Human Rights Violation Hearings — Witbank — 1997-06-05

DR RANDERA: Can I please call Joseph Buhali to the stage.  Joseph, good afternoon.

UNKNOWN: Good afternoon.

DR RANDERA: I'm glad you we found you and thank  you for coming.  Joseph you are taking us back to 1976.  A year that has gone done in our history already and will of course continue to be part of our history, a very important year because we saw the uprising in Soweto in 1976 and of course ...  Are you okay Joseph.

UNKNOWN: I'm okay.

DR RANDERA: Thank you.  The aftermath of '76 was felt throughout the country and of course internationally as well.  You have come to talk to us of what happened to you in July of 1976 and Mr Hugh Lewin is going to be helping you as you tell your story but before you do that, can you just raise your hand and take the oath.  Mr Malan will help you.

MR MALAN: Mr Buhali will you swear that the testimony that you will be giving will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God.

UNKNOWN: (sworn states)

MR MALAN: Thank you very much.

MR LEWIN: Mr Buhali will you be speaking in English or Zulu?

UNKNOWN: Zulu.

MR LEWIN: Zulu.  Can you hear clearly through the earphones?

UNKNOWN: I've go some difficulty.

MR LEWIN: Swikele could you help please?

INTERPRETER: I would suggest that we tune into Channel Two for the speaker.

MR LEWIN: Can you hear the translation now?

UNKNOWN: I can't hear.

MR LEWIN: Swikele, could try putting them on yourself?

INTERPRETER: The witness is on Channel Three and he would rather have Channel Two, English interpretation.

MR LEWIN: He wants to speak in Zulu.  How's that?  Is that clearer on Two?  Did you say something?  Okay, is that clearer now?  Okay?  Are you comfortable, Mr Buhali?

INTERPRETER: We can proceed.

MR LEWIN: Can we proceed?  Thank you.  Mr Buhali, as the Chairman has said you'll be taking us back to 1976 and specifically July 1976, the month after the events in Soweto.  I'd just like to confirm that you yourself do actually come from here, from Lynville?

UNKNOWN: I come from Lynville.

MR LEWIN: And you'll be telling us about the most dreadful torture that took place when you were actually nineteen as I understand it.  You were nineteen at the time, is that correct?

UNKNOWN: Yes, I was nineteen.

MR LEWIN: Okay.  Could you please, in your own time and your own words, tell us what happened?

UNKNOWN: On the twentieth of May 1976 we had Black Power here in Witbank.  I was working for the hospital and the kids came at about three and told me that the violence had erupted in the location.  I knocked off at half past four.  I was with David Nbenegazi, my friend.  We were walking when we came across a group of youths throwing stones.
 On Friday the 23rd, at half past four, the police came to my work.   Juza Sithole and another White policeman and Juza approached me and said, JC, my nickname is JC, he would like to question me with regard to the Black Power and they took with them.  When we went towards the White hospital they used their telephone in the car and spoke about something.  When we got the Medical Centre we got out the car, now we have Cosmos offices there and I found a man waiting for me there and he said to me, you are a preacher's son but you are full of nonsense and they handcuffed me.  He made it so tight that I felt pain and he took me into a room and kept me there.  
 At about six they took me out of that room and showed me three other students, George, Jeremy Mabeni and Makuskus Nkosi.  They had injured them with their handcuffs as well.  They told me that if I don't want to tell the truth, they will torture me.  They took me back into one room where there was a CID by the name of Skusana and they tried to strangle me.  They tortured me and also covered my face so that I don't see anything.  There were some chemicals that they inserted as well so that I'd suffocate and they told me to sit down.  I told them I can't sit down because I can't see anything.  They entwined my feet and made me carry this heavy wood with my right hand.  That's the fashion they tortured me in.  They asked me if I was an ANC member and they asked me if I knew anything about the Black Power and I said, no.  They opened my stomach, they cut open my stomach.  There was Olivier and Mashlango who is late.  He was interpreting for me whilst the other White man was talking in Afrikaans.  They asked me if I knew anything about Black Power and I said, no.  They burnt me on my neck and on my testicles as well.  They said if I don't want to tell the truth and put the truth on the table, I will regret it.  
 I heard the door open and I wondered what they were up to them.  They asked me if I was ready to say something and I said, there is nothing that I know.  They also burnt me on my testicles again and I urinated on myself.  The other three that they showed me,  Makuskus is my relative, she's my cousin.  When she saw me she screamed and said, why do you torture him that way?  They kicked her as well and I was taken into a dark cell in isolation.  
 On Saturday they took me to the district surgeon, Doctor Joint who gave me some pills to take.  On Monday I was taken to the Court of Law and the case was remanded and I was sent to Paxton.  They fetched me on Thursday but they didn't torture me then.  They even bought me a packet of cigarettes.  They were adamant, wanting me to tell them what I knew about the Black Power and they wanted Papa Roy.  I knew Papa Roy and the other three boys.  I've forgotten their names.  I heard Papa Roy and those boys.  They thought I was an ANC member or I was part of the Black Power.  They wanted those boys.  
 I was acquitted and they left me alone after that.  I was suspended for not being at work.  I lost my job, especially because my boss at work was influenced in one way or the other.  I only have Standard Eight.  That's all I want to say.

MR LEWIN: Thank you, Mr Buhali.  Could I just ask some questions of clarification.  In your statement you say that when they came to ask they wanted to know whether you were a member of ANC or UDF, ANC/UDF.

UNKNOWN: That's correct.

MR LEWIN: This was '76.  Was UDF around those days?

UNKNOWN: To my knowledge, no but they asked me if I was an ANC or UDF member.

MR LEWIN: I know it must be painful going back over it but if you could just give us some details.  You say that your face was covered with something.  What did they actually use to cover your face?

UNKNOWN: It was a pantyhose, black pantyhose,  a stretching fabric.

MR LEWIN: And they put that over your head?  What were these chemicals?

UNKNOWN: I think the cloth that they covered my face with had that chemical in it because each time I tried to inhale I would suffocate.  I even think it smelt like snuff.

MR LEWIN: Yes.  You also talked about them cutting open your stomach.  Could you explain that?

UNKNOWN: As I was hanging, there was this heavy wood on my right hand and I just felt when ...  They did not cut my stomach open but they pulled my shirt so that my stomach was exposed to them.

MR LEWIN: I see.  You say you were burnt.  Did they burn you on your stomach as well?

UNKNOWN: I was burnt, both on my stomach and testicles as well and again on the neck.

MR LEWIN: You mention in your statement about being kicked.

UNKNOWN: Yes.

MR LEWIN: At some stage you talk about being spun round.  What actually happened there?  Can you tell us?

UNKNOWN: Skosana put that sack around my face and started spinning me around and assaulting me.  That's how they were able to tighten this cloth on my neck and I suffocated.

MR LEWIN: You said that you knew Skosana?

UNKNOWN: I knew him.

MR LEWIN: But Mashlango is now late.

UNKNOWN: He has since died.

MR LEWIN: And Skosana?

UNKNOWN: I've seen Skosana some time this year.  He's still around.

MR LEWIN: In the police?

UNKNOWN: Still with the police force.