Human Rights Violation Hearings — Helderberg Tygerberg — 1996-08-07

WITNESS: I think it has been such a long time to renew this whole matter. But if the Truth Commission can compensate us in any way, we would appreciate it. Because us in all the time we have been heartbroken and withdrawn because a lot of people who were shot with her, received some kind of compensation from the State. But we the family that suffered the most loss haven't received anything, we received nothing and nothing was said to us. She was just shot dead and that was that, it was very difficult for us, it was very hard for us up until now as well. I think that a bit of it has left me, but not much, when I think about it like today, it is very hard for me to think about what happened to her.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT:  We have heard what you have said ma'am, it is true that many people in your are who were shot have received some compensation, perhaps not nearly enough, but also to hear that you have received nothing and heard nothing is a task for us to ensure that we take this matter further and the reparations and rehabilitation's committee is there and we will certainly look at your case very carefully and ensure that in some way there is some reparations for yourself and for your family. I do not have any more questions and I'd like to hand over to the Chair in case my colleagues would like to ask you some questions.

WITNESS: Ja - ja.

CHAIRPERSON: Ma'am can you just tell me the incident in which your daughter was shot, is it the same matter in which Monica Daniels was injured?

WITNESS: Yes sir.

CHAIRPERSON:  I assume that you listened to what I said to her about what happened in Court to those two policeman.

WITNESS: Yes.

CHAIRPERSON: And I assume that like Monica Daniels you would also like the Commission to at least look at what went on in that matter.

CHAIRPERSON: --- Yes.

CHAIRPERSON:  Certainly, did you consult an attorney or try and submit a claim?

WITNESS: Sir my one son by the name of Chrisjan was working at a clothing factory in Ravensmead and there was a man working with him by the name of Sampson, Mr Sampson and he said to my son that he was going to take him to an attorney to state his case. And he did so, and this attorney - this was Windvogel and we went up and down trying to get hold of them and it was very difficult to get hold of them, but we finally did. But Mr Windvogel - each time when we got to him, he would say it wasn't actually a claim that we had instituted, they did it, he would say to us that we shouldn't be in a hurry about this matter because no matter how long it took, the State would compensate us, and we would then go back. But on a certain - on a particular day we got to him and on this day he said to us that we shouldn't just come to him at any time in connection with this matter. We should wait - wait and see no matter how long it took, the State would compensate us and we left it. And we have never heard from Mr Windvogel since, he did not come to us and let us know that we had been compensated, we don't know what happened to our claim, the other people have been compensated but nothing has happened to us. We don't know if he has been compensated or what happened since then.

CHAIRPERSON:  Are you the only family who went to Mr Windvogel?

WITNESS: Yes my spouse and I.

CHAIRPERSON:  The other families who's children was injured, did they go to other attorneys?

WITNESS: Yes they went to other attorneys.

CHAIRPERSON:  And this Mr Windvogel who you referred to, where were his offices.

WITNESS: In Retreat sir.

CHAIRPERSON:  In Retreat?

WITNESS: Yes.

CHAIRPERSON:  And you say that up until today you do not know what happened to your claim.

WITNESS: No.

CHAIRPERSON:  Would you like the Commission to follow up and try and establish what happened to your claim?

WITNESS: I would be very happy if he could - he himself could come and tell us what happened to the case, so that we could know what happened.

CHAIRPERSON: Certainly ma'am - ma'am but I can once again just confirm what Glenda said to you, we feel for you, we understand what blow it must be when one's child who have just turned 21 gets shot dead a few days later for no apparent reason whatsoever. But we have listened to what you have said, and we have listened to your request and I would like to once again say thank you very much to you and your husband for having come and also that you have since the weekend up until now been so patient and waited the matter has been called. Thank you very much.

SARAH AUGUST: I would like to ask you something.

CHAIRPERSON: Certainly.

SARAH AUGUST: Look we have spoken about the matter today and up until now we do not know what could happen to it. Say for instance you people leave how will we know - how will we contact you people or how will we know what happened to this matter, because we cannot go back to those people. And I also think that the claim which was instituted by those people. He refused that we should institute a claim, we do not even know what the claim was, because we did not even sign any documents or anything because he just said to us that they were handling the claim. And in Salt River we were shown on the computer that an claim was instituted, but we were never told what the amount was, so we cannot say much about the claim. So what I would like to know is if you people leave, how we will contact you.

CHAIRPERSON: I understand what you are saying, as I explained to you, your matter is now being placed before the Commission, we have all the details, we have already started investigating, following up on this incident and as I said to you, we have already established what happened with the shooting incident, what happened in the Supreme Court, so we are already busy trying to establish some information. And we do have an office in Cape Town and as the case continues, as we - there are developments, we will contact you as soon as we have any news. So we will remain in touch with you. We are in Cape Town and we are in several other place across the country, but we will not just disappear unlike the attorney.

SARAH AUGUST: Thank you very much.

CHAIRPERSON: Ja, Mr August I will attend to it that the personnel give you a reference number so that when you do make contact with us you can make use of the reference number and we will know that - which file to draw is that okay - good thank you very much and we wish you every success.