments and these are things which the Reparations and Rehabilitation Committee are taking very, very seriously and will certainly I’m sure, form part of their policies and their recommendations which they make to the President at the end of the life of the Commission.
And we certainly hope and believe that people like you son, people like Wilson who was killed in the prime of his life, sixteen years old, will be some of those who will benefit from this kind of recognition of the youth.
Thank you very much for coming to us and sharing what is obviously still something very painful. Thank you again.
