Human Rights Violation Hearings — Heiderveld — 1996-04-22

DR BORAINE: Can you hear my voice coming through with the translation - okay Mr Rani are you willing to take the oath.  
ISAAC NDAZEMSELA RANI Duly sworn states

DR BORAINE: Thank you very much indeed, will you be seated please.  Mr Rani the first thing we want to say to you is that we are extremely grateful to you for coming along today.
The story that you will tell the Commission goes back a very-very long time until 1962.  And you have had this story in your heart and mind and we hope you will feel comfortable and relaxed in sharing it with us.  In order to assist you, Commissioner  Yasmin Sooka will help you in leading your evidence.  Thank you very much indeed for coming.

YASMINE SOOKA: Hello Mr Rani, I 'd like you to tell us a little bit about yourself, your family, whether you have children, whether you married.  Could you do that for us please.

MR RANI: Yes  I do have children, but I don't live with them, they are scattered all over the place in their own places.

YASMINE SOOKA: Ja, are you married?

MR RANI: Yes I was married.

YASMINE SOOKA: [Question inaudible]

MR RANI: I don't know where she is.

YASMINE SOOKA: Mr Rani at the time when you  left this country were you a member of a political party?

MR RANI: Most definitely.

YASMINE SOOKA: Which party were you a member of?

MR RANI: African National Congress.

YASMINE SOOKA: I see how old were you when you left the country?

MR RANI: Well when I left it was 1961.

YASMINE SOOKA: Do you want to tell us why you left?

MR RANI: It is because I went for training.

YASMINE SOOKA: Where did you go to?

MR RANI: When I left I met Mr Alfred Ngudle, he sent me to Johannesburg.  Then from Johannesburg then I went to Tanzania, then from there I went to [indistinct]

YASMINE SOOKA: You were arrested in what was then the old Rhodesia in 1962.  Do you want to tell us a little bit about that?

MR RANI: Yes I was arrested in Rhodesia, in - at Bulowayo.  Then from there we went to [indistinct] Bridge, that's where we met people from South Africa.   Those are the people who took us to Messina, from Messina we went to Central - toe Central in Pretoria.  When we arrived there, we -  Fred van Niekerk received us, and Stroom and  Smith and others, Aaron and Simon.
But we were - we got split up now, but we didn't know where the others went to, we didn't know what happened to the others, I mean nobody told us anything about that, we were tortured and beaten up.  We were beaten up so much that  after three days I was vomiting blood, and the doctor came in, but the doctor told me that you only have a month to live.  And there is nothing else I can do for you.

YASMINE SOOKA: Mr Rani, could you tell me who the men were who picked you up at Bulowayo, the men who brought you to Messina.  Were they members of the Security Police?

MR RANI: They were Rhodesian police at Bulowayo, Mr Smith, it was Mr Smith.

YASMINE SOOKA: And then handed you over to the Security Police in Messina?

MR RANI: They handed me over to the police here in South Africa, and those are the people now  who took me to Pretoria.

YASMINE SOOKA: When you were taken to Pretoria, who were the other eight people who were with you?

MR RANI: The people who were with me, that I can remember it was
Wilfred  Alfred Khonza Malgas
Jantjies, Alfred Jantjies.

YASMINE SOOKA: [Question inaudible]

MR RANI: Some of them I have forgot them, but I am still trying to remember.

YASMINE SOOKA: [Indistinct] when you remember you can just stop me and tell me their names.  You said that you were tortured at Pretoria Central.  I know that it's difficult for you to answer this question, but I wonder if you could tell us why form the torture took.  What did they do to you when they tortured you.

MR RANI: They did all sorts of things, such that I was just wearing my bikini, my underwear, when they came to me,  they just took me to a hospital, a general hospital.  I had to go around the hospital to a certain corner where I was beaten up, they put a cube into my ears.  And then when - when that happens my  fingers had to tremble, now after that now I was arrested again, that's how I was tortured.

YASMINE SOOKA: What else did they do to you in the prison and do you know how did this - do you remember the names of the people who tortured you?

MR RANI: The people who tortured me, they were torturing me in a police station in Greyvenstein, those people were Fred van Niekerk, he was the boss of everybody else at that time.  Smith - Smith and everybody else were also under Van Niekerk, because he was the boss.

YASMINE SOOKA: Did he beat you.

MR RANI: Too much - very hard.  He beat me very hard.

YASMINE SOOKA: Was it the beating that made you vomit?

MR RANI: That is exactly what made me to vomit blood, it is the beating, even now my arms are still numb, they even have cracks from both arms.

YASMINE SOOKA: You mentioned where [indistinct] earlier that they brought a doctor to see you, do you remember the name of the doctor?

MR RANI: Oh! No I cannot lie, I don't know who it was.  The person who is the station commander who brought the doctor to me, I don't know who he was.

YASMINE SOOKA: Was this after you vomited blood?

MR RANI: No this happened before I vomited blood.

YASMINE SOOKA: I see, what did they to you before you vomited the blood beside the beatings, what did they do to you?

MR RANI: They beat me up, then after that I vomited blood.  Then it's after that that the doctor was called.

YASMINE SOOKA: I see, was the doctor nice to you - did he examine you properly?

MR RANI: I commend him because even now I am - I  can say I am cured.  Even when I went to Court, when I had to appear in Court, luckily because we were kidnapped from Rhodesia, nobody knew where we were.  When we got to Pretoria we were split up and then luckily one of the prisoners came, he told me not to close the window, the one behind me.
Nobody was allowed to talk to me, and he threw a small piece of paper through the window.  And now he was trying to find out what have I done to - for me to be here.  So I also wrote a little note, I also threw it through the window, when it - when it got to him outside, I said to him he must give it to the police outside - he must - I wanted to tell him that I want to get out of here.
They must give this prisoner R60-00 he also - he did that already.  He doesn't know that I am sending him to - to Modise - Joe Modise.  When he got to Joe Modise, he told Joe Modise that so and so is arrested, they said he is [indistinct] at a certain place.  On a certain date he is going to Court, he said all right, he was given the money, he met with the lawyer, Cultan and the lawyer he told the lawyer to come and represent me in Court.
I wasn't aware that Cultan was my lawyer, but when he came in here, he told me no-no I am - he told me that I am late, this is the person I am here to defend.  Now he - he told me that he is a national lawyer then he can't defend anyone in this case.  He said we'll meet in the next world.
He said Mr Kotze, and then he told ahh, you under arrest, he said hey hide.  So me and Titus we hit, and then I asked him hey why are you arrested, he said I don't know, that what - that's why I am here, I want to find out.  He told the lawyer why am I arrested, and the lawyer said yes, the lawyer himself wanted to find out who was  here to represent me, because nobody knew us.  We were kidnapped, from Rhodesia so nobody knew us, so he was also worried who knew anything about us.
Okay the lawyer took my statement, okay we were given, the verdict was passed, but now Titus knew and his wife that - that he simply left.

INTERPRETER: I am sorry the witness says sentences are not completely finished sometimes.