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

YASMINE SOOKA: Cynthia, at the time when you were staying with your mother before this happened, were you working at the time?

MS MORAKE: I wasn't working.  In the previous year I left school and I was schooling at Wolmaransstad.  The school ended with Std 8. They did their Std 9 and I couldn't further my studies because my mother is just a poor woman.

YASMINE SOOKA: Do you work now?

MS MORAKE: I am not working.

YASMINE SOOKA: Does your mother support you?

MS MORAKE: Yes, she is supporting all of us.

YASMINE SOOKA: Tell me, in your statement you talk about the policeman who took you, as being Piet Scheepers, and in your mother's statement she mentions the name of a policeman called April, who also assaulted you. Is that correct?

MS MORAKE: That's correct, April assaulted us at Stilfontein.  When they released us, and told us to leave on foot, we met him on our way. He was driving in a van and we wanted to run away. He stopped us.  He said you must tell my family at Makwassie that April has died and he has been killed by the comrades.
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YASMINE SOOKA: (Speaker's mike not on).

MS MORAKE: At the Coloured area near Klerksdorp.

YASMINE SOOKA: Do you know whether this April still works in the police force?

MS MORAKE: I do not know, I since last saw him on that day.

YASMINE SOOKA: Thank you, Cynthia.   Mamma, Morake, do you want to add - sorry, Cynthia, do you want add anything to what you have said?

MS MORAKE: Are you referring to myself or my mother?

YASMINE SOOKA: Cynthia.

MS MORAKE: I just want to thank the Commission, because we have been keeping these things to ourselves.  We couldn't expose the kind of life we used to lead.  Maybe after taking out this whole thing I will be very relieved.  I thank you.

YASMINE SOOKA: Mamma Morake, do you want to add anything or are you happy with what Cynthia has said?

MRS MORAKE: I just want to add to what Kedibone has just said.  These things happened a long time ago and I am a bit forgetful, but she told me about the torture at Stilfontein, how they were poured with water.  But there is another man called Thomas Mogatse of Makwassie who passed away.  He was not a policeman, he was just a worker.  But he was one of those people who was taken to point out our children. I was so scared of the police. I didn't want to say anything to the police. I just asked them what did she do.  I said to them she was not present as they were chanting songs, because I was scared, I thought they would hit us all in the house.  I don't want to say anything further, because she experienced the trouble from home to Stilfontein.  And I want to thank you.  And I want to thank you for your presence today.   We, for the first time we listen to
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ourselves, but you know as I saw you, I got scared, because you know, we still have that legacy of being scared of people.  But I want to thank you that I took out this heavy burden.  May God empower you to help people in this country.  Thank you.

YASMINE SOOKA: Thank you, Mamma. Before we let you go I am going to ask the other Commissioners if they want to ask you questions.

DR RANDERA: Kedibone, you said that there was no organisation in Lebaleng, but on the day that you were arrested, the young people were singing songs in the street.  What was that all about?

MS MORAKE: There were no organisations, they were just singing.

DR RANDERA: Was that usual?

MS MORAKE: No, it was the first time.

DR RANDERA: Were they celebrating anything on that day?

MS MORAKE: I don't remember, I can't even tell, but there wasn't any celebration.  They passed in our street singing and thereafter it was quiet and we went into the house and we were relaxing.  This thing started in the evening when we saw lights going off.

DR RANDERA: And all the questioning at Makwassie police station and at Stilfontein police station, at Makwassie I think you said that the people had balaclavas on, but they were big, heavy men, White people.  Were they asking you to admit to something, did they accuse you of doing something?  What were they torturing and assaulting you for?

MS MORAKE: The cause of the assault, I think, was just the freedom songs.  I think the singing led to our assault.

DR RANDERA: Do you know what they were after?  Or were they
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just trying to teach you a lesson for singing freedom songs?

MS MORAKE: I do not know.

DR RANDERA: You said that out of the group of young people that were arrested that night in Lebaleng, you were first taken to an open area.  It was June and June is a very cold part of our year.  How long did they keep you out in the veld or in the field?

MS MORAKE: What do you refer to, Sir, when you are saying the open field, what do you mean?

DR RANDERA: Sorry, you said to Commissioner Sooka earlier on, that when they picked up all these young people, before they took you to Makwassie police station, they took you to an open field.  Is that right?

MS MORAKE: Lebaleng is the name of our township.  They took us from the house and they took us to the office at Makwassie.  Lebaleng, I was referring to the township.

DR RANDERA: Thank you.  Now with all these young women who were there, was there any other form of torture that they used against you?

MS MORAKE: No, they only assaulted us an poured water over us.

DR RANDERA: And then at the end of that period, did I hear you rightly, that you were in Stilfontein.

MS MORAKE: Yes.

DR RANDERA: They just said to you get out, find your own way home?

MS MORAKE: That's what they said.  And before they could release us, they assaulted us. I think each girl got five lashes and each boy got ten lashes and thereafter they said go.

DR RANDERA: Can you give us the names of any of these other KLERKSDORP HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
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young people?

MS MORAKE: Yes, I can give you the names.

DR RANDERA: When you give your statement to the statement-taker, will you please add those names?  Thank you very much.

YASMINE SOOKA: Piet?

PROF MEIRING: Kedibone, only one question.  You said that you still have continuous headaches and your health is not very good, but you do not have work.  If work is found for you will you be able to work or are you unable to work?

MS MORAKE: I think I can work because it doesn't attack me every time, it is just on occasion.

CHAIRPERSON: Kedibone, I would like to thank you and your mother for coming here today to share what happened to you at your township with us.  We hope that we are going to move towards a future where we can rely on those who are meant to protect us, to actually do so.  We are sorry that at such a young age you had to go through what you did, because there is no doubt that the beatings have had an effect on you, as well as the treatment that you were given.  We are grateful that you have given us the names of those who were involved in this, and the Commission will be investigating that.  Thank you for coming today to share with us what happened with you.
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