Human Rights Violation Hearings — Uitenhage — 1996-08-26

MZUKISI PETROS MAPELA: I was able to go back to work, but it became apparent that my employers did not want to accept me back because of my hearing problem.

MS MAYA: So, you lost your ability to earn your own living because of your injuries?

MZUKISI PETROS MAPELA: Yes, that is correct.

MS MAYA: At the time you were injured, were you married?

MZUKISI PETROS MAPELA: Yes, I was married already.

MS MAYA: Do you have any children, you and your wife?

MZUKISI PETROS MAPELA: Yes, we do have children. Three children.

MS MAYA: How old are they?

MZUKISI PETROS MAPELA: One is 10 years old, one is 8 years old and the other one is 7 years old.

MS MAYA: How do you survive at home, how do you make ends meet, since you don't work. Is your wife working?

MZUKISI PETROS MAPELA: My wife works. Yes she works.

MS MAYA: All in all, your wife supports you and your children because of the injuries that you sustained?

MZUKISI PETROS MAPELA: Yes, that is correct.

MS MAYA: Is there any assistance that you receive from the government in the form of a disability grant or anything?

MZUKISI PETROS MAPELA: No. As I said to you Allen Greenstein used to help me, but I never received anything from the government. The only money that I ever received was from the SACC after I was released from prison.

MS MAYA: Thank you very much Mr Mapela.

CHAIRPERSON: The Commission feels very strongly about the fact that the police who are responsible for much of the atrocities have been paid enormous amounts of money, either severance packages or as retirement grants etc. "Golden Handshakes" as Ms Tiny Maya is reminding me.
 I sense that the witness feels very strongly that that money should be re-appropriated to people like himself, who are the victims of the atrocities of those policemen.
 I wonder if you could put through a question to him, to establish what his attitude is on this matter, so that it is on record.

MS MAYA: The Chairperson explains that you are not happy with the manner in which policemen who were responsible for the assaults on you and things like that and your loss of hearing were the ones who received huge sums of money. The Chairperson also said that he understands that you have a wish that these funds should be re-directed because these policemen are basically being paid for the evil deeds which they did - that these monies should be re-directed to people such as yourself, so he would like your opinion on that so that it can go down on the records of the Truth Commission.

MZUKISI PETROS MAPELA: For example, in the de Kok case. De Kok was given R1 m by the government - as a donation - and now that he has been arrested for killing people, even now he is being defended by the government and rumour has it that the government has spent R3 m on his defence, that means that the government has spent R4 m in de Kok's defence and we, the victims of people such as de Kok, it is difficult for us to even receive 10c.

CHAIRPERSON: Pumla, I wish to thank you first for the service that you have rendered to our hearing, especially by leading the witness and I wish to ask you to conclude by thanking the witness on our behalf, and also to mention to the witness that we have noted the fact that he has mentioned Dr Laing as one of the doctors who failed to live up to what he expects of a doctor when he was in detention.
 Could you inform the witness that it is the intention of the Commission to hold a special hearing, where we will call people who are mentioned in our hearings in this manner and ask them to account for what they did or did not do so that we have got a clearer picture of these events. 
 Could you also mention to him that we have noted his request that we convey his thanks to Dr Carsten and to Dr Greenstein who rendered, Dr Carstens rendered him free treatment when he was requiring one as a result of this injury and Dr Greenstein offered him financial assistance. We will write letters to these people and thank them for these kind gestures.