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

WITNESS:   They used to wear green uniforms.  I don't know whether they are blackjacks or policemen, but they used to wear green overalls or blue overalls.  That's why we call them blom.  I was taken into the charge office, and when I got there they made me stand right at the corner and they kept on talking to each other.  Whenever I tried to intervene and tried to clarify the issues I was told to keep quiet.  One of the soldiers and put me inside the charge officer, and I asked them as to why I was being arrested, and I had to be formally charged.  I told them that if they wanted to arrest me or put me in custody I had to be formally charged.  And I was worried because I did not have an attorney at that time.  I said to them I wanted to get in touch with my attorney, but I wanted them to tell me as to why they were arresting me.  And one of them said they will not be able to arrest me because I seemed to know too much, I was also talking about attorneys.  Then I was chased - I was told that I should wait outside together with two policemen, and there were KwaZulu policemen inside the charge office.  I stood there up until past 10 or quarter to 11, since they accosted me at about six.  They told me that they could not charge me, and I told them that I wanted to go home.  If they wanted to arrest me they might as well arrest me and detain me, but if they weren't doing that they were supposed to take me back to where I could transport to go back home.  They said that was none of their concern, they had absolutely nothing to do with that, they couldn't take me back.  And I told them that I had been injured and I could not go all by myself.  Then after some time came a certain station commander called Nthanjana(?).  I think he had just come to take his rounds at the police station.  Then he looked at me and asked me as to what had happened, because he recognised me as a Municipality bus driver.  It told him that I was taken by the soldiers, and he asked me what had happened to me because I was bleeding and I was swollen.  I told him I had been assaulted, but I didn't know what I was being assaulted for.  And the other policemen said they should put me in custody and release me the following day.  Then the station commander said to me I should go.  I didn't know where I would get transport because it was very late at night at that time, and Ntuzuma is quite a distance from that place, and there was no longer transport at that time.  He said I should try and ask the police to take me to wherever I was going, but he left me there also.  I stood there waiting for somebody to take  me home.  I could not speak to the police because they were also hungry to assault me.  They said I should wait for any van that was going out so that it could also give me a lift to Ntuzuma.  They never dropped me off at Ntuzuma, but they dropped me off on the main road, and I had to see to finish as to where I was heading to.  Then he dropped me off there and I went on my foot to my place.  My brother said I should go and report the matter to the police.  I woke up the following day and I went to the police station to open up a case with regard to what had happened the previous day.  I submitted a statement and I explained that the police were also there when this happened.  And I went back to work.  I was still swollen and I was still very injured.  When I got to work I related what had happened to me.  I told them that the soldiers had taken me and assaulted me.  Let me just explain my work situation.  Maybe it can clarify as to how I got to be assaulted.  There was a certain union at work.  It was FOSATU, before COSATU came into place.  Then this union was a Municipality workers union.  Now, as drivers we were discussing and saying we should not join this particular union.  I was also assisting in mobilising people to join this particular union, and FOSATU at that time was falling apart, and it was falling under COSATU, and we ended up being members of COSATU.  That is where the whole thing started, because I was also a leader of the COSATU union.  And we were all painted with the same brush.  I think the soldiers were told as to who I was because they came straight to me.  It means they knew me.  Then I went to relate this to Mr Ntenza, who was our shop steward.  That was in Ntuzuma.  I told him what had happened and he also told me that I should lay a charge.  Then he advised me to go and see an attorney.  Here are the documents that I got from my attorney, Martin & Kemp.  We went to Martin & Kemp, and Martin & Kemp took my statement and said he was going to institute civil action against the then Minister of Defence.  I gave him the go-ahead because I also wanted to know as to why I was being assaulted.  My attorney said I should pay if I want to institute civil actions.  I was prepared to pay.  Then he told me to go and take photos as I was as part of the evidence that I was injured. Now, was there any case that took place?   ---   I am still coming to that.  Then I went to take these photos, and these photos were sent to Martin & Kemp, that is my attorney, and he said that he was going to take the statement himself at the police station, he was going to go and fetch it.  And I waited.  Each time I had to pay R100,00 a month.  At times it was R40,00-R50,00, but I was paying him every month.  I kept on paying, and I kept on asking as to the outcome of the case.  At first he told me that the soldiers were not supposed to assault me.  Even though I had sinned or I had transgressed, but I was not supposed to be treated in the manner that they did.  He also told me that his son, Michael, is a soldier, and he was not in the country, he had gone to the border.  Now he said he was going to find out from his son.  He was just conversing with me, just telling me that his son was also a soldier.  I came back the second time now and he told me that I should come with some testimony or evidence that I was assaulted.  He said he wanted some witnesses.  Then I went to get one of the girls who was there when I got assaulted.  And each time I paid, and I kept on asking him as to how my case was.  He kept on telling me that he had sent some letters to the Minister of Defence.

UNKNOWN: I want to disturb you just a minute.  Just tell us the outcome of the case.  What happened at the end of the day?

WITNESS:   No, I don't know what happened, because I paid but nothing came out of the case.  I was never paid.  The case was never finalised.  He came to me and told me who am I to bring civil action against the State, but I told him that he has taken the case initially and he had advised me to institute civil action. Let me just ask a few questions to try and clarify the matter, because this seems to go far beyond what we think it is.  Are there any other drivers who were also harassed and tortured just like you?   ---   I wouldn't know, because thereafter I stopped working for the Municipality.  I was taken by certain investigating officers from work, and they took me to another police station.  They told me that I had killed a certain man by the name of Cy.  They said I had shot him whilst he was watching TV in his house.  And I was taken by the police.  I told them that I did not know anything, and they told me that I was going to speak the truth.  I told them that they should just kill me because I hadn't done any of the things that they were accusing me of.  Mr S A Dlamini, who said I am the one who had killed that person, was called by the police.  They made him sit behind the door, but I could see him through the space between the door on the wall that there was somebody behind the door.  There was Mike Gcabashe.  And I was released thereafter, but the police said that they were coming back to me because they knew that I was one of the gang members.