Human Rights Violation Hearings — East London — 1997-06-11

CHAIRPERSON: We will ask Vuyani Mngaza to come forward.

ADV SANDI: Number.

CHAIRPERSON: Number ten in our list.  Welcome Vuyani Mngaza.  You will be 
sworn in by Reverend Xundu so that you can give your evidence under oath.

VUYANI MNGAZA: (Duly sworn in, states).

REV XUNDU: Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Mr Sandi will lead you in evidence.

ADV SANDI: Thank you Mr Chairperson.  Mr Mngaza, your story goes back a long 
way, from 1960, actually 1963, being tortured, being ill-treated, you lost your 
business.  We were in great debt and so forth.  Let us start as thus, Mr Mngaza.  You 
were a PAC member in 1963?

VUYANI MNGAZA: Yes Sir.

ADV SANDI: Arrested because you were active in the PAC military wing?

VUYANI MNGAZA: Yes.

ADV SANDI: Bhoqo, was it a PAC wing?

VUYANI MNGAZA: Yes.

ADV SANDI: Let me hand over to you.  Could you tell us your story without 
interruption.

VUYANI MNGAZA: Thank you Mr Chairperson.  In our, I will start with the 1963 
incident so that we can hurry.  I was arrested on the eighth of April 1963, arrested in 
the morning at two am, having completed a task force function in the Transkei.  We 
were all over Transkei, but the Security Branch officers were following us.  We got to 
my business place.  Some Comrades were left behind.

ADV SANDI: Are you talking about your garage?

VUYANI MNGAZA: Yes, Pan African Motors at that time.  My duty, especially in 
underground operations of the PAC, I had to co-ordinate our activities from Maseru 
to Cape Town.  As I had a business they would send the Comrades to me.  I would 
help them as much as I could in whatever they needed.  We did a lot of work in my 
garage, making firearms, because as PAC members we were going to start a 
revolution in 1963.

ADV SANDI: Without disturbing you, what kind of weapons are you talking about?

VUYANI MNGAZA: Pangas and weapons that were going to damage the Security Forces, 
because we were going to fight them.  We wanted to liberate our people from the 
oppression of the Boers.  We did our work.  We had to co-ordinate sending weapons 
all over.

ADV SANDI: You were arrested in that process?

VUYANI MNGAZA: Donald Card came at two am.  He arrested me from home.  Some, 
he missed some Comrades that were in my garage sleeping.

ADV SANDI: Is this the time you ended up in a seven month detention in 
Cambridge?

VUYANI MNGAZA: Yes.

ADV SANDI: In those seven months did you go before the Court of Law?

VUYANI MNGAZA: Yes, twice actually.  They kept on postponing the case until we were 
granted bail.  There were other Comrades that I had worked with.  They divided us.  I 
was in solitary confinement.  My, the charge was then withdrawn.

ADV SANDI: You were re-arrested.  When was that?

VUYANI MNGAZA: After my case had been withdrawn I was led by Card to a 90 day 
detention.  The Law had just been established.

ADV SANDI: Are you saying that you were the first victims of the 90 day detention?

VUYANI MNGAZA: Yes, we were the first victims.

ADV SANDI: What happened at the 90 day detention?  Could you tell us about the 
form of torture you experienced.

VUYANI MNGAZA: After they had taken me from Fleet Street Charge Office I was taken 
to the Cambridge Police Station.  On the way, it was Sergeant Card who was in the 
car.  I do not remember the others, but I think Scheepers was there.  They asked me to 
work with them.  They offered me everything including a passport.  I said I could not 
do that.  Nobody was ever a policeman at home.  I was not going to be a policeman.  
They put me in solitary confinement in Cambridge.

ADV SANDI: How long were you detained Mr Mngaza?

VUYANI MNGAZA: I was in solitary confinement for a week.  They would call me in 
during that week.  They would interrogate me in connection with the work we were 
doing.  They were not satisfied, because I was not divulging anything.  They were not 
pleased at all.  On the second week I was taken to the Charge Office, taken by Donald 
Card together with four other policemen, White policemen.  There was a fifth one, a 
Black man, Chikila.  I was interrogated on that day.  Taken to another room in front, 
ahead of the interrogation office.  They kicked me into the room.  I was assaulted on 
that day.

ADV SANDI: The doctor you saw whilst in detention, what was his name?

VUYANI MNGAZA: Before I was taken to the doctor, because this doctor I was taken to 
was from Queenstown Mental Hospital.  After I had been beaten up I was charged at 
Fleet Street.  They said that I had hit policemen.  What is strange, the Magistrate never 
asked why my face was so swollen up.  He just committed me to Dubangeni Mental 
Hospital in Queenstown.

ADV SANDI: Had you made a request to the Magistrate that you want to be sent to 
Dubangeni?

VUYANI MNGAZA: No, they just said that the police said that because I was in solitary 
confinement I went insane and I fought the police.  Therefore, they said that I was not 
mentally stable, I was deranged, this is why I was supposed to have fought the 
policemen.  I was examined by a doctor, I was not examined by a doctor, I was just 
sent to Dubangeni Hospital for 28 days.  It is there that I was examined by a doctor 
from the mental hospital.

ADV SANDI: Who was the Magistrate presiding?

VUYANI MNGAZA: I did not know him even then, but I remember at the time, that 
should be available at, in the records.

ADV SANDI: I would like to hear more about this Dubangeni business.  You were 
sent to this hospital, a hospital for the mentally deranged, because you fought against 
the police?  You were discharged from Dubangeni.  Did you go to any legal 
representative?

VUYANI MNGAZA: Before long Dr Robbinson realised that I had been beaten up by the 
Boers.  He said that he would not make me stay there, because I was clearly not 
mentally ill.  I had just been beaten by the Boers.  They said, he said that they should 
leave a security man, because they are not going to keep somebody who is not 
deranged.  He wrote a report that I had been beaten up already, because he did not see 
any, could not detect any mental illness.  My attorney, Kannemeyer from 
Grahamstown, wrote to the Security Police that I should be taken back to Stutterheim 
Prison for detention to complete my detention period.  I was taken into a cell with a lot 
of lice.  I spent two nights there.  They took me from there back to Cambridge Police 
Station.

ADV SANDI: Did they beat you up again?

VUYANI MNGAZA: No, what happened is they took me again to court and they 
withdrew the charges of assault.

ADV SANDI: Did you take any steps claiming, because you had been ill-treated by 
the police?

VUYANI MNGAZA: Yes, after the 90 day detention.  On the 19th day I was called and 
released.  I laid a charge opening a civil case, having been harassed and assaulted by 
the security.  Nothing came of this case, because they were handling it in any case.

ADV SANDI: In 1964 you made a request for a passport to leave the country.  Are 
you, were you talking about an exit permit?

VUYANI MNGAZA: Yes, I applied for a passport.  They refused.  I, when I wanted to 
find out what the reasons were for the denial they would not disclose them.

ADV SANDI: Then in 1967 you were arrested for sabotage?

VUYANI MNGAZA: Yes, I was arrested again for sabotage, membership of the PAC, 
suppression of communism.  There were a lot of charges laid, a long list it was.  I was 
taken to the Supreme Court in Grahamstown.

ADV SANDI: You were in detention for three months

VUYANI MNGAZA: Yes, solitary confinement in Grahamstown.

ADV SANDI: When you appeared in court you were sentenced.  What happened?

VUYANI MNGAZA: My case lasted a week.  It was supposed to have lasted longer as 
there were many charges.  However, it collapsed after the first week, because of the 
cross-examination made to the chief witnesses.  It was evident that lies were told about 
me.