Human Rights Violation Hearings — Mabopane — 1997-05-08

MR MOKOENA: If I get a new employment the police would phone my employers and then immediately I would be dismissed. Whilst we were working and somebody asked me many questions then he said I learned many things from you long ago, then I asked him one question I said do you think that poison would come from your stomach then he kept quiet.

RUSSELL ALLY: For how long did this harassment go on? Can you remember? For how many years and when did it stop?

MR MOKOENA: It stopped in 1994 that's where I left work.

RUSSELL ALLY: The people who harassed you do you, was this, do you know who these people were, where they came from? Which part of the police, any names.

MR MOKOENA: That's the South African police .

RUSSELL ALLY: Yes, where were they based?

MR MOKOENA: In Pretoria.

RUSSELL ALLY: Do you know any of them, do you know any of their names? Were these security police or ordinary police?

MR MOKOENA: That's intelligence, that's the South African hit squad in Kompo. You'd find ten of them would surround you, there is one of them I know it seems he's a Portuguese
he doesn't talk. Many of them I don't remember their names.

RUSSELL ALLY: And when you came to this part of the country that became incorporated in Bophuthatswana were you also did the Bophuthatswana police harass you in any way? Or did it continue to be the South African police, because you say it went on until 1994.

MR MOKOENA: Yes they Bophuthatswana police
continued with the harassment. They would come with Hippos and arrest me, they would tell my wife at work that your husband is a unwanted person.

RUSSELL ALLY: And can you tell us, when you were arrested were you kept in prison, were you kept in detention? Or did they just come and arrest you and release you.

MR MOKOENA: They would take me to Bapsfontein, they would take me to various police stations. I was surprised that at one o'clock at night they would release me and say leave. That was the problem to me because I couldn't understand what was happening. You'd find that at night these cars would come and light with their headlamps then they would be heavily arms, that's myself and my wife and my sister and my two children. They'd be looking for a certain lady then I'll tell them that there's no other lady who is staying here. They would find us making tea, my wife would give them tea around six, seven, but I would say what kind of people are these wherever I'd go there would be people watching me, even in ..(indistinct) they would come, knowing that if the situation is like that you've got to protect yourself, so I did protect myself.

RUSSELL ALLY: What was the longest that they, that they held you? Can you remember, the longest time that they actually kept you?

MR MOKOENA: No, I wouldn't go to court I went to Kompo then I was taken somewhere in Cullinan. I stayed three days there, I was released they left me at Mamelodi and then said I should leave and I didn't have money then. I don't know what, what made them to do that.

RUSSELL ALLY: And did you continue with your political activities even during, throughout all this harassment
did you continue to work in the ANC in the underground?

MR MOKOENA: That's true sir, even up to now.

RUSSELL ALLY: Thank-you very much I give you back to the chairperson.