Human Rights Violation Hearings — Klerksdorp — 1996-09-24

YASMINE SOOKA: Thank you.  Could we have order, please?
 Reginald, thank you for sharing your story with us.  It is not a nice experience that you have actually had.  It should not have happened to you. You are still suffering because of the after effects of that beating.  We will need to check on all the facts that you have given us.  It helps that both you and Kitty Bone are able to give us the story which we can fit together and hand over to our unit to look further into.   Thank you for sharing it with us.  We are sorry that at such a young age you were forced to experience this kind of treatment at the hands of those who should have protected you. We will do our best to be able to give you some answers and also to see where some sort of assistance can be rendered to you.  Thank you for coming today.

THABANG REGINALD MOPELOA: I have a request.  This man has destroyed my future.  I cannot have children. I think the choke they applied on my private parts has affected me in some way.

YASMINE SOOKA: Will the audience please keep quiet.  We remind you that it is very painful for witnesses to sit here and confide what is a very intimate detail.  We would ask you to respect that, because if you carry on laughing the way you do, it will mean that other witnesses will not be able to feel free to impart details. We require the detail to make sure that it never happens again.  So we would plead with you to respect the time when the witness is telling his story.
 Reginald, you may carry on.

THABANG REGINALD MOPELOA: As I have mentioned, I really make love to my wife, but I cannot have babies at all. If I go to doctors,
KLERKSDORP HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
12 T R MOPELOA
they tell me that the electric shock that was applied on me, has damaged me. I am very young.  In other words, I am going to have an incomplete family. I have my family, but it is going to be difficult to live with a wife who, and I don't give her children, you know, and it will be difficult for her as well, to live with me, if I cannot give her babies. It was my intention.  I told myself that I am the father in the house, and I was expecting to keep the name of the Mopeloa family.  But now because of the trouble I came through, I cannot uphold the name.
 I thank the Truth Commission because people went through hardship and they were not listened to.  If an investigation could be made to find as to whether it is true these atrocities took place.

YASMINE SOOKA: I think that what you said is incredibly important. One of the legacies people leave is the fact tht they have children and their chlidren carry on their name. To have that destroyed for you is not very, very easy.
 But you are quite right, the cut-off date for amnesty draws closer and closer.  People have until the 15th of December this year to apply for amnesty, if they have perpetrated gross human rights violations.  We remind people that even though we move towards reconciliation, those who have not applied, their cases will probably end up with a prosecution and they may, in the future, be prosecuted.  
 So we appeal to people, this is a wonderful opportunity for you to free yourself and to come forward willingly and to make a full disclosure to the Truth Commission.  The names that have been bandied about, are the same ones.  We appeal to those people to come forward so that they can themselves be free of this legacy.  
KLERKSDORP HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
13 T R MOPELOA
 Thank you, Reginald for reminding us of that.  That there are people out there who have committed these deeds and who need to come forward. It is part of the road to reconciliation.
KLERKSDORP HEARING TRC/GAUTENG