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TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION
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TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION

HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

SUBMISSIONS - QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

DATE:&#9;10TH APRIL 1997&#9;&#9;

NAME:&#9;OWEN MABUNDA&#9;

CASE:&#9;3455&#9;&#9;&#9;&#9;

HELD AT:&#9;TZANEEN&#9;

FINAL DAY

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DR RANDERA: Mr Mabunda, good morning.

MR MABUNDA: Morning, Sir.

DR RANDERA: Welcome, can you please introduce the lady who is with you?

MR MABUNDA: That’s my mother.

DR RANDERA: I welcome her too Mr Mabunda, before you tell us our story, could you please stand to take the oath. If you will just repeat after me, I swear that the story I’m about to tell is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God.

OWEN MABUNDA: (sworn states)

MISS SEROKE: Mr Mabunda, you’ve come to tell us about what happened to your brother, Ken Mabunda, on the twenty eighth of March 1986 in Lulekane. Could you tell us that story very briefly?

MR MABUNDA: What happened on the twenty eighth of March in 1986 at Lulekane. It was on a Good Friday. Before that date there was a problem within the Lulekane Township. There were these soldiers who were coming from outside country. They were staying in another secret camp just next to our township. Those people, before they came to our township. It was very quiet but after their arrival peace was no longer there. These people used to drink a lot and when they are drunk, they were drunk they used to go around the streets and started harassing people. If they find you during the evening, they used to assault you, to beat people up without knowing the reason. They used to assault us very badly. The community of Lulekane, more especially the youth, we gathered together and tried to discuss this problem. To assist each other in order to control the area, because it was no longer safe. We gathered and discussed about these matters, we assisted each other with ideas, how we could remove these people from our township. They should no longer set their foot in our township, because it was no longer safe if they were, they were around the township. We agreed on those points. There is nothing that we did to drive those people out of our township, because we tried to confront them at the beginning. It was just a few of us who used to go there. Sometimes other people, youth, used not to come. 

&#9;So, during that day that I’ve already mentioned, in the evening, we were sitting in a shabeen enjoying ourselves there and then immediately a bomb exploded in that particular place. It was during the night. No one expected that a bomb would explode. Even myself, I was in that particular place. I never heard a bomb exploding even a single day, except that day. I used just to see it on films. I was very scared. People dispersed in that area. I didn’t run away myself. I was inside and then I went out and I was on the street. After I heard that there were people who were inside, who were left there and my younger brother was also there and then I went back to check what happened actually. I found that the whole place was damaged. Not even a single person whom I was together with answered me. Some of them were screaming, there was a fence, behind the fence. Some of them called m, called me to assist them, to give them help and I didn’t know what to do by that time. I was shocked. I looked around on the bodies. I could not see my brother. We left together with, with some two youths. I went to report this matter at home. When we arrived at home we found that my, my brother was not there too and we started looking around for him. We went to the hospital that time, and to the police station. They said we cannot enter in the mortuary to check, in the government mortuary, because we’re still very young. They refused us permission to enter until we got the help of Reverend Kwiniga, then we found him in the government mortuary. You could not even recognize him. That’s what happened on that particular day.

MISS SEROKE: You said that there were these soldiers who came and disturbed, you know, the life in Lulekane. Where did they come from?

MR MABUNDA: Actually, these soldiers, some of them were coming from Angola, Zimbabwe, all these foreign countries. They were not South African citizens. During that time, the military bases which were there, it was 113 and 77 battalions and there was this battalion which they used to called it Skietoff or Five Rake. It was just a secret base.

MISS SEROKE: Why were they brought into Lulekane. What was happening in Lulekane at the time to warrant their presence there? 

MR MABUNDA: Actually, in Lulekane they came to township to drink there, if they were off duty. Their camp was just next to Lulekane. It was just outside Lulekane. Ten kilometers from Lulekane. They used to come to Lulekane to come and drink and do some other things.

MISS SEROKE: Oh so they were not on duty, patrolling the place. They just came to drink from their camp.

MR MABUNDA: When they come to Lulekane it’s, they were not patrolling, they were not on uniform. They were just come there privately to come and drink.

MISS SEROKE: Then why did you dislike their presence, because you say that several times you tried to confront them and how did you confront them?

MR MABUNDA: What we used to do, is that when we, we find them being a group, we used to tell them that we don’t want them in our place, we don’t want them because they used to harass us. When they used to find us in the streets, if they find you during the evening and even you are walking with a girlfriend or a wife, you will be assaulted, beaten up and they take your girlfriend or your wife and they will take your wife or girlfriend along with them.

MISS SEROKE: .When they did this did you ever report to your police that these soldiers were harassing you and your girlfriends or wives?

MR MABUNDA: I can say that maybe there were people who used to say that but we never reported the matters to the police, because some, maybe sometimes it could have ended but, but there was no action which was taken against them if ever the matter was reported by other people. The way these people used to do, they were the people who were controlling the whole area. There was no other person who was going to do anything with those people, because they were controlling the area itself.

MISS SEROKE: Now you say a group of comrades met at a shabeen to drink or just to hold a meeting, because in your statement you say that they had planned this meeting and they used the shabeen as a venue. Did you think perhaps they knew that you were going to meet there for a meeting? Was it a meeting or just a social gathering?

MR MABUNDA: It was just a social gathering. We were not discussing anything. Just to build oness a, amongst ourselves so that maybe if one day if those people come and harass even one of our people in the community, we will assist each other. It was a social gathering and at the same time discussing those issues and during that time in our township, there was no police station there. The police station was only in town. You have to go to town to report the matter. So to be assisted by the police, it was not very easy.

