Human Rights Violation Hearings — Beaufort West — 1996-08-12

ALWINUS MRALASI: There - let me start off by making a  - giving my story.  We used to help each other.  In 1968, on the 24th  - on a Wednesday - and it was four o'clock in the morning then I was putting one child on my lap.  This child was three years of age and I was trying to put a stove on because it was a very chilly day.
It happened that, whilst I was still trying to set this stove on,  I heard a knock  at the door - on the window - and my wife peeped threw the window and say that it was the police.  And they came in - they were dressed in heavy coats - and they said  Where is the owner of the house?  And then I responded that here I was.  Then they said to the other one  You should keep watch on me.  And then they were going into the bedroom.  One of them tried to pull out the shelve and he emptied the shelve and they started looking at the books that was in the sitting room and also in the bedroom.  And at the time, I was in the sitting room together with the children.  I had 5 children at that time.
Then it happened with time that I asked what they actually wanted from me.  Then they said I would get the information once I get there.  Then my wife asked what is it that I will hear.  Then they said they were going to bring me back.  Then  they said that they are going to take me away - then I asked them there they taking me to.  And I asked them where exactly because I wanted my family to know where they were taking me to.
Then my wife gave me a coat and an overall - those overall known as a Sampson - so I also put on my socks in a disorderly manner and I didn't know why they were arresting me because I - ever since I was born, I had never been arrested before.  And I had never quarreled with anyone in my whole life.  Then I kept on asking them why they where taking me and where they were taking me to.
And I could see that they where very serious and I suspected that something was drastically wrong and I did not even think that it was a - connected with politics.  So we went away and outside I saw there where vans all over - in all the streets, even behind the hill there were many of these vans - police vans - and I just said to myself this was very serious.  So I went out.  They pushed me into the van.  I saw Mr Maroma inside the van - Mr Maroma - I found him in the van and asked why he was there.  And he could not tell.  So the vans drove away to - and these people who arresting us, were very happy and I could - I was suspicious that something was up their sleeves.
But I couldn't tell what it was.  So we drove away until  we got to the Police Station and I saw Mr William Makulani, Willey Manene, Frans Manene.  I also saw Sam Phula and many others.  I saw Willem - Willem Madoena and many others who's names I have forgotten.  There were many of them.
Because we came from a very small town, so there were many of us and we knew each other.  So they took us  and asked us to keep quiet. With - there were many of them - the yard here before the Police Station was just full of people.  Then there was an instruction that two of us should be taken and we should be divided into small groups and then the Police van drove towards Beaufort West.  And got to the Police Station and this white man who were - they were very happy, I could see.  And I kept on talking to myself, wondering that what was actually wrong, but I could not tell what it was.  And then the vans drove  away - some of us were dropped in Oudtshoorn - some were dropped in George - some were dropped in Calitzdorp and I was there in Calitzdorp for 3 weeks, eating porridge they had mixed with salt - a lot of salt - that was watery because I was angry, I would mistake it for sugar.
And they intentionally mixed this porridge with salt and I kept on wondering what actually had we done because I could see this was something very serious.  Right, I was there in Calitzdorp and later Mr Makulani joined me and we shared a cell and I asked him where he was coming from, and then he said he came from Oudtshoorn - where he had been beaten up - and even blood came out of his ear, to an extend that he could not hear properly.   Then I asked him what was wrong.
Then he said no they say we are members of the PAC - of the Poqo wing - then I was surprised.  There were other men who had been arrested with us and they had been taken and made State Witnesses against giving  evidence about us.  And before long Mr Makulani was removed from there and I was left with Mr Maroma.
Two days there after I was also taken to Mr Maroma and we were taken in a car and I had a hope that I was being taken back home because I  had left my wife behind.  Even if it's time to go on. My wife was pregnant - it was just before she was going to get her baby and this what was worrying me most.  So we were taken to Oudtshoorn with Mr Marona and there was a room there of this size.
And there were many men inside - Baadjies was one of them and I asked them what they were coming for - they stated - and I asked them why  they were there and they said  that they were alleged that they had been - they were members of  Poqo.  Then I was called into this room and I saw Mr Nortje who said to me - addressed me Alwinus - and told me that I had been in a political meeting there - in Mr Josezhe's house.
And I asked them since when had that been happening but they - Poqo had been happening in Victoria West.  Then he said it was three years but he had just come - but he knew everything.  So they gave an instruction that I should be taken away and be locked in.  They tried to beat me but I blocked.  So I was locked in back to the cell.  We were taken one by one.  
Amongst us was Willie Manene and Frans Manene.  Then we were taken with George Digeni, Divey Jose, Michael Malala.  We where twenty three in number after they had selected some of us from the group.  Long before anything could happen, we were taken - we're then taken - to Victoria West.
There were 26 of us who were taken to Victoria West and were sent to the Magistrates office.  We were in a file - standing there in a file.  I was the twenty sixth in that queue.  I was standing at the back, so the others went in and I was there standing.  Then Sergeant Vosloo - of Security Branch in Oudtshoorn - asked me why I was standing there.  Then I said that I wasn't thinking of anything but except what they had arrested me for.  Then he asked me to get in.  Then they said our case had been revered to the High Court in Cape Town.  
That is where we are going to appear in Court, so we got into the van, where we found some children and some women who had come to see us and women were crying  - my wife was big at that time, but today she is very thin from suffering.
Because what happened really, made her very sore - her heart very sore.  So we were taken and transferred to - passed Beaufort West we were transferred to - Laingsburg and they said we were going to spend a night in Worcester in a jail called Dronkhel and in Worcester twenty six of us, with other men we found there, we were given accommodation to sleep.  Then the following morning I can point out the way we were handled where as I done nothing.  Then ...[intervention]

MAPULE RAMASHALA: Mr Mralasi, may I just interrupt.  You said the way you were handled - could you be specific about that.

ALWINUS MRALASI: We - it was - we got a very rough handling because all that we're supposed to get we were not - we were denied of.  The elderly ones were put aside then the younger ones were the ones who were being beaten up severally so that should tell lies.  That was the way in which we were handled. Then it became better when we got to Pollsmoor.

MAPULE RAMASHALA: Were  you beaten when you were in Calitzdorp?

ALWINUS MRALASI: No.

MAPULE RAMASHALA: And in Victoria West?

ALWINUS MRALASI: No, even in Victoria West I wasn't beaten.