Human Rights Violation Hearings — Durban — 1996-05-09

DR BORAINE: Mr Chairperson, the next witness is Mr Haroon Aziz and I will invite him to come to the witness stand, please.  Mr Aziz, I'd like to welcome you this afternoon to the Commission and to thank you for giving up the time and being willing to come to us and to tell your own story.  The year that you are going to go back to is 1974/1975 and, although it's over 20 years ago, I'm quite sure it's still very vivid in your mind, because of what happened then.  Before I ask you to tell us a little bit more about that, would you please stand for the swearing of the oath.

HAROON AZIZ: (Sworn states)

DR BORAINE: Thank you very much indeed.  Mr Aziz, it's my task to ask you to tell your story and then perhaps to put some questions to you.  From time to time I may interrupt you, but only in order to make sure that I understand but, as far as possible, I won't.  Could you tell us just a little bit about yourself and then in your own words and your own time tell us what happened in 1974.  Thank you.

WITNESS:   May I just go a little bit behind 1974?  My first arrest took place in 1964.  It was for a few hours at the Berea Police Station.  In 1965 I joined Umkhonto we Sizwe and I led a major student demonstration in Stanger and also I ran the underground structure for the ANC in Stanger and I was also part of the sabotage unit, and during this student boycott I had painted some slogans, which at that time was considered sabotage.  I was arrested and interrogated for almost a whole day in 1965 and thereafter the special branch were regular visitors to my home.  In 1971 when Ahmed Timol was arrested and killed I was also subject to police special branch scrutiny.  That was in 1971.  In 1974, on the 28th 13B/4 September, I was arrested under the Terrorism Act, section 6, and I was taken to the Fisher Street headquarters of the special branch and there I was photographed, fingerprinted and verbally abused.  Thereafter I was kept in a prison cell in Greenwood Park Police Station.  That was on a Saturday, and on the Monday my interrogation started.  It used to usually start at about half past eight in the morning and last till about four in the afternoon.  At this time the interrogation - during this time of the interrogation there was no physical torture, just mental torture, and for two weeks I was interrogated and obviously the police were not happy with the answers that I gave to them and then they decided to torture me physically and there was a ritual to the torture the police used to do, and that was to force me on to the ground with my - both my hands and my feet and they used to tie my shoes around my neck and the interrogation used to begin and, in order to extract the information they were looking for, they used to quite often grab me by my head and bang it against the wall.  Then the other form of torture that used to take place was they used to make me sit on what they used to call an invisible chair.  An invisible chair is you pretend that you sit on a chair, but there's no chair there, and you hold your hands out and you flick your fingers.  They interrogate you and you have to answer the questions and this invisible chair position was quite close to the wall, but not - I wasn't allowed to lean against the wall and in front of me one of the special branch policemen used to hold a knife at my navel, so as to prevent me from falling easily to the ground and if they were not satisfied with the answers I

DR BORAINE: /used to

DR BORAINE: 3B/6 used to give, from time to time they used to hit me on my penis, sometimes squeeze it, and it used to be very difficult to fall down, because of the knife in front, but eventually, when I fell, I was kicked and this kicking used to go on and I used to scream and shout and they used to laugh at me like mad hyenas and once I had gone unconscious and after that I decided that I should lay a charge against the policemen, for whatever it was worth, and I complained to the station commander that I was assaulted and then he reported the matter to the head of the special branch and the head of the special branch scolded me.  He said I was lying and he said I should disclose the information they wanted, and the information they wanted was admission that I was part of Umkhonto we Sizwe, I was a member of the ANC and the South African Communist Party, and at that time I was in charge of the library of the SACP and they wanted to know where I used to hide it, and they also wanted me to admit all the sabotages that I had committed over the years, and after laying the complaint they took me to the district surgeon and the district surgeon examined me while my interrogators were present in his surgery and the district surgeon took samples of my blood.  Apparently he suspected that my kidneys were damaged, and up to now I don't know the result of that blood test, and when I was taken back to Fisher Street, in the lift I said to the policeman that one day when they'll become our prisoners we will treat them with compassion and they laughed at me.  They took me upstairs and they beat me up for that and then they said there's a very high-ranking policeman in the next office.  I should go to him and lay a formal charge with him.  So

DR BORAINE: /I was

DR BORAINE: 13B/8 I was taken into the next room and made a statement to the policeman and he asked whether I wanted the special branch to be charged.  Obviously I said, "No, I don't want them charged", and then after that the interrogation, together with this torture, continued for about another week and, because I was trained in counter-interrogation technique I realised that they knew very little about me and then I decided to make a statement to them, which, to me, was just political fantasy, and after I had made my statement they were still not satisfied and they started interrogating me on the basis of the statement that I made and that interrogation lasted for something like four months.  That was from September to round about January and after that I was transferred to Norwood Police Station for a while, in Johannesburg, and then to Pretoria Central Prison, where I was kept for nine months altogether.  That's what I have to say.

DR BORAINE: Thank you very much for a very clear statement of what must have been a terrifyingly brutal time in your life.  I have only got a few questions, because you've been so clear, but just to make sure that I understand.  You spent a few weeks in the Greenwood Park Police Station, where you were not physically abused, but mentally tortured?

WITNESS:   That's right.

DR BORAINE: I'll come back to that, but just so that I'm clear, when they started the physical torture were you still at Greenwood Park or were you back at Fisher Street headquarters?

WITNESS:   No, no, the Fisher Street headquarters were - that's where the interrogation took place, but the police station is where I was detained.

DR BORAINE: Okay, so they took you there every day and then back  /again.

DR BORAINE: 13B/11 again.

WITNESS:   Every day.

DR BORAINE: Now, I think some of us are aware that the Government, in their determination to overcome resistance to their system, introduced a number of laws.  There was first the three months and then six months and then, under section 6, of course, you could be held forever and, under the State of Emergency, they could lock you up and throw away the key.  You were there for nine months.  You mentioned the mental torture.  Can you describe for us, if you would care to, any of the after-effects after that very long time in solitary confinement and how you feel today?

WITNESS:   Yes, after my release I never trusted any white man and I looked at every white man, especially in safari suit, as a special branch person.  It took me a very long time to overcome that and I think I've overcome that now.