Human Rights Violation Hearings — Cape Town — 1997-06-10

MARY BURTON: Dr Myburgh, can I interrupt you a moment.  The interpreters struggle to keep up, so I wonder if you could read a little more slowly please.

NEIL MYBURGH: The security of staff was the fundamental consideration and our decision, sadly to close the clinic, it was a decision that would be temporary until the situation stabilised.
 We had to transport members of staff to and from work in the ambulance, we had encountered "witdoek" road blocks with the risks this entailed, we had been accused by the Crossroads Executive of taking sides because we were working in three different areas now.
 There had been personal threats, the previous Friday Mr Gobingca and Mr Ndima both Executive members had said to me that White one should be put in jail.  On Tuesday the 17th of June, Mr Ndima said, what are you doing here, I don't like your face, get out.
 Two of our Doctors had similarly been threatened.  With the attack on KTC on the 9th of June and the Zwolani Centre where we were also working, the threat on New Crossroads was also considered to be real since many of our staff lived there, it was considered unsafe for them to continue working in Crossroads.
 On June 16th, a day we normally remembered as the Soweto remembrance day we were phoned by a community health worker to say that two SADF Doctors were working at our clinic.  They had in fact been invited in by the Crossroads Executive Committee just three days after we were forced to leave.
 We were not consulted by either them or the army.  The Commanding Officer said they would move out soon and they would run from a mobile clinic.  They continued working there for almost six months.
 Since closing the clinic, we continued to consult with the clinic Committee and the Crossroads Executive and I personally was in Crossroads every day for about two weeks after that initial configuration.
 But it was impossible to argue the case.  Legally the clinic property is the responsibility of the staff and only a full clinic Committee could dispose of it in terms of its constitution.
 The Crossroads Executive has usurp this  right and prevented most of Crossroads community from any further access to it.
 The agreement we had signed was not worth the paper it was written on.  Surprisingly within days of our temporary closure of the clinic and after ten years of avoiding their responsibility, the Provincial Administration came forward with an offer to construct a day hospital in the area before the end of 1986.
 One further sequel was the experience of trying to remove dental equipment.  The assistants I took with me that day have never forgotten the direct threats that the "witdoek" faction exerted on us and only by calling a local SAP accomplice of the "witdoeke" were we eventually able to leave with our equipment and our lives intact.
 It is my believe that during its short but prominent life from 1980 to 1986 the Saca clinic was indeed a place of wellness and healing.
 It engaged with the people of Crossroads and provided comprehensive form of community development.  At the same time it was a witness to a range of State oppression, from the demolition of shacks to health authorities abstaining from their responsibilities for basic services. 
 From minor intrusions of SAP and SADF road blocks and searches to the death and incineration that accompanied the violence of the various periods.
 And the latter generated by the "witdoeke" and their SADF/SAP and Admin Board accomplices.
 The Saca clinic had become a site of struggle for both health and liberation.  I believe it acquitted itself fairly well under the circumstances.  It continues today as a health project widely regarded as a pioneer in the field of community health worker training.
 While our contribution was very small, I hope it has been a useful one and I think the Crossroads community deserves an enormous amount of credit that we have cases like the KTC case actually coming to court.
 A lot of the evidence got burnt, lost in the process.  That is all from me, thanks.

MARY BURTON: Thank you Dr Myburgh.  Dr Bletcher?

MARK BLETCHER: Thank you Ms Burton.  Good morning to all members of the Commission, good morning ladies and gentlemen.  I would like to thank the Commission very much for giving us this opportunity to make a brief submission of some of our experiences as health workers during the period of 1985, 1986.
 My submission will cover six brief areas.  I will start with just a brief summary experience of a day during the Crossroads massacre, between the 18th and 19th of February 1985.  I've got some case studies of injured people.  I will then present a summarised statistical report of 500 patients we treated between February and November 1985, who were shot by police.
 I will then present a brief report on a number of people, 15 people that we treated in the early part of 1986 who had been tortured in various ways at surrounding police stations.  I will present a brief witness account of police complicity in a "witdoek" attack on the Zwolani Centre area and a brief witness account of prison cells kept by "witdoeke".

MARY BURTON: Dr Bletcher, could I just say, it sounds rather an impressive list of things that you are going to tell us.  Do you think it will be possible for you to keep that within about 15 minutes?

MARK BLETCHER: I will try.

MARY BURTON: Thank you.

MARK BLETCHER: Beginning with an experience, a summary of an experience during the Crossroads massacre in February 1985.  Coming to the clinic we walked across Klipfontein Road, the road was blocked by tree trunks, boulders and stones.  Some smouldering remnants of burning barricades smoked.
 In the clinic many of the examination couches had been converted to beds and on them the injured laid covered with bloodied bandages.  We did a ward round and decided who could be discharged and who would need referral to a major hospital for admission and specialist treatment.
 Not long after, firing started up and soon minibuses and cars arrived, screeching to a stop and unloading the injured.  Somebody would help with stretchers to bring the injured persons in.  Some of the injured ...

MARY BURTON: Sorry Dr Bletcher, I know I asked you to try and keep it short, but please remember that you are being interpreted into two languages and it does take a little time, so ...