Human Rights Violation Hearings — Johannesburg — 1996-05-02

DR BORAINE: The next witness to appear before the Commission is Cornish Mmeko Makhanya and I would be grateful if he would come forward.  Mr Makanya thank you very much for coming, you've had a long wait as well and we have had to rearrange the programme because of different people coming at different times.  Thank you very much for being so patient, thank you for waiting.

CORNISH MMEKO MAKHANYA: (sworn states)

DR BORAINE: I want to read just a very brief paragraph about what was happening in 1985 and 1986 when you were detained and you will tell us in a moment what happened to you.  The 1986 state of emergency regulations went beyond even those of 1985 and prevented the dissemination and publication of information relating to police conduct or any incidents which may be categorised as unrest incidents. A feature of these new regulations is the granting of indemnity to members of the security forces against prosecution or civil liability arising out of even unlawful acts committed in good faith.
 Against that background I want you to tell the Commission please, in your own words about your arrest in June 1986 in Lichtenburg.

CORNISH MMEKO MAKHANYA: In June 1986 I had gone somewhere to a little job because I was a member of the SRC from George ...(indistinct), I was working underground, I was in Lichtenburg, I did my job.  At night, I don't remember which particular night, I was asleep, the police came.  They were with my best friend and the police came in first.  In those streets there were no lights, there were cars behind and in front and the police came in and asked who is Mecro?  I opened the door and said I didn't know.  They asked me what my name was and I said it was Noko. There were four of us, four boys who were my relatives and they took us out of the (...indistinct), I was only wearing a DVD and they shined lights at me.  There were two policemen that I knew, I grew up with them, they pointed to another cop and said, who is Mecro, and one of them said it's the one wearing a DVD.  Before he finished speaking I was already on the floor and the police were trampling all over me and asked me where the guns are that I brought with me, AK 47's and grenades.  I told them that why I have come, I regularly come and visit.  They beat me up until I was bleeding and they took me with only this DVD that I was wearing and it was winter time, to the police station. Before reaching it they dropped me off at a street just before the police station and said to me that if don't speak the truth they would do anything they wanted to.
 They took me to the police station in my DVD and there was also another brother of mine Uxalu Pasamisa  ...(intervention)

DR BORAINE: Which police station were you taken to?

CORNISH MMEKO MAKHANYA: Lichtenburg police station.  When I arrived at the police station, my brother was a policeman, he asked what was happening, why are they arresting me and they said that if he interferes, he will also be dismissed from his job, so he kept quiet.  My parents were in Dobsonville. They put me inside the van with what I was wearing and I thought that I had been arrested alone but I found that there were also others who had been arrested, so there were more than fourteen of fifteen people, and they took me upstairs and put me in a room with cupboards ......(end of tape 17)
.... I brought here, they knew that I was coming from Gauteng.  I told them I was visiting this place because every time during school holidays I come to Lichtenburg. 
 The other ones came in, they untied my hands, they said I'm going to speak the truth, during that time I was bleeding.  There was a long stick, they unscrewed it, they said I must sit down squatting with my hands up straight and they asked questions.  I said that I didn't know anything, so they informed me that I will speak the whole night and they took a machine, poured water on me and put a cloth on my breast and a hefty boer started shocking me with electricity. They put on this machine again, that boer said I didn't want to say anything in front of them, he took two chords and connected them to this machine, they put them on my head and poured water on me and put on this machine for a long time and I continued to refuse to talk.  Another boer said, this kaffir doesn't want to talk, we must just kill this kaffir.  Those two police that I was with also knew me and I knew them, they pretended to be going out.  They took off my BVD, they put me flat on the ground as if I was taking a photograph, they put a stick under me which they took and put it between my knees underneath and they took my hands and they handcuffed them, and when I asked them what they were doing, they said I'm talking a lot, I know a lot. They took off all the chords on my head ....(witness upset)

DR BORAINE: Do you want to take a couple of minutes or do you want to continue, how do you feel?  Do you want to continue, alright take your time.

CORNISH MMEKO MAKHANYA: They took those two chords they put them on my private parts.

DR BORAINE: Are you okay?

CORNISH MMEKO MAKHANYA: After that they put this machine on, I got torn underneath.

DR BORAINE: Don't rush, just take it easy and perhaps you could move on and tell us what happened the next day. Why don't we just leave that, you have described it to us and it's very hard for you, perhaps just go on to what happened the next day.

CORNISH MMEKO MAKHANYA: After that I didn't know where I was.  I woke up on the second day when they washed me they washed me with  a hose pipe and I was naked.  They told me that I could go home but they called the boers from Protea, they took me, they gave me over five clouts and they cut my hands and legs.  When I arrived by (Codene?...(indistinct) these were farms and in between them was a railway spoor, it was late in the afternoon and they released me and said I'm free to go home. They said if I go I shouldn't look behind me. I recognised that it was a place that I didn't know and nobody would know, so they arrested me again and put me back in the car.
 When I arrived at Protea they said I must sign forms of releasing me to go back home.  I didn't know anything and I signed. As this was a state of emergency my parents did not know where I was for 14 days.  They put me in a single cell, I was on my own.  Two other boers came at about half past ten at night and interrogated me, asking me if I knew how to use a grenade, which I denied knowing. One of them brought out a grenade and opened it and took out the powder and put it back again and pulled the pin and said I must hold it. They said if I dropped it it would explode.  I asked myself the question how it could explode if there were so many of us including many police. They came back to me and asked if I knew how this thing worked and then took me to the cells and said that I must assist them by revealing the names of other people.  I replied that I didn't know anyone. 
 When I was still there that night the boers were working in shifts, another two came and beat me up in the cell. They took my head and pushed it inside the toilet and kicked me all over with their boots and flushed the water. When I tried to fight back there was another boer, a short one, he had a razor with which he cut my neck and said that even if I died he didn't care. After that I regained consciousness in the general hospital.

DR BORAINE: Can I just ask you a question.  They took you obviously from the police station to the general hospital but you didn't know and you woke up and found yourself in the hospital, were you there as an inpatient or an outpatient?

CORNISH MMEKO MAKHANYA: I stayed there for a long time. I was barely breathing ...(indistinct).

DR BORAINE: Thank you please continue.