Special Hearings — Prison Hearings — 1997-07-21

UNKNOWN: I'd like to give you a copy of the report which was ... (tape blank)   We were not told how badly Braam was being treated while he was ill because we only at that stage were getting information from him and he always tried to underplay what was happening to him but when we had two visits with him some weeks apart, on both he was on crutches and in great pain, we realised that he just wasn't getting treatment.  I'd like to read a bit from that statement because it's what actually happened at the time.
 Braam had had a prostrate operation in July 1974 and about two months after that he saw a Doctor Brand because he had an acute pain in the hip.  He was not examined but he was given an analgesic and some physiotherapy.  After two weeks with no relief, the physiotherapist referred him back to the doctor and suggested X-rays or an orthopaedic opinion, nothing however was done.  The pain was so severe that Braam needed crutches to walk.  The prison didn't supply him with crutches so the other prisoners made a crutch for him out of a broom.  Later he was provided with crutches but he still wasn't sent for X-rays.
 In October a Doctor Groenewald sent him for X-rays and later in that month Braam saw an orthopedic surgeon who warned that the neck of the femur was very fragile and that a fall would be dangerous.  On the 6th of November Braam fell while trying to shower on his crutches.  On the 7th of November he asked to see a doctor who didn't come.  On the 8th of November he again asked to see a doctor but the medical orderly said it was impossible to get a doctor.  On the 9th of November Braam was in great paid and the medical orderly provided some analgesics.  On the 12th of November Doctor Brand said there was no fracture.  I don't even think he did an examination but Braam was still in tremendous pain which continued onto the 13th and the 14th.  
 Finally on the 15th of November nine days after the fall, Braam again saw Doctor Brand and an X-ray was at last done.  The radiographer identified a fracture of the femur.  On the 16th of November Braam was seen by a specialist who confirmed the fracture and advised hospitalization.  On the 19th of November, thirteen days after the fall and probable fracture and four days after the fracture was diagnosed, Braam was eventually admitted to the H.F. Verwoerd Hospital.

MRS SEROKE: How long did Braam remain in the hospital for this treatment?

UNKNOWN: ... (tape blank)  and then for treatment, he was returned to the prison in a wheelchair and just left in the wheelchair.  The other prisoners just came across him.  He, as we later discovered had secondaries in the brain so he was quite confused and they had just put him in a wheelchair in the middle of the prison.  For the next forty eight hours Dennis Goldberg, at his own request nursed Braam, looked after him.  He persuaded the authorities to let him stay in the cell with Braam who could do nothing for himself and Dennis nursed him for forty eight hours.  He was in great pain, he was feverish and confused.  He didn't see a doctor during that period but eventually on the 6th of December he was re-admitted and then he stayed in hospital and got proper treatment.

MRS SEROKE: What happened when he died?

UNKNOWN: Finally he was let out of the prison although he was not released from prison.  They turned his brother's home in Bloemfontein into a prison and that is where Braam then spent the last couple of months of his life.  When it became clear to us that his death was very near, we kept asking what the position was going to be, what could we do when he died and they wouldn't tell us anything.  All they told us was what we have to do is the moment he dies, we must inform them.
 On the 8th of May when he died, we let them know at once and within half an hour prison authorities were there with a list of conditions.  The conditions included that if we wanted to have a funeral it had to be in Bloemfontein, it had to be within a week and if there was a cremation the ashes would be retained by the prison authorities and that is indeed what happened.  There was a cremation in Bloemfontein within a week but we never were given the ashes.

MRS SEROKE: So even in death Braam was a threat to the security police?

UNKNOWN: Yes a threat.

MRS SEROKE: And even his funeral couldn't be conducted at home, it had to be in Bloemfontein and his ashes were confiscated.  We know that when families cremated their loved ones they would like to keep their ashes but even his ashes could not be given to the family.  I find that very gruesome.

UNKNOWN: It was very difficult and they never told us anything about it, it was only in the new democratic Parliament when people were asked questions on our behalf, that we were told the ashes had been scattered about a year after Braam's death by the prison authorities in a place of their choice without anyone informing us.

MRS SEROKE: So that was only after twenty years that you knew what happened to the ashes?

UNKNOWN: Yes.

MRS SEROKE: I can only say that it's amazing how your family went through such things and I know from the little I know about you that you were brave throughout and you continued following in Braam's footsteps.  I also know that Ilse once disguised herself to take out a famous wanted man Sikile Bam, dressed as a farm labourer to cross a road block and we are very, very proud for what Braam stood for.  I'm sure that today you are also proud that you could share this with so many people here, thank you very much.

DR BORAINE: Just before you leave, could I just find out if there are any other questions, Hugh?  Tom?

THOMAS MANTHATA: I have no questions except to say I wonder how many books are written about Braam, such that generation after generation will read and be proud of Braam Fischer.

DR BORAINE: Thank you, Mr Lewin?

MR LEWIN: If I could ask just two questions.  I know a re-burial is impossible but is there any request that you as a family have for us to try and facilitate or assist with, what do you do, how do you re-scatter ashes because it is a request that comes from numbers of families?

UNKNOWN: We've never thought about that because as you say it's almost an impossibility although Patrick Lekota, when he was Premier of the Free State had suggested that they might name a garden or some such thing in Bloemfontein after Braam which we thought would be a very nice thing.  Braam was particularly interested in gardens and nature so that perhaps a memorial of that sort that other people could enjoy, would be very fitting.

MR LEWIN: Is there a plaque already which notes actually where he was buried?

UNKNOWN: Apparently according to the newspaper, there is in the Bloemfontein garden of remembrance just a little brass plaque that gives his name and his date of birth and date of death.

MR LEWIN: What about the actual record, the medical record that you have, fairly clearly is there anything that you want us to do, in your statement you talk about us subpoenaing the doctors.

UNKNOWN: I suppose really what we want is that it shouldn't happen again and that if by doing something now one can prevent it happening again, that is really what we would want.  What we would like is to find out is what happened to Braam's personal effects because we did write to the prisons and never got any reply from them.  We know that the letters he received and things like that were never kept.  Dennis Goldberg told us after he was released many, many years later that he had in fact packed them up and that they were kept together so we would very much like to have those.