Human Rights Violation Hearings — Upington — 1996-10-02

WITNESS:  I came from Johannesburg after my mother had phoned me.  It was not the same time but we were watching TV and no names were mentioned on the TV and on the TV they said it was a woman between 22 and 23 years old and I said my child was younger than that.  From that Monday evening already, I did not feel very well and on that Wednesday before the names were announced, somebody said Florie you should not be shocked but somebody phoned us and said one of your children, Beulin, had been shot.  I was very, very shocked and I asked the people with whom I worked to send me home and they said no, I can only take you down for the funeral and I said no madam, I cannot wait till then, I had to go then.  The train to Upington had already left and I had to take the train passing through Bloemfontein.  When I arrived home I saw people sitting there, sitting around.  I entered the house and asked my mother what had happened that these children were shot.  Weren't they warned beforehand and my mother said no, it was peaceful and I do not know what had happened.  We sat there and I asked my mother was any post-mortem held and the police never came to inform us.  We did not know whether she was in hospital or what had happened to her.  Another woman came there and said - this was aunt Wiesie - that Beulin was in the mortuary.  We made arrangements for the funeral.  We went to Eendrag.  First we went to the police office, police station and asked whether we could not see the body and the police said no we were not allowed to see the body and she said, even not the mother, and they said no you could not see this body and if you do not go away we are going to lock you up, so we left.  On our way home we also heard that my other daughter had also been caught by the police and they said no, she was charged with public violence - I beg your pardon - with intimidation, but we went from here to there and nobody could give us any assistance.  The next day the police came there and they said yes, they bought the same coffin like Jetta's coffin and they said no, we have saved all the money to buy a good coffin.  Then we left again and the next time they said, if we go from here the body was not allowed to go to the church or was not allowed to go to the house.  This body has to go directly to the church and we went in the directions they gave us and they led us all the way to the church.  When we came to the church they brought the body in and we wanted, we desperately wanted to see the body of my child and we hear in Paballelo, if it is a funeral the body was taken to the house and then from the house to the church and then from the church to the cemetery.  In Paballelo we assist one another when there was a funeral.  We just had to do what they commanded us to do and at the church I said, open the lid of this coffin, we wanted to see this body, open this coffin otherwise I am going to break it open but in the end somebody said at the back, open the lid so that she can see the body, and I also, after they had opened the lid, I saw this wound right in her forehead.  I do not know whether it was a bullet wound or what.  From there we went to the cemetery.  Before we arrived there we were on our way to the cemetery, the police started assaulting us and I have asked please let me get out of this combi so that we can just get to the cemetery.  When we came there, there were not 350 people anymore, only 10 people were left to attend the funeral and the women had to throw the soil onto the coffin because we had to do that.  We had to close the grave.  Afterwards we went home.  When we arrived there the police also arrived.  The police, all the time they were harassing us and they were assaulting the people and we did not know what to do and we did not know what was happening.  If we went to the police they chased us away and that was what was happening and that is all I have to say.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT:  Was your daughter involved with any political organisation?

WITNESS:  Not that I know of.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT:  Do you know what the reason was for her shooting?

WITNESS:  No, I cannot say.  I was very, very shocked to hear about it.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT:  In your statement you mentioned that there was one policeman of whom everybody was frightened.  Can you tell us more about this specific policeman?

WITNESS:  Yes, he was called the Red Major and everything he commanded, the police had to do.  He was the commander, Commanding Officer at that time.  He could go into your house and shoot somebody but nobody could stop him.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT:  Do you know his surname perhaps?

WITNESS:  No, everybody knew him as the Red Major or the Rooimajoor.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT:  Was there any post-mortem held?

WITNESS:  No, there was no post-mortem.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: I have no further questions and I will hand over to the Chairman.

MR POTGIETER: Ms Isaaks, was Beulin the first child who was shot in Paballelo during that period, until Jetta's death?

WITNESS:  Yes, she was the first child to be shot.

MR POTGIETER: Were there lawyers who represented you in this case?---  Yes, Chris Naidoo represented us, from Johannesburg.

MR POTGIETER:  I see in your statement that the documents pertaining to Beulin's case is still with the lawyers in Cape Town in Greenmarket Square.

WITNESS:  Yes, her files are there at that office in Cape Town - 54 Greenmarket Square.

MR POTGIETER:  Is it the Legal Resources Centre?

WITNESS:  William Kerfoot is the lawyer's name who is handling this case.

MR POTGIETER: Thank you very much.  Any questions Wendy?  Ms Sam and Ms Isaacs, thank you very much for your evidence this afternoon.  It is very clear that you are still suffering pain because of this incident and we can understand this but just like the previous case, it is hard enough to lose a child but it is even worse if it happens in unnatural circumstances.  You do not know exactly what the circumstances were and it is even worse as in your case, you get no co-operation from the police to assist you in finding out what exactly happened so that you can come to rest and peace and can accept how everything happened.  It is very difficult to accept if you do not understand what happened.  We have asked our investigation team to investigate this matter and, once again, they have gone to the police station to find out where the documents of the inquest were, and in every case where somebody dies from unnatural causes, the Court has to investigate what the causes of the death were, if there were any criminal offences.  So at some or other stage there should have been an inquest.  Our investigation team visited the police station and they were also informed that these documents have been destroyed.  This is against the command of the Minister of Justice, that no documents should be destroyed and the Commission should have access to all these documents but in any case I am bringing this under your attention that we are investigating this matter.  There must be an explanation why the documents have been destroyed or where they are in any case, and if the documents were destroyed an explanation should be given.  The Commission is not going to accept this case as it stands.  Thank you very much for coming this afternoon.  Thank you for sharing your stories with us.  We know it is very difficult to talk about things like this in public but thank you very much and we will keep in contact with you.  Thank you.