Human Rights Violation Hearings — Ermelo — 1997-05-22

MR MKHIZE: I was with my father and we requested to see the Station Commander of the Piet Retief police station.  I don't remember his surname.  We reported to him.  My father spoke to him at length and told him that he should see to it that the matter proceeds further and that I should not be tortured or asked any funny questions.  I submitted the statement and my father left me with the Station Commander and told him what happened to me.  Even the police were there.  When I came to submit the statement on the Monday, we got the police who had attacked me before and they drove to my place and they got my mother at my place.  They said they'd come to drop off my clothes because I had left them in a taxi that was from Swaziland.  My mother took a list of the things that they had brought and asked them who they were but refused to identify themselves.  She, however took down their number plates.

DR RANDERA: Now, the police that you identified, the statement that you made, no court case was ever held.  Am I right in believing that ?

MR MKHIZE: No, nothing came out of the case.  I was never called to court.

DR RANDERA: You did, or your mother subsequently did take civil proceedings against the Minister of Police at the time.  What was the outcome at the time ?

MR MKHIZE: I know absolutely nothing.  I submitted a statement to the Station Commander and I went for an identification parade.  They only brought two policemen but all in all there were ten and the two that they brought were not involved.  One of them was just asking me questions as to where I lived in Swaziland and whether I had a permit, residence permit in Swaziland and he wanted me to tell him at length what I was doing in Swaziland but he never laid a hand on me.  He never assaulted me.  I pointed the two out but they didn't assault me.  That was the end of the matter.  It never proceeded any further.  I even pointed out the forest where they assaulted me and when we got there we found out that the forest was no longer there but there were farms there or gardens.  That was the end of the matter.

DR RANDERA: Bongani, I have a document with me which shows that your lawyers actually did sue for civil damages.  You may not know this.  The Ministry did take responsibility whereas your lawyers were asking or a certain amount of money.  They didn't fulfill although they accepted responsibility, they did not pay the sum that was being demanded.  They paid a much lesser sum.  Did you know about that ?

MR MKHIZE: No, I have no knowledge thereof.

DR RANDERA: Bongani, in your statement you also say that Nofumela and Coetzee were part of the group that took you out of the taxi and then subsequently were involved in your torture.  How did you come to find that out ?

MR MKHIZE: I discovered that when I read from the Sowetan when Nofumela was testifying to the effect that they abducted me and he described the torture in detail.  He even mentioned my name.  That's how I came to know that Nofumela was one of them and that's how I came to know that this White policeman who was taking me out of the cell on Sunday and told me to pick up my clothes and he asked me whether I knew him.  I told him that I did not know him.  He told me his name but I do not recall what he said but I remember that his surname was Coetzee.  He asked me when and where were we going to meet.  I told him that we were going to meet in heaven because I saw no reason for him and me to meet.

DR RANDERA: Did you see photographs of Coetzee also at the time because as I understand it, Nofumela, and if I can just inform everybody, you're referring to Almond Nofumela who was part of the Vlakplaas unit and so was Dirk Coetzee.  Dirk Coetzee did not apply for amnesty for your torture.  Are you sure it was Dirk Coetzee.  Can I just add another point here please and you may be completely and absolutely right, as we understand it again Dirk Coetzee left the Vlakplaas unit in around 1982.  That was the time that he was beginning to break from that unit.  As you know he subsequently gave a lot of evidence to the Harms Commission.  I'm just wanting to ask you whether you are sure that it was Dirk Coetzee who was involved in your torture ?

MR MKHIZE: According to what he said to me I have forgotten the first name but I am sure about the surname.  He said his surname is Coetzee.  Nofumela is the one that I'm very positive about because he described the torture in detail.  That made me positive because anyone who didn't torture me wouldn't have known how I was tortured.

DR RANDERA: Bongani, my last question to you.  After the torture were you able and also as I said earlier on, your father died two months, not much longer, two months after this horrific incident you were involved in.  Two months later he was shot.  Were you ever able to finish your schooling ?  Tell us what has happened to you subsequently, as a  person.

MR MKHIZE: I wasn't able to continue with my education.  I had to stay at home and look after my mother.  I didn't get any support or any financial means to further my education and I do get some temporary jobs from time to time but it's nothing solid that I can hold on to.  So I just survive on peace jobs.  I never went back to school thereafter.

DR RANDERA: And your mother, what's happened to her ?

MR MKHIZE: My mother got a job at Gigi and she's working at Nelspruit.

DR RANDERA: Thank you, Bongani.

MR LEWIN: Tom Manthata ?

THOMAS MANTHATA: Bongani, would you say that the police stopped harassing you after making that statement ?

MR MKHIZE: No, they never harassed me thereafter.

THOMAS MANTHATA: Thereafter, were you staying at home with the family ?

MR MKHIZE: Yes, I was.  I was staying at Driefontein.

THOMAS MANTHATA: Where you part and parcel of the Driefontein Commission that was resisting resettlement of removal ?

MR MKHIZE: It's my father who was resisting the removal and he was actually spearheading the movement against the removal of the people.

THOMAS MANTHATA: My question is not whether you were a leader but whether you were in that community and part of the community that was resisting to be removed.

MR MKHIZE: Yes, I could say that.

THOMAS MANTHATA: Would I say you were at the gathering where you were confronted by the police to disperse ?

MR MKHIZE: No, the only meeting that I went to was when my father died.  That's when a Boer or a policeman came and said we should disperse because it was an illegal gathering and my father told him that he had convened the meeting and that he should not disperse the people.  That's when the policemen started assaulting my father.  He hit him with a fist and when the people tried to intervene, my father told them to stop and the White policeman went and took out a gun.  He shot my father.  That's when my father died.

THOMAS MANTHATA: That's the gathering I'm referring to ...............  Thereafter, the death of your father remained on most, the problem first and foremost to the family.  Am I correct ?

MR MKHIZE: Yes, it posed a problem because we do not know why my father was killed.  There was absolutely no reason.  We don't know why he was shot.  It's still a mystery, even to-day we haven't got answers to our questions.

THOMAS MANTHATA: Where you the eldest son in the family ?

MR MKHIZE: Yes.

THOMAS MANTHATA: Which means, as you put it, it's still a problem right now.  It's more on your shoulders.

MR MKHIZE: That is true.

THOMAS MANTHATA: At community level, what became the rule of your family after the death of your father ?

MR MKHIZE: My mother is the one who was attending meetings and she was also talking on behalf of the community of Driefontein.  I could say she was a leader of the community of Driefontein.

THOMAS MANTHATA: If I heard you well Paris, it seems most of the people who were torturing you even trying to overrun you by car, were Whites ?