Amnesty Hearings — East London — 1999-04-29

MR KINCAID: No objection from me there, Mr Chairman.

CHAIRPERSON: Ms Patel?

MS PATEL: Same here, thanks.

CHAIRPERSON: Very well.

MR CLARKE: I'm indebted, thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Mrs Clackers, can you give your full names for the record please.

ANNE ELIZABETH CLACKERS: (sworn states)

CHAIRPERSON: Please sit down.  Mr Clarke?

MR CLARKE: Mrs Clackers, do you recall the incident on the 19th of February 1990, when you were at your shop and you were visited by the three present applicants.

ANNE ELIZABETH CLACKERS: I do.

MR CLARKE: ...(inaudible) this incident I've just related.

ANNE ELIZABETH CLACKERS: Yes, I do.

MR CLARKE: Would you please in our own words and in your own time tell the Committee of the incidents of that day, thank you.

ANNE ELIZABETH CLACKERS: It was in February when just at lunchtime - we usually close between one and two, when my husband and myself went up to open up the shop.  I asked him to go into the wholesalers to go and get some goods at the wholesaler.  I went and I helped him load empty crates onto the truck and he left.
	It wasn't long that he had left when a guy had entered the shop and he said to me, could he have a look at Makweta blankets.  I said to him: "Do you want to have a look at a Makweta blanket, don't you know what a Makweta blanket looks like?"  He asked whether I could take it down and I said: "Do you want to buy it now?", and he said: "No, a farmer was going to come and buy it."  So I said well I'll take it down when he comes and buys it.
	I asked him if I could help him, he said no, he was just looking around in the shop.  And the next minute a guy with a balaclava entered the shop, he jumped onto the counter, he sat with his one leg on the counter and he said to me: "Go and fetch me a coke".  I said to him calmly I would.  I just sensed that there something wrong because he was balaclava'd and I starting making my way to the front door.  There is only one entrance,  and I got to the entrance and I was pushed back by the third person.
	The door was closed, there was nobody in the shop.  The guy with the balaclava started choking me, he started throttling me, he tried to get my windpipe out, I fought back, just the two of us.  I had him against the wall, I was in the middle, he kept on beating me.  I tried to make my way back to the door.  I was pushed back again from the guy standing at the door and at that moment I did have strength.  And the guy in the balaclava said to the other guy behind me:  "Help me, I can't kill this woman, she's got strength".  And I did have strength and God had given me that strength.  
WITNESS DISTRESSED
	From the door he pulled a knife out on me, he said: "Yes, I can't kill this woman, I am seeing something".  He said that he saw something.  And it was true when he said that he couldn't kill me, but I know that God had given me the strength because I haven't got such strength, to help me.  The guy in the balaclava carried on beating me.  He asked him for money and I said to him: "Alright, I will give you money".  I went to my till, I then thought no, you've already beaten me and you're asking for my money, I won't give you my money.  I took the till from the table and I threw it onto the floor.  I wanted to get attention from somebody to come help me.  At that time the noise was there and I started shouting and then they started using my dishcloths to close up my mouth.  I begged him to stop beating me.  He kept on saying: "Give me money, give me money".  I said to him: "Alright, I will".  I had some change under the counter and I gave him that and he must have thought it was a lot of money, but it wasn't much.
	There were batteries on the counter - because the guy at the door came and said to him there was somebody coming up from the house, and that was my son.  
	While the beating was going on I was standing up all the time, with the strength that I got from God.  I walked outside and I saw my son and I ...(indistinct) him - I'm sorry.
WITNESS DISTRESSED

MR CLARKE: Can I ask you a few questions on that please?  At that stage, did these three men leave your shop?

ANNE ELIZABETH CLACKERS: Just the last one that kept on asking for money, he left when, he was the last to leave.  I don't know what happened to the other two.

MR CLARKE: I see.  Now in their evidence and in their application they've suggested, or stated that the purpose of their call there was to tell you to close yours shop in pursuance of this boycott, was there any suggestion, did they say anything like that to you?

ANNE ELIZABETH CLACKERS: There was no mention of anything about closing or whatever, nothing.

MR CLARKE: I see.  Now the other thing they say is that apparently appeared to grab for a firearm under your counter.  Do you keep any firearms in your shop?

ANNE ELIZABETH CLACKERS: I've never, I've never had - my husband's never been in an army, I've never kept guns anywhere near the shop.

MR CLARKE: What sort of relationship do you have with your black clientele?

ANNE ELIZABETH CLACKERS: I've got people here that can speak for themselves, very good.

MR CLARKE: How long did you live with these throat wounds and body bruises and face bruises?

ANNE ELIZABETH CLACKERS: For six months.

MR CLARKE: The evidence relating to your particular incident, that has been given by the three applicants, is there any truth in it?

ANNE ELIZABETH CLACKERS: No, they're all telling lies.

MR CLARKE: Thank you.
NO FURTHER QUESTIONS BY MR CLARKE

CHAIRPERSON: Mrs Clackers, was there a consumer boycott in that area to your knowledge, at that time?

ANNE ELIZABETH CLACKERS: There was.

CHAIRPERSON: Yes, thank you.  Mr Kincaid, questions?

MR KINCAID: I have no questions of the witness, thank you, Mr Chairperson.
NO QUESTIONS BY MR KINCAID

CHAIRPERSON: Ms Patel, any questions?

MS PATEL: Thank you, Honourable Chairperson, just one.
	Mrs Clackers, the applicants have testified that notices had apparently gone out to the farmers in the area saying that they must leave, do you bear any knowledge of this notice that was ...(intervention)

ANNE ELIZABETH CLACKERS: I never got any notices, never.

MS PATEL: And did people who perhaps worked on the farm around there ever inform you about that?

ANNE ELIZABETH CLACKERS: I had no labourers.  I used to accommodate people that had no homes.

MS PATEL: Okay, thank you.
NO FURTHER QUESTIONS BY MS PATEL

ADV BOSMAN: Mrs Clackers, just one question from me.  How far away was your shop from the township where the applicants lived, Kabusi township?

ANNE ELIZABETH CLACKERS: It's very far.  I think you've got to climb over about three mountains you know.

ADV BOSMAN: Sort of estimate the distance in a way.

ANNE ELIZABETH CLACKERS: Could you help me, about ...?  About five kilometres.

CHAIRPERSON: Mr Clarke, any re-examination?

MR CLARKE: Thank you, I have no further questions.
NO RE-EXAMINATION BY MR CLARKE

CHAIRPERSON: Do you want the witness to be excused?

MR CLARKE: If she may now be excused please, yes.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much, Mrs Clackers, you are excused.
WITNESS EXCUSED

CHAIRPERSON: Yes, we have really reached the end of the day.  We will now adjourn the proceedings until tomorrow morning and we will reconvene at 9 o'clock or as soon thereafter as we are able to start.  We're adjourned.
COMMITTEE ADJOURNS