Human Rights Violation Hearings — Klerksdorp — 1996-09-24

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: They came there from everywhere, I just saw cars and streets packed with people and after the bomb, and I was standing there amongst them, and they didn't care what they said and they just said - and I heard a lot of things they said against myself and my family.

ADV POTGIETER: What sort of people was it, was it Black people or White people, or what, what kind of people were they?  What section of the community did they come from?

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: It wasn't the Black people.  It was definitely not the Black people, the Black people, my parents came up to me and they put their arms around me and they said we will do it again, you don't just drop us now.

ADV POTGIETER: How did you manage to get out of that situation, to rebuild the school?
KLERKSDORP HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
10 H DE KOCK

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: At that stage the antagonism of the town turned against us severely.  People started drawing up petitions and we did not know whether we are going to survive it.  The telephone would ring and somebody would pick up the telephone and say hello and they would say "you know you and your family are the greatest rubbish born on this earth, we are going to kill you" and they would just plonk the telephone down again.  I mean, they wouldn't care if your child picks up the telephone.  They would say the same thing to your children.

ADV POTGIETER: What language were these people using?

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: They were using English and Afrikaans. I suppose they used languages that I would understand. Now to say here that I am Afrikaans-born, I am born to an Afrikaans family and my home language is Afrikaans, and I don't know how I skipped the brainwashing of my upbringing. I think it was my father that was a very open man and I was brought up in a home where all people of all nations and races were welcome.  We ate together, and I grew up in Natal so I wasn't really aware of the hatred of the Transvaal.

ADV POTGIETER: Now I assume you managed to rebuild the school.

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: We, not completely yet, we had to move to the showgrounds where they asked a tremendous amount of money to be there under harsh circumstances. Nobody cared.  Everybody hoped that we would not survive it.  The German Trust stepped into the situation and they gave us bridging funds to restore the classrooms, and we could never restore the hall.  The ruins are still standing there, as a testimony.  Everybody that pass it, hates it, but I can't help it.

ADV POTGIETER: Your school is carrying on?
KLERKSDORP HEARING TRC/GAUTENG

<UNKNOWN>: H DE KOCK

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: The school is carrying on in spite of - it carried on illegally at stages, it is still carrying on and we bought a lot of erven around us to expand the school.  We are almost serving 500 children right now.

ADV POTGIETER: And you have maintained the status of the school as a multi-cultural, inter-denominational school?

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: Yes.

ADV POTGIETER: Catering for children from all backgrounds.

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: Yes, all children are welcome to come there, but all children do not come.  It is, I so hoped in my heart and it is still maybe a dream and a vision that people will in this country be so reconciled that we would take hands together and say listen, we are going to uplift one another together, and I am not going to separate myself from the realities of this nation.  But still it is very difficult for me to draw the White children into that school. Maybe because of the history.
 There is another thing that I have got to mention here.  People in the Afrikaner sector does not care what your beliefs really are. The minute that you differ from them, they label you, they call you names and they call you a Communist.  If you have been called a Communist by the Afrikaner community there is no way back.  There is no way out of it.  I mean, you are labelled, you are different and you are (indistinct).  We had to learn to live within separation.  In the apartheid time they had this home arrest.  I know what it means to be under home arrest through a community up to this day.

ADV POTGIETER: Now was there any indication who was responsible for this incident? Was there a police investigation? I suppose you did lay a charge, you took the
KLERKSDORP HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
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matter to the police?

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: Ja, the people remain faceless up to this day.  I suppose it wasn't important enough to find out who it was. I would love to know who it was, not to hate them, to face them. I know that the country is going through changes and I know that the hearts of people can change. I believe that that is the only hope for our nation. I would like to see people like that, to find out whether they have come to their senses.

ADV POTGIETER: But there doesn't seem to have been any progress with the police investigation?

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: Not at all, it has just dropped into thin air.  There is just nothing happened about it.  Up to this day.

ADV POTGIETER: And how do you feel about that and about what happened?  Because this seems to be such a senseless incident?

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: It is senseless.  It showed me what is in a little person that carries a vision and ideals, and I know that every person in this nation that can carry an ideal and a vision and that has got a burning desire in their hearts, to love and to share their lives with others, will come out and survive.  Hatred will destroy us. I had the opportunity to hate, I had the opportunity to be violent, myself, and I know that I cannot sometimes correct the circumstances or a life is not always spared through us, but I know I can choose my reaction and in spite of whatever has happened in the past, I want to love people and that is what I am born to do and that is what I am going to do.  And I want to restore dignity in people and that is what I am going to do. I want to see a South Africa with such great self-respect, because Africa is also waiting to be restored and we are
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responsible.  That is what it has done to me. It has given me such a great vision and a heart for people, that I do not regret what I had to go through.

ADV POTGIETER: Mrs De Kock, thank you very much for sharing this terrible story with us.

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: I just want to say something else.  I still have problems with the town council. I tried to reconcile with them many times.  It cannot happen for some or other reason. They have got this unrealistic conditions, I received from them in a letter again.  I cannot adhere to it and so they will just keep on keeping back the fact that I can be there and that I can consolidate the grounds and that I can use it in a proper legal way. I cannot understand why it is so, but it is just happening still.  I thought it is going to change, but it is not really changing.

ADV POTGIETER: But I think the message you have got for them is that won't put you off track.  You seem to be committed to your ideals, at least.

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: But it makes things very difficult.  But I am going to make things very difficult for them because I have just got to go ahead and I have got to tell them that, that I have got to go ahead, I cannot stop now. If I have to wait for them nothing will happen, so I am not going to wait. It is not because I want to be rebellious, it is because I have got to do what I have got to do.  If I did ugly things, if I tried to destroy the people, I could have said yes, punish me for that, but I am not doing that, and that is why I am not going to wait.  Thank you.