Human Rights Violation Hearings — Johannesburg — 1996-05-03

DR BORAINE: Can you tell me, was there anyone else in the street where you were walking along 12th Avenue near 41, were you alone or were there other young people or anybody there?

MICHAEL BOLOFO: Someone whom I was on the way to was around the corner, whereby someone on the street who didn't notify him, I only managed to see the guys to whom I was going but because the soldiers were behind me they wouldn't even see them.

MICHAEL BOLOFO: Was anyone else shot or were you the only one there?

MICHAEL BOLOFO: Rumours have it that there were two of us but it is something that I cannot state with validity.

DR BORAINE: So as far as you know, no one apart from the people who.....(Side A of tape ends here)
..... the situation was so tense at this stage that you wouldn't even think of reporting it, being afraid of being harassed and victimised by the police, because during those times one's life was in jeopardy to an extent that safety was considered first, that is the reason why they didn't bother themselves making a claim.

DR BORAINE: You tell me you were 17, you were at school, were you involved in any political work or activities or organisations?

MICHAEL BOLOFO: I was a Youth Member by that time.

DR BORAINE: A youth member of what?

MICHAEL BOLOFO: Of the ANC.

DR BORAINE: And you were quite active in it?

MICHAEL BOLOFO: Not much but I was always taking part in each and every meeting that took place during that time.

DR BORAINE: Thank you, you were in hospital for about five months, you were extensively injured, damaged, you then were an out patient for a long time.  How long did you miss school, I mean you couldn't have gone to school, how long were you out of school?

MICHAEL BOLOFO: I think for a period of about half a year.

DR BORAINE: Did you eventually go back to school?

MICHAEL BOLOFO: I did manage to go back to school until I was matriculated in 1989.

DR BORAINE: And can I ask you, what are you doing now, are you are you employed, are you studying or what is your situation.

MICHAEL BOLOFO: I am presently a part-time student at Alexandra Technical where I'm doing electrical engineering.  I'm presently having my N-2 and I am employed with ESCOM.

DR BORAINE: What about your health?  You talked about psychological disturbance and you've also got massive stomach operations and problems and broken ribs and so on.  What's your health like now?

MICHAEL BOLOFO: It is not stable, it changes time and again.  It controls me, I don't control it.

DR BORAINE: Can I ask you, you've come to tell your story and you've told it and we are grateful.  What would you like to see the Commission do for you, if it was able to do anything at all, what would you really like to tell us?

MICHAEL BOLOFO: What I would the Commission to do I think is to consider not only myself, but almost everyone who has been victimised or harassed, even maybe those who were killed during those heavy times of our lives, to be considered in the sense of like approving bursaries for those people who have been victimised, making some recreation facilities and the most important I think is for the Commission to look after them.

DR BORAINE: Michael I want to thank you very much.  You are a very brave young man.

MR LEWIN: Michael just two brief questions, I gather it was dark at the time, you said about 7:15 in the evening?  Do you think you were shot because it was you or just because you happened to be there?  Had they recognised you?

MICHAEL BOLOFO: I don't think I was shot because I happened to be there.  I had a right to be there because it was still early, it was not yet a time of curfew.

MR LEWIN: And the other part of the question is, you almost imply that once they found you and then gave you then injection which turned out not to be a slow poison, that they were almost looking after you.

MICHAEL BOLOFO: While I was hospitalised a certain officer visited me. On his arrival he was so harsh that we didn't go into details. What he asked me was that he was again speaking Afrikaans.  The only question he asked me was, (Was jy 'n Komraad?), are you a comrade? I kept quiet, he noted something on his file, then he left not even bothering to say goodbye.

MR LEWIN: Thank you.

DR RANDERA: Michael I just want to go back to that night of that near fatal shooting.  In your statement, was it the army ambulance that took you to the Alex clinic and then subsequently to Hillbrow Hospital, or was it a Sandton Council Ambulance that took you there?

MICHAEL BOLOFO: Sir I am not certain but I think it was an ordinary ambulance.

MR MALAN: Michael I want to touch on the same subject.  I'm totally confused because all the evidence we get is about very different actions about the army and the police after such incidents, but if I read you correctly, if I heard you correctly, you say that after you were shot they took off your T-shirt, tied it around your waist to cover your wound, I assume, they gave you an injection to relieve you of the pain, they assisted with the ambulance and you were taken away and cared for, and you were never harassed again. Is that correct?

MICHAEL BOLOFO: That I was never harassed again?, No no, but the question wasn't on someone who visited me in hospital, so according to my harassment the harassment focused on me while I was hospitalised.

MR MALAN: But it was never followed through?

YASMINE SOOKA: Michael just a question, normally in cases like these, the community usually saw to it that lawyers were appointed to look into these kinds of cases.  Did nobody ever take your mother to an attorney to try and claim for the injury done to you?

MICHAEL BOLOFO: No one, no one took my mother to anyone who is responsible concerning the law issues.

YASMINE SOOKA: Did your mother herself not want to get legal advice on the fact that they'd in fact shot at you?

MICHAEL BOLOFO: Even if she had that in mind I can say maybe lack of education or lack of support was why she wasn't persuaded.

YASMINE SOOKA: Thank you.

RUSSELL ALLY: Michael in your statement you say that plain clothes policemen came to your house in a private car, came to report and did not advise your parents to go to the police about the shooting? Is that your account of what happened?

MICHAEL BOLOFO: The statement you are saying was reported on the 15th of June, after I was hospitalised on the 14th.

RUSSELL ALLY: What I'm asking is if these plain clothes policemen, did they advise your parents not to go and make a statement?

MICHAEL BOLOFO: It is unfortunate that I did not manage to see my dad when I was coming here.  He went to somewhere in the Freestate, he was meant to be back by today but earlier on in the morning he phoned us that he won't make it so my mum and I can come on our own.  He is the one who spoke to those guys , the very same guys who came and reported that I had been shot the previous night.

RUSSELL ALLY: Thank you, and just one last question, your medical expenses, who paid for those medical expenses and do you have records of them?

MICHAEL BOLOFO: They paid for my medical expenses, I only paid when I underwent some check-ups, but my stay at the hospital was paid by the military.

RUSSELL ALLY: Thank you.

MS SEROKE: Michael you said when you were lying there wounded them say, He is just a little boy, but when you held on to your intestines you thought they would come and crush them, and then suddenly when they came they didn't do what you expected.  Do you think they expected somebody bigger than you and they must have been sorry perhaps that,(Dit was maar net n klein laaitjie), It was just a little boy?