Amnesty Hearings — East London — 1998-05-25

MR BOTHMA: Let's get back to or onto Done, what was her relationship with other people, especially once again the black people?

PAMELA MYRTLE MEYERS: Done had grown up on the farm, and as a little girl she played with the black children on the farm.   She also associated herself with the boys that worked on the farm, she would do them favours, when they went to town, she would do their shopping for them, if there were phone calls  and messages to the families, they always went to Done to ask for favours.   Done could speak Xhosa fluently.   I have with me a letter from one of the Transkei milk customers who wrote to her when she went to Cape Town to study for a year.  If you would like to read the letter?

MR BOTHMA: The letter's in Xhosa, Mr Chairman, I don't know if we can use one of the interpreters, it is in Xhosa.

PAMELA MYRTLE MEYERS: It's in Xhosa.

MR BOTHMA: Or maybe you can just give... (intervention).

MR PRIOR: Maybe Mr Van der Zi can read it for us?

INTERPRETER: Mr Chairman, it reads
"Hi Done,
		How are you, are you okay?   I'm all right, there's nothing bad.   How I think of you Done girl.   When are you going to return.   Remember all of us are thinking of you.   We buy a lot of milk.   We buy 200 litres of milk a day.   How is the climate there in Cape Town?   Here in Transkei it's very hot.   Is it nice there at school?   Please study very hard in order to pass at the end of the year.    Thank you very much for writing me a letter.   I apologise for taking time to reply.  Mrs Cochlane said I must pass my regards to you, Mrs Cochlane from the trading stores, Click Trading Stores.   She also said thank you for writing a letter to us.   Please send my regards to your friends.   Hope to see you soon.   Bye-bye, Eunice Mzanza."

PAMELA MYRTLE MEYERS: May I just pass a remark here?   When we - the letter says that "Done, we do "kumbala" you".   That means that we do long for you.   "Sia Kumkhumbula" is what you long for.

MR BOTHMA: Mrs Meyers, can you further proceed and tell this commission how did, first of all, let's go to Mike after he was shot and in hospital, how did it affect him, could he attend to the funeral, how long did he live thereafter?

PAMELA MYRTLE MEYERS: After Mike was shot, he lived for ten days.   He was taken down to the Frere Hospital.   He went through terrific trauma and stress, knowing that Done was dead.   His own physical pain and discomfort of being shot with a shotgun, which didn't kill him immediately, but partly destroyed all organs into which the pieces of shot or bullet came into contact, and gradually they decayed in spite of the medication.   He was distraught that he could not attend Done's funeral, he could not get out of bed or arrange it, the tears would run his cheeks in desperation.   I had to pull out all resources to comfort and to encourage him to get well and to come home.   This was most traumatic for me.

MR BOTHMA: Did you speak to Mike in the hospital... (intervention).

PAMELA MYRTLE MEYERS: Yes.

MR BOTHMA: ...about the incident itself, what happened?

PAMELA MYRTLE MEYERS: He would not speak to me about it, he would just put his arm up to his eyes and he would begin to cry.

MR BOTHMA: Could you stay on the farm after this incident?

PAMELA MYRTLE MEYERS: Yes, I did stay on.   After we had buried Mike, I went back to the farm and I stayed there.

MR BOTHMA: For how long?

PAMELA MYRTLE MEYERS: I came to live in East London in 1995, in January.

MR BOTHMA: And what was the reason for moving away from the farm to East London?

PAMELA MYRTLE MEYERS: I could not stay on at the farm by myself.

MR BOTHMA: Thank you, Mr Chairman, I've got no further questions.
NO FURTHER QUESTIONS BY MR BOTHMA

CHAIRPERSON: Mr Prior?

MR PRIOR: Thank you, Mr Chairman.   Mrs Meyers, is it correct that in the run-up to the hearings here in April, you submitted letters on behalf, that you had received from the Agricultural Union, and those form part of the bundle, bundle A, I think, and bundle B, is that correct, I don't intend to go into great detail, they wrote letters to you and you passed them on to my office, is that correct?

PAMELA MYRTLE MEYERS: That's right, yes.

MR PRIOR: Yes, and they expressed their opinions and there was depositions that were signed by their various members, is that correct?

PAMELA MYRTLE MEYERS: That's right, yes.

MR PRIOR: I just want to touch on one or two aspects of your evidence.    We heard from the applicants, I don't know if you recall, that when they were taking her from the truck to the place where they ultimately killed her, that she was saying, she was talking English, or saying things in English to them.   You've indicated a short while ago that Done was fluent in Xhosa and in fact corresponded in Xhosa to various of her friends.   Are you able to comment at all on that evidence of the applicants that she was talking English to them?

PAMELA MYRTLE MEYERS: I don't think that she would talk English, or hardly think that she would talk English to them when she could speak to them in her own language.

MR PRIOR: I want to maybe ask you, when she left the farm on that morning, did she have a jersey with her?

PAMELA MYRTLE MEYERS: Yes, she had a jersey.

MR PRIOR: Can you remember the jersey?

PAMELA MYRTLE MEYERS: It was a navy blue jersey and it had blue stripes.

MR PRIOR: Did you see that jersey again, that was after the incident, or not?

PAMELA MYRTLE MEYERS: No, I never saw any of her clothes again.

MR PRIOR: Was Done's - did she normally help your husband or her father with the milk round, or the milk route?

PAMELA MYRTLE MEYERS: No, she didn't normally go, she went that day because he had hurt his foot and she said, "Dad, I will help you", because it was a 3 1/2  ton truck and she thought when she got to the shop, it would be easier for her to hop down the steps, go into the shop and return.

MR PRIOR: So are you saying that your husband, Mike, was in some way incapacitated, he had an injury to his foot?

PAMELA MYRTLE MEYERS: That's right.

MR PRIOR: What had happened, do you remember?

PAMELA MYRTLE MEYERS: He had been to one of the dairies in the Elite district and a big spanner had fallen on his foot.   It was on a ladder and one of the boys at the dairy had walked up the ladder to see how much milk was in the bulk tank, and... (intervention).

MR PRIOR: And he'd injured his foot in that... (intervention).

PAMELA MYRTLE MEYERS: And it fell and fell on his foot.

MR PRIOR: To what extent had it injured him or incapacitated him?

PAMELA MYRTLE MEYERS: It was bruised and swollen.

MR PRIOR: And how did that affect his movement, was he able to walk normally or walk swiftly or slowly or what?

PAMELA MYRTLE MEYERS: Yes.   He would walk, he would walk on his heel, he would like swing around, he could not put his boot on, he didn't put his boot on, he just had a sock on his foot when he left the house.

MR PRIOR: So, do I get the impression, and correct me if I'm mistaken, that he walked with, on the heel with diffi... (intervention).

PAMELA MYRTLE MEYERS: With a limp, with a limp.

MR PRIOR: With a limp?

PAMELA MYRTLE MEYERS: Hmm.

MR PRIOR: So was that the first, was that the only day, or was that the first day that Done had helped him, or had she helped him before that particular day?

PAMELA MYRTLE MEYERS: Yes, we had all gone, I had also gone with Mike to sell milk with him, to see the area and to see what was going, and Done had also gone.

MR PRIOR: I get the impression from the evidence that we've heard thus far, is that Done would collect the money, particularly where the milk was being sold in the outlying areas, the people I understand would come with containers, the assistants would then fill the containers, they would then shout the amount of litres or the amount of money to Done and she would collect the money?