Human Rights Violation Hearings — Klerksdorp — 1996-09-23

DR RANDERA: Mr Seakgoa, good afternoon and a warm welcome to you.  It has been a long day.  Thank you for being so patient.  Prof Meiring, who is sitting at the table there is going to be helping you in telling your story.  Before I hand over to him, will you please stand to take the oath.

MADIBO SHADRACK SEAKGOA: (Duly sworn, states).

DR RANDERA: Thank you.

PROF MEIRING: Mr Seakgoa, thank you for coming today and thank you for telling your story to us. Before I ask you to tell us about the year 1990 when many things happened to you, could you please tell us a little bit about yourself. I made a little calculation, it seems that you are 26 years of age. Is that correct?

MADIBO SHADRACK SEAKGOA: Yes, I am 26 years old.

PROF MEIRING: Are you married and do you have children?

MADIBO SHADRACK SEAKGOA: I am not married but I have one child.

PROF MEIRING: How old is the child?

MADIBO SHADRACK SEAKGOA: He is seven years old.

PROF MEIRING: And now, reading through your testimony it seems to me that the year 1990 was a very difficult year for you.  Three incidents happened in that year and you want to tell us about that, about a letter that you and a colleague wrote, about a very difficult meeting you had and then about the disturbances at the school. Please tell us about those
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incidents, starting with the letter that was written to City Press.

MADIBO SHADRACK SEAKGOA: I want to start firstly with three years before in 1986, at Mqwasi, we were detained innocently. We hadn't done anything. We were tortured.  That was the birth of my political consciousness.  I started to have courage to lead people to follow political events and the processes which were happening, especially the Namibian war and the struggle for independence in Namiba. I used to follow that.  That influenced me greatly.
 In 1987 I was with my friend Kotzville, we were doing Std 7 together.   We used to talk about politics and the route (indistinct) and compared ourselves as well (indistinct) more than the other.
 In 1988 we met with other people, who had the same interests as we had.  We went that way until 1989, December, with Sobile.  Then we said that the city councillors were failing in the giving of services to the community.  Then we wrote a letter to City Press, in January 1990.  After the letter was published, the schools reopened the following week.  (Speaker's mike not on) ....
 ... they won't stop the harassment against us.  Indeed, the harassment didn't stop.  We continued receiving messages that are under surveillance.  Then we resolved as friends and as people who were becoming conscious of the development in our beloved South Africa, that we need to form a mouthpiece of the youth in Tswelelang for the entire Wolmaransstad.  We used to hold our meetings during odd hours, one o'clock in the morning, where selected people in whom we had confidence, would attend and be briefed. 
 We had Comrade Dijavu Xubasa who was attending school
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at Wits University by then, who used to come with information to us.  
 On the 27th of April when the then Tswelelang Youth Congress was launched, I happened to have been elected as president of the congress.  Then the intimidation, harassment started to accelerate or increase from the side of the police. It was apparent that all my movements were monitored and my schedules were made known to whoever happened to have followed my movements and activities.
 At the same time that we were organising this Tswelelang Youth Congress we were also fighting a fierce battle against the intransigence of the management council of Gatelepele High School was I was attending. I was also one of the student leaders.  At one point when the students had very serious grievances, we held a meeting where a delegation of eight people was elected to meet the principal on the following day.
 I also need to make mention of the fact that the then principal Mrs Sotsaka had on several occasions refused to meet the delegations of the students or to answer whatever memoranda or ultimatums we sent to her.  She had then decided to meet us the following day.
 The following day we went to school, the eight of us, Comrade Koge, Comrade (indistinct), Comrade Pequalang, Magtire and the others whom I have forgotten.
 On our arrival the principal was busy teaching the matriculants at the library and we were waiting anxiously to meet with her.  The students resolved that they are going to take her by force from the library.  They went to the trees and picked stick where they are going to hit the principal and the matriculants with.
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 As leaders of the students we went there and we talked to them and ultimately the principal went out. We went to the principal's office.  On our arrival we found the police inside the principal's office.  The station commander then was a certain Mr De Villiers who was part of the meeting.  We deliberated for a long time and in the middle of our discussions Mr De Villiers, he was a lieutenant by then, just stood up and said gentlemen, you are under arrest. The principal stood and laughed.  We just stared at her and followed the police to their vans.  They shot two tear-gas canisters into the van and closed the doors so that we could suffocate.  
 We were taken to the police station where we were interrogated by a certain Detective-Sgt Van den Bergh.  We were arrested at exactly 25 minutes past ten in the morning, and we waited until three o'clock, around three o'clock - I am not exact there - where we were transferred to Hartebeesfontein - I don't know as to whether it is a police station or an army concentration camp or a prison.  The maximum security that was exercised there was something like a Nazi concentration camp.

DR RANDERA: Order, please!