Human Rights Violation Hearings — East London — 1996-04-17

DESMOND MPILO TUTU: (Opening prayer)
I have made a mistake, I was supposed to have presented the names of those who have passed away so that we can remember them.  Let us stand again please.  
 Mathew Goniwe, Bully Aliston Kohl, Sithembile Zokwe, Gcinisizwe Kondile, Lungile Tabalaza.  We pray for these, we present their souls in Your hands.  We request Your reassurance and also that their friends should be comforted.
Amen.

BONGANI FINCA: I'm going to report on those who have made application to appear before the Commission today and would like to testify on the violation of their human rights.  I read them in the order in which they will appear, which is slightly from the order in which they are written down in the order of proceedings for today.
 Mrs Beth Savage who appears as number 5 in our list will come up as number 1 because of work commitment, she appears on a matter relating to herself and the nature of violation is serious bodily injuries.
 Mrs Nyameka Goniwe on a matter relating to her husband, Mathew Goniwe and the nature of violation is disappearance and murder.
 Mr Robert and Mrs Cecelia Kohl appear on the matter relating to their son, Bully Aliston Kohl, the nature of the EAST LONDON  HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
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violation is killing by police.
 Nonceba Zokwe appears on the matter of Sithembele Zokwe and the nature of violation is killing by Transkeian police.
 Billy Shiyani appears on a matter relating to himself, attempted ambush.
 Charity Kondile appears on a matter relating to Gcinisizwe Kondile and the matter of violation is abduction and murder, and the last person is,
 Priscilla Tabalaza who appears on a matter relating to Longile Tabalaza, and the violation is death in police detention.
 Chairperson I gave notice that if we finish those items listed on our proceedings for today, before 6 o'clock, we will submit a supplementary list to you at the appropriate moment.

DESMOND MPILO TUTU: Thank you very much, I want again on behalf of the Commission and in a way on behalf of the Nation, to express our appreciation to all of those who have so courageously and generously agreed to appear before the Commission.  It is not an easy thing to, as it were, open your heart and your soul to all of these people and to the world.  And we thank you for your courage and for your generosity, and we do believe that you are assisting this Nation in the process of its healing.  Thank you.

DR BORAINE: We invite Mrs Beth Savage to the stand please. Mrs Savage, welcome, were very glad to see you here today, would you please stand.

BETH SAVAGE: (sworn states)

DR BORAINE: In welcoming you to this third day of the historic sitting of the Commission, we appreciate that you must be nervous, somewhat anxious, we hope you'll feel very
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relaxed.  We know that you have a terrible story to tell which affected you personally and many people around you.  We know that you were very seriously injured, and we want you to take your time and just tell the story, and to assist you, Mrs June Crichton, will start the questions, thank you.

JUNE CHRICHTON: Good morning Beth, if I may call you Beth, and I would like to welcome as well, your son Donovan with you and Mr Bob Stanford, a friend.  Beth it was a life-changing experience for you, on that day, the 28th of November 1992, and before we start it would be helpful to us, I think, to get to know you a little bit better, would you tell us a little bit about yourself before the event, where you were born, brought up and went to school, just a little bit about yourself so that we can get to know you a bit better.

BETH SAVAGE: I was born in Nigel in the Transvaal.  My dad was the city treasurer there and my mum was a teacher.  When I was 10 years old we moved to Grahamstown where my dad took up the post of assistant registrar at Rhodes university, so obviously I did all my schooling at Grahamstown and University education in Grahamstown as well. Rhodes being the usual marriage bureau, I met up with my husband there, married there, worked there on and off and two of my children were born in Grahamstown.
 I qualified as a librarian and the last eight years have been employed in Kingwilliamstown a the Kingwilliamstown Public Library, I'm the senior librarian there, I have quite a large staff and I find it a very happy, stimulating job. I enjoy the environment and the stimulation that comes from it.

JUNE CHRICHTON: Thank you Beth.  As you begin to relate
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your story, I might need to interrupt you, just to ask a question to elaborate on some particular area.  Is that alright?

BETH SAVAGE: No, that's fine.

JUNE CHRICHTON: Right well would you like to just start by relating what happened on that night?

BETH SAVAGE: Okay, June I think I'm going to need my statement.  I'll just basically go from here.  On the 28th of November 1992, I attended our annual Christmas Party, it was our wine tasting club.  Just to give you a bit of background, it was a very intimate club.  We were like one big happy family, it wasn't a sort of a public get together.  I was accompanied by my friend Bob Stanford and there were about eighty people present. Jill and David Davis, the club leaders made a wonderful job of the golf club hall, in fact it was the first time I had been to the golf club, I'm not a great pub fly or anything like that, and you know, it was actually absolutely magnificent.
 We were seated at one long table, as I'm sitting here, I had Bob on this side, and then next Bob were the Macdonalds. David did his usual thing by coming around and greeting us all and he was squatting, chatting to Bob and I when I suddenly became aware of something that sounded like fire crackers.  I saw Rhoda Macdonald throw back her arms and die and Ian did exactly the same thing.  I swung around to look at the door to see what was happening and I saw a man there with a balaclava on his head but not over his head, with an A K 47 and my immediate reaction was, "Oh my goodness, this is a terrorist attack!"  After that I blacked out and I don't remember anything else until I was on the helicopter being flown to Bloemfontein, when I was aware of 
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somebody telling me, You've been in a terrorist attack and we are taking you to ICU.

JUNE CHRICHTON: May I interrupt here at this point?  Just so that we keep the scene set at the actual dinner that you were at.  When you were seated at that table, you said it was a happy event, were you seated with place cards?

BETH SAVAGE: No, as we each met up at the door we decided where we were going to go, so it was random seating.  There was no organisation so we just sort of sat who we fancied sitting with.

JUNE CHRICHTON: And as the attack happened and you swung around and saw where it was coming from, was the person already in the room, had they stepped in the room, were they aiming at a specific area, do you think?

BETH SAVAGE: No I don't think they were aiming at anyone in particular, you know the gentleman was just in the room and it was I should imagine, completely random, I don't think anyone particular was targeted.

JUNE CHRICHTON: Alright and so you were in a helicopter on your way and they had told you that you'd been in a terrorist attack.  Continue from there please Beth.