Special Hearings — Trojan Horse Hearings — 1997-05-20

CHAIRPERSON: Mapule Ramashala is going to administer the oath to them.  Over to you Dr Ramashala.

SHARIFA FRIDIE: (sworn states)

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you Mrs Fridie and welcome this afternoon.  I will hand over to Glenda Wildschut who will lead you this morning.  Excuse me, if you will be try to be as unobtrusive as possible please, thank you Glenda.
 Oh,that was for the press photographers.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: I thought you were asking me to be unobtrusive.  Good afternoon Mrs Fridie.  We were listening to the stories this morning of the Trojan Horse event and all the activity of both the students and families and the community and also of the security police on that day.
 Your story is different in a way, slightly different in that this event took place on the next day when the community had come together at the St Athens Street Mosque to strategies and to think about how the funerals could be arranged for the victims of the Trojan Horse killing.
 We thank you for coming and would like to offer you the opportunity to tell your story about the death of your husband.

SHARIFA FRIDIE: It was on the 17th of October of 1985.  It was at about eight o'clock when my husband and his brother went to the mosque since they decided that they were also fathers and they wanted to have the bodies released of the three children.
 They then went along to the meeting to find out what was happening.  They went away but I did not accompany them.  As they told me what happened is that when Abdul Kariem came out of the mosque and was almost in the street, then the police started shooting at them.  They ran back towards the mosque and they shot him in his back and in his arm and in his leg.
 Dr Akoojee and the two young brothers were eye-witnesses of the event and they took Abdul Kariem to the hospital.  They took him to the Somerset Hospital.  On their way to the hospital the police prevented them or stopped them and bothered them and attempted to arrest Dr Akoojee and in fact did arrest the two young brothers.
 After they gave treatment to Abdul Kariem.  About three o'clock the following morning his brother and his father came to tell me that Abdul Kariem had been shot.  I could not believe this.  I continually asked him where is Kariem, where is Kariem, it is not possible that he could be shot.
 But it in fact did turn out that he had been shot.  the next morning the police phoned me and said to me that the body cannot be released they can only release the body should there be a limit of 50 people following the body at the funeral.
 I then told them that this would not be possible.  I went to see Shigaziem in Wynberg and he said that he would attempt to have the bodies released himself.  They continually bothered me, I did not want to see the blood covered clothes that he had worn, but they insisted that we had to go and dig up the clothes.
 I told my brother in law that he has to bury the clothes, that I did not want to see the clothes.  They insisted that we dig it up again, they continued to phone.  Someone said that I must not discuss all these things over the phone, because when you pick up the phone you can hear something that makes a sound as if it is bugged and I was told that they were listening in on my phone.
 What disappointed me a great deal was the way in which the inquest was handled.  When we appeared for the first time, it was not at the Supreme Court, it was a small court and I feel that the entire set up the whole ...

INTERPRETER: The witness is looking for words.

SHARIFA FRIDIE: It looked as if the police had been briefed.  Dr Akoojee was an eye-witness and the court did not want to listen to Dr Akoojee, he came personally to my house to tell me that he was next to the two young brothers and Abdul Kariem and that they arrested the two young brothers because they assisted Abdul Kariem.
 The lawyer was Amoosa who handled the case and they asked whether Dr Akoojee could be heard, but they said that that was not necessary.  When we appeared for the first time, the police did not have a lawyer and then the matter was put off to another occasion and then the second time, they came with their lawyer and some or other Minister Vlok or someone else was not present, so it was again put off to another time.
 And the third time it appeared like an entire army because they were standing right to the back of the hall.  They should have been sitting down, but they were all against the wall as if they were feeding the police.  As they continued with the inquest, the policemen admitted that he had shot. 
 There was a Coloured and a White person.  The Coloured person then said to the White person, you have to shoot because you are a better shot than I am.  Then when they asked the White policeman, and the Prosecutor asked the White policeman why did you shoot, why did you not fire into the air, he said no, he is from the Transvaal, he did not know there was a mosque on the corner, but all of this time you could see that they were guilty.  But it appeared as if the court was biased in their favour.
 As if the court had briefed them.  He admitted to having shot and the evidence was before the court, but in the end he said that there were two persons shot, they then discussed the post-mortem, they discussed what was in his stomach, but they did not discuss the bullet which had been removed from his body from which they could have seen from the body, the bullet in his body which they had found, what the situation was.
 This had not at all been discussed in the court.  It appeared as if the police had preplanned the matter as if they were in fact guilty but that they were helped to be found not guilty.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: You were not present at the time when your husband was shot, is it right?

SHARIFA FRIDIE: No, I was not present at the shooting, but I was present at the inquest.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: I am talking now about the time when your husband was shot, who came to inform you that your husband was shot?

SHARIFA FRIDIE: His brother and his father.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: So, his brother and your father in law were there at the time of the shooting?

SHARIFA FRIDIE: No, his brother was present when he was shot or went along to the meeting.  When Kariem was missing, they went with a single car and then they could not find him, then they heard that someone had been shot, he then went to collect his father for some support and they then went to the hospital to find out whether it was Abdul Kariem that had been shot.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: ... at any point come to your home to inform you that your husband had been shot.

SHARIFA FRIDIE: No, not at all, they never came to my home.  They just continued bothering me and called me to come and make a statement at Mitchells Plain police office and then called me to the Athlone police station.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: You were asked to make a statement?

SHARIFA FRIDIE: Yes, I was asked to make a statement eventually at Athlone police station, because that would be closer.  Why would I have to go to the Mitchells Plain police station, I thought no, it is them that want to make the whole thing difficult, that is why I said no, I will go to the Athlone police station.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: ... accepted your statement?

SHARIFA FRIDIE: Yes, they did.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: Were the two court proceedings, let me just explain what I mean, was there an inquest in other words where they try to find out what happened and then after that a court case?

SHARIFA FRIDIE: No, there was only the inquest.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: Were you invited to the inquest?