&#9;TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION

&#9;UWC HEARING - DAY 1 - MONDAY 5 AUGUST 1996



CASE NO:&#9;&#9;&#9;&#9;CT/00217

VICTIM:&#9;&#9;&#9;&#9;LUBALO MTIRARA [nephew]

NATURE OF VIOLENCE:&#9;&#9;SHOT AND KILLED BY POLICE

TESTIMONY FROM:&#9;&#9;NOMONDE SANNAH TYALI



CHAIRPERSON: ... would ask her please to come to the witness stand [indistinct]and welcome, would you please put on the ear phones.Ms Tyali can I ask you, can you hear me through the ear phones, and can you hear the translation, can you hear that?

MS TYALI: Yes.

CHAIRPERSON: You can?

MS TYALI: Yes.

CHAIRPERSON: All right, my first word to you must be one of very warm welcome and an expression of our appreciation that you have been willing to come today to the Commission.Already you've waited a little while and we thank you for your patience.And we hope that you will feel that you are amongst friends.This is not a Court of Law, this is an opportunity for you to tell your own story which you have kept in your heart and mind for a very long time.It's also a story that you will tell not only to the audience and to this Commission, but to the whole nation.Before you do so, I must ask you please to stand for the taking of the oath.

NOMONDE SANNAH TYALI&#9;&#9;Duly sworn states

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much, will you please be seated. 

Ms Tyali as you will have seen, what we normally do is we ask one of the panel to assist the witness in telling their story. I am going to do that and I am going to ask you first to tell us a little bit about yourself and about your nephew, because it's about your nephew that you have come before the Commission, Lubalo Mtirara.

DR BORAINE: So please start whenever you are comfortable. --- My name is Nomonde Tyali, I come from Transkei but I work in Cape Town.In 1989, September month, on the 6th of September we got news that my nephew Lubalo Mtirara was dead.He was a visitor on holiday during the September holidays, visiting us a family.We live in NY12 at no 85 and my eldest brother lives in Khayelitsha in a place called Emakhaya.So Lubalo wanted to visit other family members and so he went to my brother - he went to my brother.Those days - he went away for two days, we then got the news that he had been shot by police - by Defence Force in Khayelitsha.They, the Defence Force did not inform us, we just got this from someone.I was at work and then my brother went there to look for his body and they identified the body as Lubalo.We did not know what was the cause of his shooting, because he had just shot - he was - he was here for a short while coming from the Transkei and he was only 16.So we don't know the reason why he was shot.So this was very painful to us.

&#9;Thank you very much, can I just ask a couple of questions, you said he was from the Transkei, where about was he from, which part? --- Umtata.

&#9;Umtata, thank you. --- He was from Umtata.

&#9;And he had - did he have parents and family in Umtata? --- Yes he at that time had a mother who is my sister. 

&#9;And did - and she - did she come to Cape Town when he was killed? --- Yes she came to attend the funeral after the death of her son. 

&#9;Thank you and you said that he was only 16 years old, so he was still at school.--- Yes.

&#9;Now can you remember if you think back, you weren't there yourself, but you may have been told, was there any protest or march or activity on that day when he was killed? --- There were - there were soldiers at the place where they have been - where he was shot and there some disturbance which I cannot exactly tell what kind of disturbance it was.

&#9;Was Lubalo politically active? --- No.

&#9;And do you know the day that he was shot, what was he actually doing, was he going somewhere or what actually - where was he and where was he going to when he was shot? --- Since he had visited my brother, my brother had sent him to the shop to go buy bread and then he never returned.Then - the news just came that Lubalo had been shot.

&#9;Do you know who took his body to the mortuary or to the police station? --- No I don't know and nobody in the family knows.It's just an eye witness who came to report to us and who happened to know where Lubalo came from.

&#9;When you think back as to what happened - do you think that Lubalo may have been shot almost in the cross fire or do you think he was deliberately shot by the police.--- I can't tell whether he was shot deliberately because really there was nothing that was linking him to all, he was just walking leisurely,

getting to a shop. He was not even armed he was just moving to a shop. 

&#9;Thank you, now there was a post-mortem did they ever tell you what the cause of death was? --- They said he died from the

bullet wound on the head. 

&#9;And was there any investigation about his death? --- No there wasn't until - until the time the Commission started operating, then when I heard about it, I decided to come here so as to hear if the Commission could do anything about my nephew.

&#9;Thank you, I want you to know that the investigating unit of the Commission has started that investigation and according to them there was an investigation by a Captain Desmond Segal and the kitskonstabels concerned, admitted that they had shot your nephew and indeed there were others who were killed on the same occasion.And that unfortunately, why we don't know yet, that the statements made by the three policeman concerned, are missing in the case docket.Nor is there any record indicating that the forensic evidence was submitted at the Court.All three of the policeman who admitted that they had shot your nephew and others, were acquitted, despite the forensic evidence at the time, linking one of them.They were charged for culpable homicide but were found not guilty.Do you remember being asked to go to any Court case or any trial after your nephew was shot? --- Nothing happened, not even once did I appear before any Court of Law.

&#9;So to this day it's become, it was a mystery as far as you are concerned. --- No I really don't understand it.

&#9;Please take your time there is no hurry.I have only two more questions, one - we received a statement from an eye witness whose name is Noluthando Ntutyu. Do you know this person at all? --- No I don't know him. 

&#9;So you don't know where he is from? --- No I don't where she comes from.

&#9;We will follow that up, please don't worry about that. Was there a funeral for you nephew? --- Yes there was a funeral at NY12, no 85.

&#9;And did the funeral go off all right? --- Yes, but it was very tough in a very surprising manner, because my sister had nothing, absolutely nothing and no-one knew what had happened and no-one was making any follow up but because of this Commission, my sister died and so I had to come and do this.After the death of Lubalo my sister fell sick, but he did not know anything.But because I am here in Cape Town I have decided to come to appear before this Truth Commission so as to find out what actually happened to Lubalo.

&#9;We are all sorry, please continue if you'd like to - are you all right? --- Yes I can continue, and I ask for an apology.

&#9;There is no need to apologize at all.We are very grateful to you for taking on the responsibility of your sister who is not with us and it must be very painful to relive the experience of your nephew's death.Is there any way in which you think the Commission can be of assistance to you, however, limited our resources might be? --- Since the Commission has already helped me, I will be delighted if the people who killed Lubalo could be exposed and they could state the reason why they killed him.Because he was not a naughty boy, he was a good boy.Even - even my brother in NY12 is sick since that time of the death of Lubalo because he also didn't understand what had happened and he started falling sick from that time.We even regretted why Lubalo had come to Cape Town.

&#9;I understand, Ms Tyali I am going to ask my fellow Commissioners if they would like to ask any other questions. No there are no further questions.I just want to say before you leave us that to be 16 and to be simply walking and to be killed is some experience which many-many people have had in this country.And there are so many innocent people who have been caught up in the conflict and the violence of this land.And what makes it even more tragic is that he was killed so soon before the changes which have come to our country where everybody now can participate in the election and feel free and we mourn with you the loss of your nephew, and feel for you very deeply.We will continue to try and find out exactly what happened, our investigators will not stop.And whether they will be successful or not, we cannot be sure, but that they will try, that is our promise to you.Thank you again for coming and I hope just the act of telling and sharing this story today will be of great strength to you, and go well as you go into the future.Thank you again.



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