Human Rights Violation Hearings — Klerksdorp — 1996-09-24

DR RANDERA: Mrs Mmolawa, good morning and welcome to you. Can you hear me?

MRS MMOLAWA: Yes, Sir.

DR RANDERA: Are you comfortable?

MRS MMOLAWA: Yes, Sir.

DR RANDERA: Mrs Mmolawa, can you please introduce the young man who is accompanying you this morning?

MRS MMOLAWA: That's my son, Sir.

DR RANDERA: Thank you.

MRS MMOLAWA: Ezekiel Mmolawa.

DR RANDERA: Okay. I welcome Ezekiel too.  Mrs Mmolawa, will you please stand to take the oath.

MERIAM MMOLAWA: (Duly sworn, states).

DR RANDERA: Mrs Mmolawa, Adv Denzil Potgieter is going to be helping you in telling your story and I hand over to him. Thank you.

ADV POTGIETER: Thank you, Dr Randera.  Good morning, Mrs Mmolawa.  Welcome again.  Can I just find out, we have a statement from yourself and it concerns the torture and detention of your son, Ezekiel who is with you today. But I don't have in my possession a statement from Ezekiel himself. Did he actually give a statement to the Commission or did he not?
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MRS MMOLAWA: He didn't do that, it is me who did that.

ADV POTGIETER: And insofar as you are concerned, you have really only heard what happened to him, you only heard about the torture. Not so?

MRS MMOLAWA: Yes, that is true.

ADV POTGIETER: That has in fact occurred to me when I read through your statement, and I was thinking that Ezekiel is obviously the best person to tell us what happened.  It depends on what the Chairperson's view is, but it might be a similar case to the earlier one where we might have to take the testimony of Ezekiel, but before we deal with that, will he be able, if the Chairperson were to allow that, would he be able to give us testimony today? Is he in a position to tell us today, is there anything wrong with him?

MRS MMOLAWA: He will be able to do that, Sir.

ADV POTGIETER: Perhaps just a minute, perhaps we must just hear what the Chairperson's view is on this.

CHAIRPERSON: I think that as Ezekiel is here today, it would be in a sense an incomplete story if whilst we are having him her, we are not able to hear from him directly. What I will however hsay is that that is subject to our statement-takers taking his statement immediately he gives his testimony.  So you can swear him in, Faizel.

DR RANDERA: Can you hear me, Ezekiel?

MR MMOLAWA: Yes, Sir.

DR RANDERA: Can you please stand to take the oath.

EZEKIEL MMOLAWA: (Duly sworn, states).

DR RANDERA: Thank you, Ezekiel.

ADV POTGIETER: Thank you once again, Dr Randera, Chairperson.  Mrs Mmolawa, I think let's start with you.  We will take your evidence first and then Ezekiel can just fill KLERKSDORP HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
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in the picture as to what exactly happened.  Would you like to tell us about his arrest and when they took him away from home.

MRS MMOLAWA: It was in 1993, in June, it was on a Tuesday. White people came.  They came to my home.  They surrounded the whole house, at the front and at the back.  They were kicking the doors and the windows. They were torching us with their torches at night whilst we were asleep. They told me to open.  When they asked me to open they said they are police people.  When I opened, White people entered the house with balaclavas.  They entered roughly and they light us up with torches.  Then they said we want your son.  When I was still looking the Black one came again.  That Black one, I halt him, he was a CID.  Then I said Ezekiel is in the bedroom.  Then they said he must put on his clothes quickly, because they want him. I asked them where they are taking him to.  Then they told me that they are going to hit him.  Then I was frightened and then I closed the door.
 The following day, it was in the morning, at about three o'clock, I went to investigate where he is.  Then they said I should go to the police station, because they were having balaclavas I couldn't identify them.  We went to the police station.  At the police station they said my child is not there.  Whilst I was preparing myself to come back they said they came back from Orkney, they come from the scrapyards.  
 Then when I asked my son what he was doing there.  He told me that they were beating him in the dark on the ear with the clips and fists.  Then he had an ear problem. Then I took him to the doctor.  They only kept him in the hospital for that day.  They wanted bail of R100,00.  I paid KLERKSDORP HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
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that R100,00 bail.  
 Thereafter the case ran for three days, but there were no court proceedings, they were just postponing the case.  The court procedure completed in 1995, December.  That's when the case ended.  During that time I was taken him to various doctors.

ADV POTGIETER: Mrs Mmolawa, you live in Lebaleng, is it correct?

MRS MMOLAWA: Yes, Sir.

ADV POTGIETER: In June of 1993 what was the situation in the township like?  In fact, to assist you, in your statement you refer to the shooting of Joe Olifant, it is a case that we will hear later on in the day. What was the situation like?

MRS MMOLAWA: The police were coming during the night.  They were making it possible to make it safe for the principal. Then the following day it was that my son was arrested.

ADV POTGIETER: You seem to have referred to this in your statement, that there was a situation of unrest in the township at this time, in June 1993. It was shortly after the killing of Joel Olifant.

MRS MMOLAWA: That is immediately after the death of Olifant. The day after Joe Olifant's funeral.

ADV POTGIETER: The court case that your son, Ezekiel, was involved in, subsequently, what was that about?  Was it about the burning of the school or what?

MRS MMOLAWA: They alleged that they were stoning the school.

ADV POTGIETER: What happened to that case?

MRS MMOLAWA: The case just ended somewhere, we don't know.

ADV POTGIETER: How old was Ezekiel in 1993 when
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this happened?

MRS MMOLAWA: Can you repeat your question, Sir?

ADV POTGIETER: How old was Ezekiel in 1993 when this happened?

MRS MMOLAWA: He was 20 years old, Sir.

ADV POTGIETER: Thank you, Mrs Mmolawa. I am going to ask Ezekiel questions first and it might be that my colleagues would want to ask you some questions afterwards.  But I am now going to ask for the microphone to be moved to Ezekiel and we will listen to his evidence.
 Ezekiel, morning, welcome.  Can you hear me?

MR MMOLAWA: Yes, Sir.

ADV POTGIETER: Good.  Now from the information in our possession here, it appears as if you were arrested at home on the 1st of June in 1993. Is that so?

MRS MMOLAWA: Yes, it is true, Sir.

ADV POTGIETER: And do you know the police that came to arrest you?  In fact, your mother said that some of them were wearing balaclavas.

MR MMOLAWA: I don't know them, Sir.

ADV POTGIETER: There was also a, from your - from the testimony of your mother's it appears there was a Black policeman present as well, when you were arrested at home. Do you know him?

MR MMOLAWA: I know him, sir.

ADV POTGIETER: What is his name?

MR MMOLAWA: His name Sipetlo.  Steve Sipetlo.

ADV POTGIETER: Was he a policeman where, at Makwassie, Makwassie police station?

MR MMOLAWA: He is a CID at Klerksdorp, Sir.

ADV POTGIETER: Now would you like to tell us, Ezekiel, what KLERKSDORP HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
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happened when the police came to your house there and they took you away?  Tell us exactly what happened.