Human Rights Violation Hearings — Tembisa — 1996-11-26

REUBEN MANDLA MALIBE: When they came that following night they were drinking coffee and these koeksusters. The junior of these White guys said to me, "is jy honger"?  I did not answer.  He said you have been here for several days you should be hungry.  "Soek jy die missus' se koffie?"  They had their flasks.  So on the windowsill there was a cup for coffee that they were using to put cigarette butts and cigarette ash you know, he took that, did not even wash it with the cigarette butts and the ash he poured the coffee there and said to me "drink die missus' se koffie" and then he gave me those koeksusters.  I had no choice.  I drank and ate that poison.
 On that particular night they took me to their girlfriends.  I don't know where that was because every time when they transported me they put me in the boot.  They were playing Radio 5 for me in the boot.  When we got there I was bleeding on my back because they used the sjambok to beat me on the body and ears and I realised that I was bleeding through my ears.  When we got there they called their girlfriends they came out and they took me out of the boot. They said "hy is een van die terrorist, ons het hom gevang". Well one of the ladies could not look at the sight of me.  
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She went back and the other one they hugged, they other couple just stood there and hugged in front of me.  And that was the situation that I was faced with.
 The other part that I nearly left out is that during this interrogation there were severe moments.  I remember at one stage he wanted the information about a certain guy who stayed next to my place, Brunsa, ja Brunsa.  He just wanted Brunsa very much.  He said that was the biggest terrorist he wants.  And then I could not give them an answer.  I knew Brunsa but he was not a friend to me and we are not close associates, so he started hitting me, pulled me by my private parts, the penis especially, then realising that I was not answering him well then he used a plier. He pulled me using the plier and then started nipping my testes with the plier.  There was nothing that I could give him except that.  Then eventually - that was continual, it would happen, they would come and go until I think 1981 when this harassment subsided.  However, I could not take it out of my mind.  Every time I see people testifying on television about the torture they have suffered at the hands of Police and that they were stripped naked I knew exactly what happened to those people.  That's how far I remember my statement.

MR LEWIN: Mr Malibe thanks very much for telling us that gruesome story.  If I could just clarify a few points.  When you were first, this first detention in '77, when you were finally released were you seen by anybody, did you go to a doctor?

REUBEN MANDLA MALIBE: Yes because I was bleeding through my ears I went to the late Dr Gwele who treated me and asked whether I want to open a case.  I told him that I could not because
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those people threatened - the world was far away from me.  I had no contact with anybody.  It was only my torturers that I had contact with.

MR LEWIN: And at no stage were you ever charged with anything?

REUBEN MANDLA MALIBE: Eventually when they said that they will come to me from time-to-time they just took a statement from me.  I thought that they will take me to court.  They never did.

MR LEWIN: I mean this last incident that you tell us about where they loaded you in the boot and showed you off to their girlfriends, was that '81, that was the last time that they treated you ...(intervention)

REUBEN MANDLA MALIBE: No it was somewhere in '78 I think, because they would actually take me for a month and then keep me for two weeks in their custody then release me and tell me that they will be coming again, and if I disappear my family will suffer the consequences.  So they threatened me that if I can just disappear they will actually take my family and I saw that they have that capability.  Because I remember they even promised me to work for them.  They actually tried to bribe me that they will provide me with a temporary job as I was a student then.  This probably it's the Coetzee the senior policeman who was in charge, he even gave me R25,00 that if I see any of the former students and anyone who has left the country is back, I should report to them.  So they will provide me with work at Cullinan.  Of course I took the money.

MR LEWIN: At the time you were a student, can I just confirm you were 18 were you?

REUBEN MANDLA MALIBE: Ja, I was.

MR LEWIN: And you were at school?
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REUBEN MANDLA MALIBE: Yes I was at school.

MR LEWIN: In Tembisa?

REUBEN MANDLA MALIBE: Yes.

MR LEWIN: Okay.  Were you actively involved, you talk about the boycott of Afrikaans were you actively involved?

REUBEN MANDLA MALIBE: Ja I was actively involved in these things.

MR LEWIN: With other students?

REUBEN MANDLA MALIBE: With other students.  And one of my friends actually left the country, he is now in Canada, he is living in Canada right now.

MR LEWIN: And when you were brought here to Rabasoto were you on your own, did you see other people at all?  Was the same thing happening to other people?

REUBEN MANDLA MALIBE: When I was in this room, the interrogation room, I would hear other people crying nearby.  They would tell me that you hear - during the interrogation there would be other people crying and they would tell you do you hear that scream, you are going to be the next.  I remember during the interrogation a young guy about 14, he was younger than me, he was brought in there, and then as they were beating me they said that he must pull my private parts and they did that because they - probably he was crying so I thought that he was beaten on the other side.

MR LEWIN: And can you identify - you have identified three of the people, three of the Black policemen ...(intervention)

REUBEN MANDLA MALIBE: Certainly I can.  Pat Vilikazi, you know in 1991 I was assaulted and to open a case here at Rabasoto he was in the charge office.  He remembered me, it surprised me.

MR LEWIN: In 1991?
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REUBEN MANDLA MALIBE: Ja.  He remembered me.  He just greeted me and said are you still staying at Moyane.  You know I was perplexed that could this guy remember, if he does then he still remembers all the gruesome acts that they did to me.  And the other one has retired, I think it's another Vilikazi, but I see him.  And Mr Shongwe, it's another Black guy who was there.  The others I could not remember, the Coloureds and the Indians I could not remember them because they just come for that day when they come to beat me up.

MR LEWIN: But did these people actually take part in the assault on you?

REUBEN MANDLA MALIBE: These, the Pat Vilikazi's, no they did not.  They were interpreting, because at some stage when we were communicating in English Coetzee this senior policeman would say it's no more time for English, but you know because of my resistance I obliterated everything in my mind, I could not speak Afrikaans well.  So they had to interpret.  It's only one guy who is not here who actually one time slapped me because I said things that he could not comprehend quite well.

MR LEWIN: Mr Malibe you also mentioned being hit on the feet, on the toes particularly, did that leave any permanent damage?

REUBEN MANDLA MALIBE: No it did not.  They were just sore, because they were continually hitting me.

MR LEWIN: And can you tell us how you coped afterwards.  You had been a student, then can you explain how you got to be a teacher?