Human Rights Violation Hearings — Pietersburg — 1996-07-17

MR NCHABELENG: No he didn't, he left it on the table and told the vice principal that I put muti inside of it.  And then the vice principal asked me nicely what happened.  The principal me to explain to the vice principal that I brought the envelope, he wanted me to talk just about the envelope, but I started from the beginning.  Then the principal interrupted and said I don't have respect and that I must get out of his office.  The vice principal came out with me and told me he didn't like the principal's approach.
 When I went out the principal took the envelope and threw it down.  The principal's office and where I stood was divided by a box and I could see where he was sitting through that box, and I could see him looking at that envelope, just looking at it, not touching it, and then he sat on the table and started thinking and I think he was asking himself what had been done to that envelope.  I took the envelope and went with it and I told my father that he had refused to open it.
 My father said that he would decide what to do.  He called Johannesburg and told them that they must come and fetch the envelope and when they opened it they discovered it was a letter bomb. These were the Johannesburg who testified that this envelope had a letter bomb.

MS SEROKE: Who was this principal?

MR NCHABELENG: Mr Sigu Thebil.

MS SEROKE: Is he still alive?

MR NCHABELENG: Yes is around, in fact the way he has disrespect for people, you might find him amongst this audience.

MS SEROKE: In this statement, the one that we just had from your mother, she said she didn't know how your father died, but in your statement you say there was a policeman who boasted that he knew how your father was killed.  Can you tell us how your father was killed?

MR NCHABELENG: Before we go on about how my father was killed, I would like to explain to you about the letter bomb.
 Before they came and took my father, there was a youth meeting.  After this youth meeting they decided that they must go and fetch the principal and ask him about the letter bomb, and then they went and fetched him and asked him.  But then in there, when they were supposed to take decisions, it was difficult because the principal refused to answer questions.  The youth couldn't decide what to do and in that meeting there was a division, the youth was divide, some wanted to burn him, some wanted to leave him alone.  I was one of the youth, and I talked myself because I knew a lot of things, especially about the envelope because I was led to believe that it contained my results, so I tried to explain.  When I realised that the youth were so undecided what to do, I tried to explain to them what really happened.
 After hours police came and arrested my father, and when we heard that he was killed we decided to run away because police were hitting people, smoking dagga, drinking liquor and when they met people on the street they hit innocent people, so we decided to run away and ran to Turfloop. They caught us and took us to the police station where we didn't sleep as they were hitting us the whole night, and telling us that this was exercise.

MS SEROKE: I asked you, your mother said she doesn't know how your father died, but you have heard how he died, so we want you to explain to us how he was killed.  Can we please concentrate on that?

MR NCHABELENG: It will be short, let me just summarise it?  When the police came and took us there was on special branch policeman by the name of Mashego. When he took us there he brought us to Rankuwan, and they told us people were burned and I did not know who or what they were talking about.  I was never involved in burning people.  One policeman by the name of Mapetho who was investigating this case, and another one by the name of Yster, said to me that I was going to show them where we burned people. I told them I didn't know and Mashego told me that they had killed my father, and now they were going to kill me.
 We went into a car and we drove and they told us that we must fetch those people who were burned by our hands, but I didn't even know those people, I didn't even know that there were people who were burned, we just went there and when we arrived there, they put me next to a cell and they brought food, and said we must eat with these hands that had just held the burned bodies ....(no further recording on side A of tape, recording resumes some way into side B)...want us to wash our hands.  They said, "You get inside here!", and when I went inside they said that's where they were interrogating my father.

MS SEROKE: This garage, is it in a police station or..?

MR NCHABELENG: It's in a police station, it was full of blood, water and one policeman by the name of Mapetho told me that the blood that I see is my father's blood. And he said to me, "You refused to eat, you said you didn't wash your hands, now you're going to wash your hands with this blood and go and eat." I refused.
 He undressed me.  He called other people who were also in the cells to come and grab me and they stretched my legs and my hands and then they were all supposed to hit me, and then they put me into water and they removed me and said to me that they will take me to show me where my father died. They showed me a big trunk and they said to me, "This is where your father died and you are also going to die here". Mr Mashego brought me to the police station and we found police sitting around a table and he said to me, "See ...(intervention).

MS SEROKE: Maurice, in this statement, it shows that there was an inquest and we are going to ask our investigation  team to investigate and get the results so that we can corroborate these things that you've just told us.  I'll ask the other Commissioners if they'd like to say anything.

MRS NCHABELENG: I'd like to tell you about this letter bomb that Maurice has just told you about.  When this letter bomb came to my house, and we'd asked Maurice to take it to the principal and the principal had refused to open it, when it came back we were scared to put it inside the house.  Then we asked other ANC people to come and check this envelope because we couldn't understand something about it as there was a wire inside of it.  And then one man by the name of Poloto and one woman by the name of Manzanga came to fetch this letter.  When they took this letter they told the old man that there was nothing inside this envelope, there were no results but it was a letter bomb.

RUSSELL ALLY: Maybe Maurice would be best placed to answer these questions, but if Mrs Nchabeleng can also assist, that would be very helpful.  I know that you obviously, having to relive this experience must be very difficult and very painful, but for the work of the Commission it's very important that we try and understand not only what happened to people, but also the circumstances, the background, the context, because at the end of the work of the Commission, we have to prepare a report in which we not only list victims but also show the context and the perspective, and the motives because the work of the Commission is also hopefully to try and come to some kind of understanding of this difficult past, these 30 years, so that hopefully we can move forward and build a different kind of country with respect for human rights.  So please these questions that I'm asking, I appreciate what you experience, and I don't mean them to be insensitive in any way, it's to help the Commission.
 Now you, firstly the question of the letter bomb, who are the people who established that this was actually a letter bomb, was it ever formally established that this was a letter bomb, any experts who would know about these things?

MR NCHABELENG: Those people who came and took that letter bomb were the ones who told us it was a
letter bomb.  Mrs Nzake and Mrs Mpolok, they came from Johannesburg, they were sent by ANC.