Human Rights Violation Hearings — Messina — 1997-04-08

MR MORABA: I was arrested in 1991.  They were suspecting that I'm one of the people who had burnt down Mr Pop's house.  What had actually happened was that I was off-loading the beer truck in Mr Scheepers's bottle store.  There was a smoke.  It was almost like a two kilometers away.  That's when we saw the smoke going up.  We got on top of  a big truck.   And we looked further away where there was smoke and we could see that the burn, the house that was burnt was Mr Pops' house and on the very same night, the police came and they were together with the soldiers.  They came in a Hippo.  They came to arrest us.  We were forcefully taken away.  They didn't even explain anything.  They just put all of us on top of the Hippo.  It was me and my brother but now my brother is not here.  He's in town.  But I could see, recognize other boers were there.  It was a, it was Abe Middelkamp who, and Mr van Niekerk and Durandt.
       They took us to a firm which is called Embarren.  I don't know what was known for.    It wasn't yet developed at that stage.  And from there, there  were Citi Golfs.  They were private cars, these Citi Golfs.  That's where they covered our heads, like when they were hanging a person.  The kind of things that they would put on top of the person that they hang, so that we would not see where  we were being taken to.  It was I and my brother, Baldwin and Mandaho.  There were also other people who had been arrested but we were all separated into these Citi Golfs and they took us but through my cover, the sack that they put me, I could see a bit.  It wasn't, it was a bit visible.  It wasn't very dark.  From there we were taken to some farms on that side but  I don't know the place but when I explained to my brother what kind of a farm, he knew who's farm it was.  That where we were taken to and then we were taken off the cars from the, there was something made of  wood there.   It was something like the kind of thing that will grip the hook, that will grip the sheeps and then they put me on top of that thing and they were still had this thing covering my head and I also heard a chain and they pulled up this chain, pulled it up, high up and they climbed up on a ladder and they came to beat me up on that ladder.  Even at that stage they'd not explained to me why they were beating me up but they started beating me up and they said I must tell the truth but they wouldn't even give me the chance to speak but they were beating me up, say I must speak the truth.  And I said to them, I'll speak  the truth but I didn't even know what truth I would speak.  I just wanted them to let me go and I wanted to understand why they were beating me up and then they released the thing and said, speak and I said to them, please, tell me why you're beating me up and why have you brought me up here?   And they said, you know what you did last night.   To them, to-night, I said, yes what did you do?  They said, you burnt down Mr Pop's house and I said, who were there and at that time when Mr Pop's house was burnt, I was not even present during the burning of the house.  I was off-loading beers.   And that was the time, my uncle, the late Chipa had died and that's why those people burnt down Mr Pop's house and because they said Pops is the one who had killed my uncle Chipa but I was beaten up and they press me down, up until I fainted.  I was beaten all over and when I came around and I got up, they said, speak the truth.  And eventually I was forced to just give them the names of people  I knew but I didn't know if those people were involved in burning down the house.  I just started speaking all the names I knew and I used, I told them the names of the police, of the policemen children.  Thereafter, they released me and I was very powerless.  I didn't have strength.  They took us and took us, I think it's to Sanlam,  I think that's the police office there.  From there we didn't sleep.  We were taken to Louis Trichardt at the parking and I think it was about four o'clock that time.  When we arrived at the parking there were some taxis and there were also a lot of other people who had been arrested, like Pumzele Masiti, Baldwin Iglet and I cannot remember others but there were a lot of us there but they didn't want me to get of the Citi Golf to be with other people.  They kept me alone because they, while we were still at Louis, they discovered that those people had been arrested were the policemen children, so they ar, released them and they let them go.  
 From there they repeated the things again and they, then they said to me, you knew who'd burnt down the house and I knew I had not done anything.  Even if they'd beat me up, I kept on telling them that whatever they're forcing me to say, it will be lies because I could  not force myself to say something I didn't know.  There was another boer there but I don't know his name, I, but they were boers from Pietersberg and Louis Trichardt.  They were all together but the only people I knew, were the ones, the three name I told, I knew so......   Then they came and asked me, Barend Sty, Strydom, they, if I knew him.  I said, yes, I know Barend Strydom.  They said, yes, he killed sixteen Kaffirs.  Because I was also annoyed, I asked them if they knew .Mtetelele(?) and Zondele(?)  They said they didn't want to talk about nonsense.  I said, to-day you will see.  I asked them about the Rooi-nekkers and it was not the only ones.  So, they got angry and took me away.  There was a Captain and a they put me in front of a taxi and kicked me all over and from there, and they bought food and this time we'd not eaten but they bought the food and ate it themselves and the left-overs, they gave them to us but I refused to eat and my friends whom I was with, had been arrested with, they ate the, the left-overs but I was so angry, I couldn't eat and I was angry because I'd been arrested, being innocent and being tortured.  
   And from there they realized that I was very cheeky.  They took me to the Louis Trichardt police station.  They first asked me questions.  I don't know who this person was with, it was a CID but it was a White person.  He  said to me I must make a statement.  He wasn't requesting me to told me a statement, he was ordering me to make a statement and he said, explain.  So I explained the very same thing that I'd  explained before and after, when I finished my story, they said, that's shit and he folded.  He said, now, tell me the true statement of how you burnt down the house.  The main thing that they wanted was that I accept or acknowledge that I bunt the house even though I did not, so that they could find me guilty.  That was the only thing that they wanted from me.  From there they realized that they were failing so they tied me with irons and burnt me and they put another metal and hung it on top and they put electric wires around me, around my hands with a masking tape and they started shocking me with electricity and then I fainted.  I did faint there when they were shocking me with electricity.  
 From there they took us to Pietersberg.  The other people didn't know what was happening to them.  At that stage, I was very confused.  I didn't know what was happening.  Things were very tough for me.  Well, they took us to Pietersberg and others were dispersed and taken to other different places but I, I can't remember the names of pl, places but I do know the place.  I think I stayed there for about three days or a week.  I wasn't eating.  Since they'd arrested I was not eating anything.  I think they got scared about that and eventually they took me back to the trial and from there they started begging me and asking me what I wanted and they promised that they would buy anything that I requested and they said this government's money.  I must just request anything I wanted.  I didn't make any requests from them but they bought cigar and magew and other things and gave them to my brother, Baldwin.  My brother was eating and then we went to a trial.  
 We came to the trial here in Messina.  From there, there was Mr C.J. Bester who was the Prosecutor of the Magistrate, excuse me.  He postponed the case, remanded the case and I requested dole for a free bail.  I also wanted to press the charges against the people who were beating me up and he said to me he'll call Incatha to come and discipline me.  He said he'll call Incatha with knopkierries to come and discipline me and he ss, talked quite a lot and some of the things he said, I cannot remember them.  It was in that time then, the issues were, were actually exposed in the Sowetan newspapers.  We did get the free bail through the lawyers and eventually I was discharged.  Nothing went ahead of the case but I was very angry why they refused me to press charges against them because they abused my life wrongly.  This is why I have come here to the Truth Commission so that I could relate this.