Amnesty Hearings — Johannesburg — 1998-09-17

NKOSINATHI MPUMELELO MVIJANE: After the arrest, the police retrieved the gun that I had thrown under the car seat.  They realised that this was the gun that belonged to the traffic officer, and they asked us whose gun this was.  Nobody owned up to the gun and that's when they started assaulting the taxi driver who referred them to the passengers and said, "You should ask the people at the back", and there's another guy who was assaulted and he was innocent, but he was just sitting in front of me, that is the seat in front of mine.  The person was assaulted until such time that he told the police and he pointed me out as the person who had put the gun underneath the chair and that was true, I'm the one who put that gun underneath the seat.  They also told the police that there were the three of us.
	They identified us and the three of us were taken and put into a blue Jetta.  It was a police car.  We were taken to a certain police station.  I'm not able to distinguish between the Moroka Police Station and the Jabulani Police Station, but we were taken to one of those police stations.  There we were further assaulted and told to tell the police as to where we got this firearm.  We ended up confessing and explaining to the police that the gun had been sent to us or we had been sent by Moss to go and get the gun from a certain traffic officer, and the police wanted to know as to what position Moss was in or what was he to send us to go and get a gun.  We explained to the police that he was a member of APLA and they required us to do a pointing out.  
	We proceeded to Pimville.  I knew that we could get Moss at a certain place and I pointed the place out.  I further requested the police to take me out of the car because I did not want to be seen pointing out and I knew that something was going to happen when we got to Moss' place or Moss' hide-out.  And the police were quite shocked by my statement and they never stopped in front of the hide-out, but they went the opposite direction and parked at a certain corner, and they told me that they were not going to release me, they opened up the boot of the car and put myself and Lulamile Khwankwa inside the boot.  And the car was started and went slowly down the street and stopped at a certain house.  I could hear them shutting the doors after them as they were getting out of the car, together with Doctor.  
	After a few minutes, though I'm not able to say how many minutes, I could hear gunfire which I could identify as coming from an AK47 and there were some bullets that hit the car as well as the boot of the car whilst we were inside, and I started praying inside the boot because I was scared to death.  And I was scared that Moss would probably throw a handgrenade in the car.  The gunshots went on and we could hear the police gunfire, because at that stage I was able to differentiate between an AK47 and the police guns.  After some relative quiet I heard a big or loud explosion which I thought to be a grenade.  
	Thereafter I heard some AK gunfire from a distance and at that stage I thought or realised that he was probably running away and they were chasing him, that's why the gunfire was getting fainter and fainter.  I realised thereafter that I had been shot on the leg and the police threw me out of the boot.  There was a black policeman who is a Sotho speaker, who said, "Here's your person, he's dead now".  And the police dragged me and when they dragged me I saw Doctor lying in front of the gate.  At that stage I do not know whether he was dead or alive.  They dragged me into the ambulance together with one black policeman.  I was taken to the Baragwanath Hospital.  
	When I got to Baragwanath there were already policemen there.  They were not more than 10.  Some were lying on the stretcher, quite a number of them.  The police with whom I arrived told the nursing sisters at Baragwanath that these are the people who are killing the police and the nurses asked me as to why we were killing police.  I denied any knowledge of that allegation.  I was treated by the nursing sister.  I was treated with a certain spray or certain medication and given some tablets.  I was dressed and transported to the Kliptown Police Station.  I spent the night there.  The following morning I was assaulted.  I was kicked and I was bleeding at that stage.  I tried to put on my left shoe.  My foot was swollen.  I could not wear any shoes and I was taken to the offices at the second floor.  That's where I came across some women from the house or the hide-out where Moss was.  As to why they were there I have no idea, but we were put in vacant rooms.  Murder and Robbery police from Protea were also present.  They asked me from my ...[end of tape].  That is when the severest of the assaults started.  We were taken into a Husky police minibus, a blue one.  
	We were transported to the Protea Police Station where we were put into a certain hall.  There were a lot of policemen there, as well as traffic officers.  We were questioned and assaulted at the same time.  They also used some wheel spanners to assault us.  I ultimately had to admit that I shot the traffic officer.  They wanted to know as to who took the gun.  I told them that it was Doctor, but they did not believe me, they said I was talking "shit", and I was actually painting Doctor black because he could not speak for himself, he was dead.  I ended up saying it was Lulamile who had taken the traffic cop's gun.  A question from the police with regard to money came.  They also questioned us about a wristwatch.  I never answered any questions with regard to that because we never robbed the traffic officer.  
	Even if I knew something about it, I wouldn't have admitted it because I had been a criminal before and have been involved in criminal activity.  We were taken, that is myself and Lulamile who had also confessed to having taken the gun, we were put into different cells.  A few days thereafter I was taken.  I was tubed, electrocuted so that I could submit a statement to the police.  The first statement that I submitted was true, but in the middle of the statement they rejected whatever was said.  They kept on saying that I was talking "shit", and I was going to speak the truth.  That's when I started lying because I wanted to satisfy them as well as save my life, because we were being assaulted severely.  
	In that statement I also said I had shot a traffic officer because I had been promised some money and they asked me as to who promised me money.  I told them that Moss had promised us a sum of R1 800 for killing the traffic officer.  When I told that lie I could see that the police were not satisfied that I was a hired assassin.  I was taken to the Brixton Murder and Robbery Squad where they told me that I was going to submit a statement to the Chief Magistrate.  He was a white person and I don't know whether he was an Englishman or an Afrikaans-speaking person.  This person reprimanded me that I was to speak the truth and only the truth.  
	I started off with the truth and when I got to the middle of the statement with regard to the payment, I tried to avoid the payment portion and this Chief Magistrate said, "You are now starting to speak 'shit', and I'm still going to call the people who assaulted you before to come and deal with you", and that dawned on me that he had already been told about me.  I continued with the lie of being paid or having been promised a sum of R1 800.  And I continued to submit a lie of a statement.  Thereafter I was transported to Protea where I was put in a cell.

MR MBANDAZAYO: Thank you.  Thank you, Mr Mvijane.  Mr Chairman, that's the evidence of the applicant.  Thank you.
NO FURTHER QUESTIONS BY MR MBANDAZAYO

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Mr Mbandazayo.  Thank you.  Mr Mapoma, have you got any questions?