Human Rights Violation Hearings — Ladybrand — 1997-06-25

WITNESS:   He was the managing director.  They took me to Park Road Police Station.  They took my belt and the shoe laces, then I was put in a cell.  I didn't know what was happening.  When I entered the cell I found Mhlapo there, being alone.  We started to discuss.  Then he told me where he was found.  Then I told him that they found me at a certain place.  Whilst we were still there they - it was in the evening and we didn't know what was happening, and in the morning the Security Branch picked me up to their headquarters in Fountain Street.  When I arrived there they put me there, but they were not talking to us.  Around 9 o'clock a certain man whose rank then was the warrant-officer - I just forgot the surname.  He holds Mhlapo with his moustache.  He said to him, "You, Mfazwe."  The other ones reprimanded him and say, "That's not the one."  He looked at me and say, "I thought you are a cannibal."  Then he went outside.  Then Jacobs entered.  He picked me up from that cell whilst I was still with Mhlapo, he took me to his office.  Whether it was his office or not I don't know.  He took me a photo.  He made me to stand against the wall and took me a photo or photos, then from there he said to me I should tell him the truth what I am doing at work.  Whilst I was still listening to him he said to me I should tell him the truth what the ANC is teaching us to do.  During that time I didn't know anything about the ANC, I knew about UDF.  I said to him, "You must ask me about UDF, not ANC, because I don't know anything about ANC."  That is when he started to beat me.  He tied my thumb and tied it with my leg and he installed the electric wires and shocked me, and then I began to be numb on my right side and on my lower part of the left side, because maybe according to him I was not responding the way he liked.  He tied my two hands between my legs.  He put two chains(?), then put a stick and performed a helicopter method so that I should linger around, and that made me hurt on my shoulders and on my lower limbs.  Maybe he felt that I am not feeling anything.  He released me there.  He brought a tyre tube which was cut.  He was together with a black man then.  This black policeman he tied that tube on my nose and my mouth and then tied it so that I should not be able to inhale and exhale.  During that time I became - the whole body became numb.  From there I don't know what happened.  I regained conscious when he hit me with an elbow.  I only saw when he hit me with his elbow on my back, then I fell on the ground again.  The other one reprimanded him and say I should be left alone.  I heard that noise, then I was taken back to where Mhlapo was.  A certain black policeman arrived and took me and made me - they took my fingerprints.  Then they asked me as to whether do I know where I am going.  I was informed that I was arrested under emergency regulations.  They took me to Grootvlei Prison, and that is where I was detained.  After spending a day at Grootvlei Prison the Jacaranda or IBL management arrived.  There were three of them.  That's Mr Joubert, Mr Basson and Mr Ferreira.  Mr Joubert read me a letter which notified me that they have terminated my employment because I didn't come to court, and again I didn't come to work.  What about - I didn't know anything about the case, and that letter explains again that they give me three days to lodge an appeal, and then if I don't lodge an appeal against that expulsion they know that I have forfeited everything.  Because of anger I was frustrated, and then they left.  After four days that is when I felt pains.  My body was beginning to get swollen.  I didn't get any medical treatment at all.  I tried to meet the doctor in prison.  I think on the 16th of that month, that is October, that is when my lawyer arrived.  That is Advocate Dita Galegi(?).  We explained to him what happened and the kind of torture, and that I was not allowed to see the doctor, and then again I was not allowed even to have medical treatment.  On the 26th of that month, which is October - on the 26th of November Jacobs and others arrived to take me to Pelonomi Hospital.  When I arrived there the doctors examined me and then they said I should undergo operation the following day.  On the 27th I went back to Pelonomi Hospital.  I requested one of the policemen so that I should telephone home so that I should notify my wife.  My second child was born on the 1st of November.  I didn't even know that I had a baby.  I only saw when they arrived with her on the 27th before I underwent an operation.  I underwent the operation and returned.  I had a problem at the back.  I asked the doctor before he made an operation, then he said if they don't see anything then they will notify me later.  Then they said they have removed - they removed bad blood, or some lumps in the body.  Then they said I should stay in the hospital.  They notified me that the Security Branch said I should go back to prison.  The doctor arranged for a discharge from hospital to go to prison.  For the second time when I arrived in prison - and it's Jacobs who took me back to prison - they gave me extra blankets so that I should sleep comfortably.  When I separated with Jacobs on that day he asked me what is my problem, but I said to him, "The problem I have, you are the cause of it."  Then I said to him again that that was the end when you beat a black person.  After he left me in prison when he entered the road the truck - they collided with a truck.  Then this Jacobs was injured.  He's now confined to a wheelchair.  Even now he is confined to a wheelchair.  That is the first part of what happened to me.  I was released the following year on the 1st of April after I completed six months in detention.  When I was released I couldn't go back to work.  The trade union decided that I should be an organiser of that trade union.  The case continued, and the person who was handling that case is Galegi.  I was defeated for the appeal to go back to work because the period has expired.  He tried to find all the documents at Pelonomi Hospital and then he continued with the case until I was detained again for a second time in 1988, when I was taken back to Grootvlei Prison.  I was just taken, there was no question or information.  They just say the Minister of Law and Order, who is Adrian Vlok, instructed them that I should be taken back to prison shortly.  The unrest had just begun in Botshabelo about the incorporation of Botshabelo to Qwa Qwa homeland, and we as the youth were against that incorporation.  Many things happened there in terms of conflicts.  Then I was then informed that Adrian Vlok had instructed that I should go back to prison.  That's in 1988.  I was told Mr Galegi has died.  This was very surprising because Galegi was the only person in charge of the comrades.  I request the TRC to investigate this issue, because we once tried to talk to his wife but we were not successful.  His wife was a Dr Hlongwane.  After his funeral there were problems.  We didn't have any lawyer to attend to us.  On the 28th of December in 1988 we took a decision while in detention.  While in detention we took a decision to embark on a hunger strike.  We demanded our release.  This hunger strike was referred ... (intervention)

CHAIRPERSON: You say "we."  Who were the other people?