Human Rights Violation Hearings — Upington — 1996-10-03

CASE NO: CT/04432/

TESTIMONY FROM: GERTRUIDA WILHELMINA ISAAKS [wife]

MR POTGIETER: Good morning Ms Isaaks.  Very welcome here with us today.  Is that your daughter here with you, what is her name?

DAVID ISAAKS: Johanna.  Joey, she is actually called Joey.

MR POTGIETER: Good morning Joey and you are also very welcome here.  Thank you for coming along here with your mother.  Thank you for supporting her.  We know it's not easy to appear in public like this and to tell your story but thank you for coming.  Ms Isaaks before we're going to listen to your evidence you must please take the oath.  Would you please stand and then I'll ask you to take the oath.
GERTRUIDA WILHELMINA ISAAKS Duly sworn states

MR POTGIETER: Thank you, you may be seated.  Please just make sure that you're comfortable.  Ms Isaaks you come from a little town called Marchand?

WITNESS:  Yes.

MR POTGIETER:  And that is near Augrabies, is that correct?

WITNESS:  Yes.

MR POTGIETER:  The evidence you are about to give us deals with your husband, Mr David Isaaks, and it revolves around his death on the 29th February 1988.

WITNESS:  Yes that's right.

MR POTGIETER:  Now perhaps you can start off by telling us what your husband did, what was his position in the community, before we come to the events themselves.

WITNESS:  He was the chairperson in the community.  He was a leader, the area from the Augrabies waterfalls to Cillier, that area, and that's why I feel that the people didn't him because they accused him of putting clever ideas in people's heads and one person said that he wants to find out who the chairperson is in the community and then he will shoot him dead but we didn't actually believe it when we heard it.

MR POTGIETER:  Was your husband involved in politics?

WITNESS:  Yes.

MR POTGIETER:  What role did he play in political activities?

WITNESS:  Well he was the chairperson.

MR POTGIETER:  Which party?

WITNESS:  It was the Labour Party.

MR POTGIETER:  Which region was that, was it Augrabies, Marshant?

WITNESS:  Well from Augrabies waterfalls to the Cillier, that entire region, he was the chairperson for that region of the Labour Party.

MR POTGIETER:  So he was a community leader?

WITNESS:  Yes.

MR POTGIETER:  And you say that some people didn't like the role that he played in the community.  Who were these people, where did these people come from?

WITNESS:  These were people from Marshant.

MR POTGIETER:  Who were they?  Were they black people, whites, coloureds?

WITNESS:  They were white people.  There were of course coloureds as well who also didn't like what he was doing in the community.

MR POTGIETER:  But the people who uttered threats against your husband - were these white people?

WITNESS:  Yes it was a white man.

MR POTGIETER:  But you said that you had heard this but you didn't take it very seriously.

WITNESS:  Yes.

MR POTGIETER:  So your husband continued with his activities?

WITNESS:  Yes he was always busy in the community.

MR POTGIETER:  What work did he do?

WITNESS:  He was a builder and he also was a bus contractor.

MR POTGIETER:  Now on the 29th February 1988 that afternoon you heard something at home.  Please tell us what happened then.

WITNESS:  Yes we were all sitting outside on the stoep and somebody came and told us that the children were being shot at, the children playing in the water, and then we drove to go and have a look.  When we arrived there the police were there already.  My husband went straight to the coloured policeman and asked him why they were there and why were they shooting at the children.  There was a white man, a Mr Brandt who was shooting at the children because the problem was that if one of the children, the children could drown if they got hit by a bullet.  Now the windowsill was quite high and the doors and windows were open at this house and he said that the children had broken into the house and had stolen some of his possessions but my brother helped to vacate the house and there was nothing left in the house.  The children swam towards an old fridge and before they came out of the water all these people were on the scene and Mr Brandt started shooting at them.  Mr Nolte was there as well and he phoned the police.  When we arrived there Mr Brandt was standing in front of the post office.  He didn't hear, even hear what my husband had said, he just walked away whilst my husband was speaking.  Then Mr Hershelman followed him but the police had already left.  Mr Hershelman followed him and asked him or told him, you must keep your mouth shut and keep your nose out of other people's business.  His answer was I don't have anything to do with you and he stood there and then started walking towards the water.  Mr Hershelman continued following him and he then hit him from behind and he then turned around and hit back at Mr Hershelman and Mr Hershelman then fell to the ground.  He was quite a hefty man.  He then walked away after just delivering this one blow but then, by then Mr Brandt had already aimed the revolver at him but he walked away, he didn't look back and Mr Brandt reversed his bakkie to run him over but my son shouted, watch out Father, but the noise of the water drowned out his voice but my son could see that his father was about to be run over so he jumped, he tried to jump past the bakkie to push his father out of the way and he pushed him so hard that my husband fell down on his hands and he then jumped back again.  There was no time for him to reach his father and then the bakkie actually ran him down.  Mr Brandt reversed right up to where my husband was.  I was watching all of this.  I didn't realise he was so serious about it and Mr Brandt kept on reversing until he was right on top of my husband and then my husband stood up and he then shot at him.  I didn't, at that stage I didn't realise that he had hit my husband.  He shot him in his face next to his nose and the bullet went out the back and this bullet then lodged into a white woman's thigh and I think that woman still has that bullet in her leg because the doctor told her that if he removes the bullet then it would paralyse her.  When we heard the shot, when we saw him firing in my husband's direction, my son tried to distract him and tried to grab his arm and the first, the time that he tried to grab his arm, my son was quite short and it was a high bakkie.  The first time he grabbed his arm he could just grab hold of his T-shirt and he just, his hand was thrown out of the window and a shot went off and he tried to shoot my husband once more and my son grabbed his arm again and once again only got hold of his T-shirt.  He then once again shot, he didn't even look where he was shooting.  Fortunately God guarded over us and we weren't hit but the sound of the bullet was so loud near my son's ear that he actually had to receive medical treatment for that.  My husband had already been hit in the face and he went and he didn't notice that Mr Brandt was still firing at him and while he tried to get up and was looking in our direction across the bakkie, Mr Brandt then shot him in his chest and that was the cause of his death.  But I didn't know that he had shot my husband.  I just saw him busy with this weapon or the gun.  We were all so frightened, we didn't really know what was going on.  We heard the shots.  There were quite a few people there.  Everybody had gone down to the water's edge to go and watch and after my husband had fallen after being shot, he then drove off in the bakkie.

MR POTGIETER:  Did your husband die as a result of the shooting?

WITNESS:  Yes.  Yes we picked him up and placed him on the bakkie and sped off to hospital but there was nothing to be done.  He died instantly at the scene.

MR POTGIETER:  And what happened then, was there a court case?

WITNESS:  Yes there was a court case in Upington from the Monday to the Wednesday.