MISS SEROKE: So, you would say that in the absence of a police station in Lulekane, the comrades saw that they could be the protectors of the, of that region, of Lulekane?

MR MABUNDA: Yes Sir. I assume, because they were the only people who were there who could give assistance to the community of Lulekane, because if a person tell you something and then you go to, to the police station, you don’t know the people who were coming there, these soldiers. You can even fail to point those people. So it was very easy for us as the committee of Lulekane to protect each other.

MISS SEROKE: Now do you think this bomb was planted there or was thrown into the shabeen?

MR MABUNDA: Actually when they, they came to, to take the statements, the people, the TRC people, the statement takers, that’s when we started seeing the photo’s from the scene and the photo of a hand grenade. So a hand grenade according to my own understanding is something which you can throw. I don’t know whether it was planted or it was thrown. It exploded while, while I was standing on the other street, along the street but hand grenade according to my understanding is that you throw a hand grenade, you don’t plant it.

MISS SEROKE: And before this bomb blast did you see any people passing around at that time?

MR MABUNDA: That area, I mean it was very busy. People were moving to and, to and from. There were people who were standing there. There were people who were passing along the street. I cannot differentiate between the people who standing and people who were passing. Actually, after it, it exploded, there were people who were driving motorbikes and those motor, those people used to drive those motorbikes.

MISS SEROKE: So you saw the motor bikes just shortly after the bomb and the, the soldiers usually used to use motorbikes. Did the soldiers use motorbikes when they came to Lulekane?

MR MABUNDA: Yes, yes they used to use my, motorbikes, a lot of them. Some of them used their own vehicles. When you see a very beautiful car, it was their own car. There were people who came there and they found us staying there in Lulekane. What the government was doing to them, it was, it was amazing. They were doing it, a lot of things for them than they do for 773 and 113 battalion. There was nothing they were afraid of. That was one of the issues which gave us problems.

MISS SEROKE: In your statement you say that many people were killed. Do you know exactly the number of people who were killed in that shabeen on that night?

MR MABUNDA: No, I can’t tell you the number of people who died during that day. There was many people who died. There were at least five but some of them, I don’t know them.

MISS SEROKE: But all the people who died were the comrades that used to discuss the issue of the mercenaries with you?

MR MABUNDA: Yes, I can say so. There were other people who were staying in Namakyale who were there too.

MISS SEROKE: Was there an official investigation about this bomb blast afterwards in Lulekane, by the police or by the soldiers?

MR MABUNDA: Actually if there was any inquest they should have come to me, because I was there. I was the, the witness. Whether there was an inquest or not, I don’t know but what happened later is that there was some people who went to, to court, to appear in court and complainants were promised to be called to court since 1986 right until now. Not even a single complainant was called until we started enquiring from the magistrate. This new government. We thought maybe the TRC could assist us.

DR ALLY: Just to respond to what you just said now about that the TRC could possibly assist you. This is actually one of the cases were our investigators have already started work. We have the files and the documents. It was a hand grenade which was thrown into this shabeen. In fact there are people who were witnesses to this, who actually saw certain individuals moving around the place just before this explosion. They’ve actually given the names of these people. Our investigators have been in, in contact with the relevant police stations with the army structures. There was in the beginning an investigation into this matter from the side of the police but it was, it was not taken through to completion and, and we are actually following up on that and we are hoping to, certainly before the end of the life of the Commission to be able to get some answers and, and in particular to speak to the individuals who were seen around the place and who were, and who were known to be part of the army just before the hand grenade was thrown into the shabeen.

MR MANTHATA: Well, in the light of what Dr Ally has said, I have no further questions.

DR RANDERA: Sorry Owen, I just want to know how, you say your brother was in standard seven. How old was he?

MR MABUNDA: Actually, he was born in 1969. I was trying to calculate.

DR RANDERA: In your statement you, you state how this has affected you and your family, that even up to this day you feel that you were responsible for his death. Can you just tell us a little more about that? Or you feel that you were responsible.

MR MABUNDA: Actually, the death of my brother affected the whole family. Firstly, he was never buried, he was never given a proper funeral. It was just donations from people from our area, the youth, those people who were sympathizing with us. We never had money at home to bury him properly. I personally, I feel that if I was the one who was killed by the bomb, he was still very young. I thought maybe it was going to better if the bomb killed me because he was still at school. Me, as his brother, his elder brother, I should not have allowed him to be involved in all this things. He died. There’s nothing that I’m doing now to make him happy where he’s, where he’s sleeping now. I’m even failing to, to buy him a tombstone just to remember him, you see. Actually, it’s painful for me. It’s painful for me, really.

MR MANTHATA: When you refer to, what would you think of the other four or the otherr five who died with him, would they too deserve tombstones or a community memorial, sort of? &#9;&#9;&#9;&#9; 

MR MABUNDA: &#9;Actually, I think it proper, because those people were friends actually. They were my friend, my friends too. All what was happening in, in Lulekane, it involved them, because it was just a township which was, had just been formed. I think one of them could have been a premier now. So, I think it’s better if a memorial for them is built, because they died for one cause.

DR ALLY: Thank you very much Owen. This is really a very tragic story, because there were five young people, most of them under the age of twenty who were killed in, in, in that incident and as I said to you earlier, it’s one of the cases which we are investigating and where there are some very strong leads and we hope that if we are able to answer some of these questions, they will, will help you to, to come to terms with what happened and as Mr Manthata has implied in, in, the questions that he’s asked you. This is one of the concerns of the Reparation and Rehabilitation Committee is how to restore the memory and the dignity of victims of gross Human Rights Violations. So, what you have said, I’m sure Mr Manthata will certainly be taking this to, to his Committee. Thank you very much for, for coming to speak to us about this event.

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