TESTIMONY_GIVER:
You have taken quitea long time to build that house, and at the end of the day you have it burntdown. We sympathise with you very much. I request you to tell us who you are,where you are coming from, etcetera. --- My name is Thiwe. I am from Butsabelo.My name is Thiwe. I am from Butsabelo. I was staying at Butsabelo. That wassection K in Butsabelo. They burnt my house in 1993. They started throwingstones at my house. That was in November. It was on a Friday. On a Saturdaywe slept in the house, and the Sunday we slept in the house, and then on Mondaythey threw the petrol bomb. Only the bedroom got burnt. We were able to runaway, but we came back to try and extinguish the flames. All that was in thebedroom got burnt. Thereafter we were sleeping outside because we didn't haveany place to sleep, and we were keeping a vigil as to what was happening. Aweek thereafter my husband, as well as my brother, were staying outside so thatI could get inside and sleep because I was looking after my father-in-law. Theyburnt my place for the third time. That is they heard one of the perpetrators- there are trees in my hard, so he was hiding in the trees. So when he gotin there they don't know how he came in there, they just heard noise in thebushes. When they looked they caught a young man. When they asked him what hewanted he ran away. They chased him. At that time I heard there was some noisebecause I was inside the house. Then I went outside to investigate. Theyasked him who he was. He ran away and they actually chased him. When they gothim they assaulted him. We later called on the police that night. When we calledthe police the police came, but I said they mustn't come into my house becauseI am afraid the Comrades would burn us later and they would also kill my childrenbecause they were burning the houses. The policemen came. They took us to thepolice station. They took this would-be perpetrator to the police station. Wealso went there. My husband opened a docket, but that docket didn't really materialisebecause he did not appear in court. The docket got lost, and my husband wassentenced because they said he had assaulted the would-be perpetrator. Theywere sentenced to two years inside - outside, and one year. They spent six monthsin prison, and nobody was working at that time. They were the breadwinners.I sold my house because I couldn't make ends meet. My husband got out in Julyof that same year. (Pause) 