Human Rights Violation Hearings — Benoni — 1997-02-05

DR RANDERA: Did that come out in the inquest in terms of...

MS NYOKA: It came out that we believe that the guns the police used were either muffled because it is funny that even my brother, the one who is overseas now, who was sleeping next to that room, did not hear those shots.

DR RANDERA: The three young men you say, were not friends of Caiphus's.

MS NYOKA: Yes.

DR RANDERA: They were just sleeping there the night.
Did they say the police had balaclava's on or ...

MS NYOKA: What they mentioned, I did not think I would speak so much on their behalf, where I am not certain.  The balaclava is what the police had wrote on the board.  They said he was wearing plain clothes and he had a balaclava on his head, so they wrote on the board, so they could not identify who was that police.

DR RANDERA: One of the clippings that you have so kindly given to us talks about two young men who were charged and the article says they were both close friends of Nyoka.  They were charged with possession of six land mines, eight Russian hand grenades, eight hand grenades, detonators, five detonators and six armoured shells.
 Now was this found subsequently, the police say it was found in Caiphus's room, is there a connection at all between this clipping you have given us and those three 
young men who were arrested in Caiphus's room?

MS NYOKA: According to that information you are reading it is the justification the police used, was that the reason they came to our house, they had a lead from two boys they arrested earlier on who were Daniel Sussein and Moses Mahlangu.   So those boys were found in possession of hand grenades and when they were asked they said they were given those hand grenades by Caiphus, of which now it was funny that when they came to raid the house they did not give him the chance of showing them where the other hand grenades were.  Instead when they came to our house they just eliminated him, before he could even say where he got those hand grenades.
 So, us, we do not accept that version of the story.  We see it again as a plot.  Hence we are saying, as we have indicated, we think there is a conspiracy.

DR RANDERA: Two last questions.   I know you have spoken clearly about Caiphus's activities.  You also mentioned that he was a peaceful person.   Do you know or is it possible that he was in fact a member of the underground liberation movement.

MS NYOKA: That I do not know.

DR RANDERA: And my last question is, what were actually happening in your area at the time?  Was there a great deal of student activity, were policemen being killed, were bombs going off in the area?

MS NYOKA: This question you are asking me is the one that had been bothering us for a long time, because during the time when he was arrested, during 1985, it was a period there were indeed, there were uprisings.  But at the time when Caiphus was killed, it was a time when
everything was normal in the community.
 So is was just funny that there was nothing going on and we thought everything was peaceful and then there was this raid and he was killed.

DR RANDERA: Thank you very much.

MR LEWIN: Joyce?

MS SEROKE: Alegria, I would like to know what happened to the young men who were in possession of those weapons and grenades.  Are they still alive, or still around?

MS NYOKA: In fact he was charged and then he was taken to Robben Island for three years and then in 1990, if I am not wrong, they were given parole.
 So we do not see of him a lot and he sort of dissociates himself from the family.  So, we do not know actually his whereabouts.

MS SEROKE: I was asking this because maybe you could give some light as to why, after the police had discovered the weapons in his possession they sent them to Caiphus.

MS NYOKA: That is, as I have explained in that statement, when he was released, as I am saying he was given parole, somewhere in 1990, he came to my place and my father was still alive.
 So my father said, at least you are my last hope, if you can give me a direction, if you can tell me what actually happened.   So his preoccupation at that point was for my father to go and show him the grave and then he said I will come back and explain, but he never.
 Instead he dissociates himself from the family, so we do not know actually his point of view.

MS SEROKE: Although he has disassociated himself would you have an address, maybe we could ask him to make a
statement as well.

MS NYOKA: Although I do not know the address by heart now, but we know where he used to live.   Yes.

MR LEWIN: Thank you Joyce.
 Alegria I would like to, I have no further questions myself and I would like to thank you on behalf of the Commission.  I would like to thank you very much for your testimony which have been very comprehensive. It is also very moving.  
 I think that you have told us and what you have told us again emphasised a lot of what we heard this morning even.   About the role of the police in those times.  About their pettiness, their nastiness and their viciousness.
 And again, we are not looking backward all the time.  We are also looking forward.
 You have told us about a person, who you described was a person who loved the truth and who fought for the truth and whose life in fact, became a sacrifice to that truth.
 I think we have heard a lot of talk about the lost generation, what I do not necessarily believe it, because I do not think they were lost, but it is significant that Caiphus's name has come up, more or less at the same time that there has again been discussion about the case of Steve Biko, of Ginewe, of other people who were killed in the process.
 And I think what we are looking at in fact, is the lost leaders.  The people who so unnecessarily lost their lives, who were killed in the struggle and Caiphus's name obviously is foremost amongst those.
 We thank you for coming and you have given us a check list which we certainly will follow through and I am pleased to see that the last point that you do raise is that of the possibility of memorials, of monuments to this people, these lost leaders who have left us.
 Thank you very much for coming.

MR LEWIN: Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank you very much for your patience and forbearance.  We are slightly late but we will break now for lunch and I suggest we come back in forty minutes time at twenty to three.  Thank you very much.