Human Rights Violation Hearings — Beaufort West — 1996-08-13

JOHANNES BONAS: The - the - where they shot me it really is a big problem for me because I cannot - no longer work very well.  Even the bones of my body here on the hip is giving me some trouble and some other times even when I cough I feel a pain.  When it is a overcast I cannot walk around, I've got to sit down.  Even now I can make a short story I feel I can never reconcile with a white man because just recently in the location the policemen  -  the white people came to lock us there and one child was at - was shot at by the police and when I think of it, that if I were to die my wife would not even be able to bury me because I do not have money.

ADV POTGIETER: Perhaps just to deal with the - with the injuries first I'm going to ask you now about the consequences of those injuries.  The - the shot that you got is it on your back?

JOHANNES BONAS: I have got wounds from what the police did for me from - to me the kicking that they did to me.  In Mossel Bay - when I was working - I saw doctors there but they referred me to my doctor

INTERPRETER: Excuse me could the  - the witness come closer to the microphone, I can't hear.

ADV POTGIETER: Mr Bonas, could you just move a bit closer, kom net n bietjie vorentoe and then you speak into the mike.  On the injuries - can you just get the mic back on, okay.  You spoke about two wounds that you got, was it to your head?

JOHANNES BONAS: I have one here were I'm showing, on the head, and I've got another one which was caused by the shooting, here at the back on the hip.

ADV POTGIETER: At the back?

JOHANNES BONAS: Yes.

ADV POTGIETER: Okay, the -  was the cut an open wound?

JOHANNES BONAS: These wounds are troubling me because the one here I - I still feel there is something wrong with it - with it , as if there is some bones sticking out - the one on the head.

ADV POTGIETER: Assaulted when they - when you got the wound on your head that you told us about, was that wound bleeding?

JOHANNES BONAS: I have two wounds, they were both bleeding except the one here at the back - it did not bleed.

ADV POTGIETER: When the police were assaulting you as you said after they arrested you, were you bleeding at that stage, when they were hitting you in the van and - that whole incident?

JOHANNES BONAS: Yes, the van in which I - they - they had put me in had some blood which was cleaned by the other convicts.

ADV POTGIETER: [indistinct] police station, did you speak to the station commander, the policeman in charge?

JOHANNES BONAS: He was the cause of all this because even those in Middelburg and Oudtshoorn had been invited  by him.

ADV POTGIETER: What was his name?

JOHANNES BONAS: His name is Jonk.

ADV POTGIETER: Was there still blood on you - on you face?

JOHANNES BONAS: Yes, he could see me how I was at the time.

ADV POTGIETER: They then said that you must be locked up in a cell?

JOHANNES BONAS: Yes, it's him and Thokose and Bregter and Luitenant came from Oudtshoorn.

ADV POTGIETER: [indistinct] this Mr Jonk

JOHANNES BONAS: Yes, I asked him twice and then a third time he agreed that I should be taken to a doctor.

ADV POTGIETER: If I understand you correctly, you were not taken immediately, you spent a number of hours in the cell before you were taken to the doctor?

JOHANNES BONAS: Yes, it's like that, I had been there for quite some time even the blood had dried up then they took me to the doctor only in the afternoon.

ADV POTGIETER: If I also understood your evidence correctly they in fact instructed the doctor what to do, the police?

JOHANNES BONAS: Steyn - I have forgotten the other name of the policemen, I've forgotten his name.  I they took me to the doctor - there were two of these policemen who took me to the doctor.

ADV POTGIETER: They told the doctor what to do and what - what did the doctor actually do?  Did he - did he examine you, what - what did he actually do, this doctor, Dr Basson you said I think, ja Dr Basson what did he do?

JOHANNES BONAS: They gave instruction that the doctor should not examine me but just to give me an injection and only pain tablets.  He wanted to examine me but the police refused that he should do it.  Even now they ...[intervention]

ADV POTGIETER: [indistinct]  do or did he do as the police said?

JOHANNES BONAS: As I said earlier, Dr Basson wanted to examine me but the instruction from the police was that he should not, so he did not examine me.  This was a doctor coming form DA.

ADV POTGIETER: You were locked up and you say that you were charged - what - what was the charge that was brought against you?

JOHANNES BONAS: The charge was of public violence.

ADV POTGIETER: [indistinct] specifically?

JOHANNES BONAS: They said I fighted with the policeman and I said no I did not fight with any policeman.

ADV POTGIETER: And you were found not guilty by the - by the Court after some time?

JOHANNES BONAS: No, I was not found guilty.

ADV POTGIETER: You were working in Cape Town at the time when you were arrested.  What happened to your - to your job?

JOHANNES BONAS: I had gone to Richmond because my - my parent had died long ago and there was a young child who had died at home.  So I used to - there was a young child left at home.

INTERPRETER: Excuse me, the - the  witness I cannot hear because he - he is very far from the microphone and I'm missing out on very important details, thank you.

ADV POTGIETER: [indistinct] didn't hear everything that you'd said.

JOHANNES BONAS: So I took this child to George to my brother, he's no longer with me.  I'm now left with my two children, even the money I get from the Government is very little, it cannot make me support my wife and my two children.  It is R430.00, which is no money.

ADV POTGIETER: [indistinct] did you lose that job as result of the arrest and those bail conditions that you had to report to the police station and all those things?

JOHANNES BONAS: Yes, that's how I lost my job,  then I went back to Cape Town but I decided to go to Mossel Bay to look for a job.  In Mossel - I came back in 1992 from Mossel Bay, that was in January.

ADV POTGIETER: [indistinct] then.

JOHANNES BONAS: I went to Mossel Bay to look for work and I was employed but because of ill health and I was visiting doctors frequently I had to come back to be under the treatment of Dr Basson.  He is therefore who decided that I should not continue with work because of my condition.

ADV POTGIETER: [indistinct] was it the injuries that you sustained?

JOHANNES BONAS: There is another reason, I used to work here in Fort Beaufort - in Beaufort West and I got injured on the hand.  So combining this injury together with those injuries I sustained from the policemen, the doctor decided  that I should stop working.

ADV POTGIETER: Mr Bonas thank you very much, I've listened to the evidence and I've asked the questions that I wanted to ask,  I'm going to hand back to the Chairperson now, thank you.

MAPULE RAMASHALA: Thank you, any other questions,  Ms Seroke?

MS SEROKE: Now you say in that meeting which was in a church when the police came, the people dispersed.  How did they come out, did they come out rushing out?

JOHANNES BONAS: Yes, they came out running out.  They did not fight with the police, some of them went out through windows and there was a tear gas that was sprayed.

MS SEROKE: You again  say in your statement after they had beaten you and shot you and they took you to Jonk, who was a Station Commander, and again you found a Magistrate together with Jonk.  Now can you still recall the name of this Magistrate?

JOHANNES BONAS: I had written it down but now I cannot recall his name.

MS SEROKE: Was this Magistrate - did you tell this Magistrate how they had shot you.

JOHANNES BONAS: He used to move with the policemen and he use - not to keep in his office, thank you.