Ucuku Olwenziwa ngoPasi Luzwisa Ubuhlungu Project #2

Sawubona le yindaba engingeke ngayikhohlwa noma ngilele eyokubulawa kwabantu angazi mangitsho ngayo ngiqalela ngaphi ngesikhathi leso ngangiseLupane yikho engizalwa khona. Angilabo abazali babulawa ngikhangele angazi ngithini,  batshiselwa endlini.

Ngaleso isikhathi ngangileminyaka elitshumi lantathu. Kwafika imota zamasotshà ebusuku ngilo gogo labo malume abathathu.  Sathi sivuka ekuseni ngisabasa umlilo atsho esethelekile amasotsha. Ababuzanga lutho kumbe ukusikhulumisa,  babiza omalume bahle badubula umalume oyedwa wafa.  Babe sebengenisa abanye bonke endlini babopha isivalo babatshesela phakathi.

Mina angikwazi lokuthi ngaphunyuka njani. Ngasuka ngabaleka ngayatholana làbanye eguswini. Salala phansi egangeni sabona imota zamasotshà sezihamba sabuyele eķhaya.

Ngangikwazi ukuthi umalume lowana owayedutshulwe watshiywa egumeni laye wayefile ngangithi ulele  nje kavuki. Ngaya kulabo bantu engangicatshe labo ngabazisa ukuthi ogogo ngithe ngibaĺeka ngabona bebavalela endlini kodwa indlu itshile bona abekho.  Ngoba lokufa ngangingakwazi ngathi kodwa omunye umalume ulele elangeni uyala ukuvuka.

Kanti ngokungazi labana labo ababengeniswe endlini babe tshiselwe phakathi bafa.

Abantu labana labo engangilabo bathola langakibo kubulewe abantu abane.

Lokhu kwenzeka endaweni okuthiwa yiSilwane eLupane.

Ngifisa  sengathi singathola ithuba sikhulume ngesakubonayo ngiyakwazi umuntu kaphenduki nxa ebhubhile kodwa esilakho ngaphakathi kwethu kudlula thina.

English Translation.

Greetings, this is a tale I will never forget even when sleeping.  People were killed I don't know where to start. At that time I was in Lupane where I was born. I don't have parents. They killed while I was watching. I don't know what to say.  They burnt them while they in the house.

At that time I was thirteen years old.  Soldiers arrived in their cars, i was with my grandmother and three uncles. When we woke up, as we were making  fire  the soldiers entered. They didn't talk to us or greet us, they just called one uncle and shot him and he died.  They then put my grandmother and two other uncles inside the house closed the door and set the house on fire while they were inside.

I don't know how I was able to get away. I just ran away and found others in the bush. We hid in the bush for sometime and only went home when we heard the soldiers cars leaving our homesteads.

I didn't know that my uncle who had been shot and left lying in the yard was dead, I thought he was asleep and didn't want to wake up.  I went to my neighbours I had hid with and told them that when I was running away I saw the soldiers putting my grandmother and uncles in a house, now the house was burnt and my grandmother and uncles were no where to be found. Since I didn't know death I told the neighbours that my other uncle was sleeping but refused to wake up when I tried to wake him up.

What I didn't know then was that my grandmother and uncles had died in the fire after being forced inside by the soldiers.

The neighbours I had hid with also found four people killed in their homestead.

This all happened in a place called Silwane in eLupane.

I wish we could be given an opportunity to talk about what we saw during that time. I know a dead person doesn't return to the living but the burdens  we have inside us are bigger than us.


To share your stories about what happened during gugurahundi horrors email veapndlovu@gmail.com or Whatsapp +27824407756. Anonymity guaranteed if requested.