Human Rights Violation Hearings — Uitenhage — 1996-08-28

ANDILE PHILLIP BLAAUW: I was a member of Uitenhage Youth Congress of the UDF.  The policemen were harassing me for that reason because all these members of the UDF were being harassed at the time.  Even members of the UDF were being harassed, the policemen did not want to see us at the time, so I slept there in that Nyoga base, and then the following morning, I woke up very early at about six with intentions to go away to the old location, and I walked down the street called Nkulu, past the dumping area and I saw a small bakkie there and I asked for a lift from the driver and there were other comrades who had asked for a lift and we told the driver that we wanted to get to Klapa and he offered us the life.  As we were driving there was a casper that stopped us and we UITENHAGE HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
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were asked to get off this bakkie and we were asked where we were going and we said we were getting to Klapa, the old location.  Then they said to us, No, turn back and go and fight where you came from, then we said, no, we are not fighting.  They then took us by force and put us onto the casper, it was me, the driver and the two comrades and they assaulted us, they tortured us, they took me to a police station in Church Street where I met Germit and other detectives from Uitenhage and they locked me in a cell, and I was there for the whole day and very late at night they took me out of the cell.  There was a policemen known as Pentz.  That was a detective together with Domse and Wimser were their informers, they were not policemen, they were just used by the policemen so they handcuffed me, my hands and also my legs, and they put me into a small office and asked me about Netisi Toto, Brafiks and Inkala.  Then I said I didn't know all those people, then they said you are going to know them, then they assaulted me and put me into a car.  They took me to Sotwai No.9, that is a place in Khayelitsha, that was at night.  When we got there, still handcuffed as I was, there were some people that were dressed in big coats and they had sjamboks, they had some arms with them and they stood in front of this house and Pense talked to the leaders of these people.  
 There was one person who I identified who came to me and said, we have been looking for you for a long time, and the name of this person was Vujanie, I saw him face to face.  The other one who I saw who died was, Julianda Goqo, there was also Kimoti Dandi who was their leader and he was present at the time.  So this policemen said to them that they should assault me, but not hit me on the head, but beat UITENHAGE HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
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me up on the body.  I was still hand cuffed.  They pushed me and I fell down and they beat me with what they had, sticks and all.
 They beat me for a long time, and they put me into a car and a Hippo was following.  They took me to the police station in Despatch.  I was there and I was swollen and my clothes were in tatters.  I was kept there in a cell and after some time, after the whole day because I got there in the morning and I was there in Despatch for the whole day and then late at night, very early in the morning, a Lieutenant came there.  I could see there was a badge written Fouche.  It was quite an elderly man, I can describe him, he was in the company of another White policeman who did not have any pellets.  They had a box of this size which was blue in size and it had some cross marks.  He opened this box and took out a small bottle out of this box.  It was an injection.  All this time I was watching and I felt that perhaps Fouche knew a lot about me and then he took this injection with intention to inject me.  Then I took a blanket to try and protect myself and so he stopped and then he sent his colleague that he should go and get handcuffs and he brought them and I was handcuffed.  They threw me to the ground and that is when they got an opportunity to inject me on the right hand side of my buttock.  They gave me two injections and I was still conscious at the time.  After that I collapsed, I felt dizzy.  
 It was for a long time and then the following morning at 11:00, when I regained consciousness, my leg was numbed, it couldn't function well, it was swollen and I was wondering what had happened and my pants was down.  I saw that I had some holes and it was itching.  There were about 
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five of these holes and then I regained my consciousness and I thought back about the injections that they had given to me.
 Later on, at about 3:00, another detective came, it was a White man from Church Street but I have forgotten the name.  He was in the company of a White female.  They took me out of the cell and they put me into a yellow car and they asked me to lie on the back seat and I did that.  They drove to another street here in Despatch and this was not a police station.  This car reversed into the yard.  There was an old White man with a panama hat on and I could hear them talking on a walkie talkie and then I could make out that I was at no.13 John Street.  I was there for about two hours, in this car, together with these people and after that I lifted my head as we were driving on and I could make out there was 13, and they took me to Kirkwood to hide me there.
 A lawyer came to me whilst I was there in Kirkwood and I told everything to the lawyer.  After that, there were two people who came, one of them was Mayburgh Quitestoutimen, who came from Uitenhage and they enquired to me what had happened and I told them.  I gave them a statement but up to date, I don't know what happened to everything I gave to them, so I pause.

PANEL MEMBER: Thank you very much for that.  That was quite an incredible experience.  I just need to go back slightly just to try and fill in any details.  You were obviously injured, you had this wound to your head, and you were assaulted by the people that you have mentioned.  Did they ever take you to consult a doctor?

ANDILE PHILLIP BLAAUW: No, I never consulted any doctor.

PANEL MEMBER: You refer to a policeman, a Lieutenant
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Fouche, and you said you could see from the name tag, I assume, what his name was.  Now, he administered some or other injection to you, did he tell you what it was all about.  Why he was doing that?

ANDILE PHILLIP BLAAUW: No, he just said to me, dearde gat, because I was saying to him, protesting that he had no right to inject me because he was not a doctor.  Then he insulted me.

PANEL MEMBER: So, what did you understand, that he was going to punish you because you are, "harde gat", as he put it?

ANDILE PHILLIP BLAAUW: Yes, I would say, it was not the first time that they arrested me.  After that incident, of the Ama-Afrika, they had previously arrested me and Fouche had a lot that he knew about me, that is why he called me a harde gat, because it had been several times that he had arrested me.  It is not only because he injected me because I was "harde gat", I think he had these plans even before that, that they were going to do that.

PANEL MEMBER: But, the point is that there wasn't giving you this injection to help you, or to help your medical condition, he was trying to do something bad to you, really?

ANDILE PHILLIP BLAAUW: Yes, it is like that.

PANEL MEMBER: You say that another quite peculiar thing that you were removed from the police station and you were taken to a house in Despatch.  Is it a private home?

ANDILE PHILLIP BLAAUW: Sir, what happened in this house was that is was one of the Streets in Despatch.  They asked me to lie flat on the back of the car.  What I just looked was for the number of the car as I had heard them talking over the radio, that was in no.13 John Street in Despatch where they took me to.
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