Human Rights Violation Hearings — Port Shepstone — 1996-08-12

KHOZA MGOJO: should stick to building."  They then took me to another room and shut the door behind them.  Mr Commissioner, I must say at this time they were fully armed and there were several others there also, and I couldn't make a move so I had to succumb to their way of torture.  Sergeant Kerry grabbed me by the chest and shook me, saying, "You are the spider and you are getting webbed because of your politics.  You know Steve Biko, you know what we did to Steve Biko.  We put him on 4X4 bakkie.  We made him sleep on his own urine.  We tortured him.  You know Timol.  Timol was the one that jumped over the balcony.  He would never jump.  We threw him down.  The same treatment you'll get if you don't stop your bloody nonsense.  You see that balcony there.  You will go over that balcony like Timol did and then we will say that you tried to escape.  You are alone here, and nobody can prove a thing."  I then pleaded for them to allow me one telephone call to contact my attorneys.  He retorted saying, "You coolie, you don't have a snowball's chance in hell to contact anybody.  We Security Branch don't allow this.  You must bear in mind our powers are great."  The second and third respondents then left the room, leaving me alone with the first respondent, who said, "So you think you are clever, huh?"  He then punched me on my right side and I fell down.  He then said, "You bastard, stand on your one foot and don't move from that square," referring to a floor tile which was approximately nine by nine.  "You know what happened to Rick Turner?  My God they say they put Rick Turner out of the face of the earth.  We will pull a job on you too."  He then began questioning me about my report that I made to the South Coast South African Police commander at Port Shepstone, wherein I had complained about police treatment.  They did nothing about it.  In fact one unjust system supported another unjust system.  And also about certain charges which I laid against the police.  He warned me not to make any further complaints to the prosecutor relating to the South African Police, telling me that in any case nothing would come of it.  So the South African Police, with the security, Mr Commissioner, and the prosecutors, and even those Magistrates and Judges, were all in this same style.  The second and third respondents came into the room and the first respondent left, closing the door.  The second respondent threatened me to make a statement, saying, "We have the power to question you and detain you for 180 days."  At that time there was detention without trial, and they say, "You've got another 179 days to go.  You can avoid all this if you make a voluntary statement and be a good guy."  He then asked me to make a statement in terms of which I would indicate that I had resigned from the various bodies to which I belonged to on the basis that I had been misled by the Natal Indian Congress.  He then requested me to become a police informer.  This, Mr Commissioner, I detested.  As a committed Born Again Christian I detested to be a police informer.  I bluntly refused and said that I would under no circumstances betray myself, my people and my country.  When I refused to become - when I refused he became angry and punched me on the chest, saying, "You petty politician, you are mad."  I fell to the ground as I had been swept off my feet by the violent blow inflicted upon me.  At this stage the third respondent entered the room and requested that I write a letter about my involvement with the coloured community and the Natal Indian Congress.  He then left the room.  An African policeman dressed in plain clothes - it's shocking how they indoctrinated even the blacks to work against us - while I was writing the statement said to me, "You came to the wrong place."  He's a black man.  "My friend, we deal with people like you here.  People who oppose us don't leave this place safe."  I pointed to him that my concern was for him too, and that I was against the dom pass, I was against permits, I was against discrimination in salaries.   At this stage the first and second respondents came into the room, and when they were informed by the African policeman - that's the black man - about what I had said to him they were furious.  The second respondent punched me and said, "What, so you bloody politician, you're politicising my man."  The first respondent then took his knobkerrie, tied an electric cord to it with some string, and pushed it against my mouth until it hurt my lips.  I was in pain and agony.  The first respondent then grabbed my shoulders and butted my forehead several times.  The second respondent then clutched the hairs of my chest in an attempt to try to uproot them, which they did, and it was a painful process.  The first respondent grabbed me by the shoulders from behind and started shaking me vigorously.  I'll leave that certain part.  A short while later the first and second respondents entered the room.  When the first respondent read the statement - you know, in that statement I embraced that we should have a national convention, we should release Nelson Mandela, we should have all authentic leaders to have a national convention whereby we can formulate a policy for all and sundry to live peacefully and harmoniously in our beloved land, South Africa.  He seemed to lose control over himself.  Without warning he grabbed me by the neck, swung  me out of my chair and started dragging me to the next room, all the while punching me in the back.  In the next room he punched my chin against the wall and lifted up my face to pictures which he had placed on the wall of Dr Dadoo, Nelson Mandela and others.  Then he said, "You bastard, you've got a nerve to say that such terrorists" - he said, "Nelson Mandela is a black kaffir.  He's a terrorist.  He will rot in Robben Island.  And all political prisoners who are the recognised leaders of all races must participate in a national - you must be mad."  He grabbed me back into the other room.  The second respondent then said, "You dare not support the Release Mandela Committee.  He is going to die in prison.  He's a terrorist," and thank God he's free and he's the President of South Africa.  "This terrorist will rot in Robben Island.  You know Bram Fischer?  We kept him inside until he had 12 days to live.  We only sent him home to die.  We have the power to fucking put you away you coolie bastard."  The first respondent then ordered me to stand on my one leg.  Now, this is the torture.  I told him that because my leg was injured, I got a compound fracture, he became angry and kicked my legs, causing me to fall and trip over a chair.  As I got up he shouted, "Stand up you blood coolie."  I had no alternative but to do so as ordered.  While I was standing on my one leg they kept on questioning me about Nelson Mandela.  They were afraid of Nelson Mandela.  They were afraid of one man, that is Nelson Mandela.  They didn't want me to support Nelson.  They didn't want me to even talk about him, not even to hold his photograph.  I gave the answers and explanation to the best of my ability.  Throughout this period I had to stand on one leg, and when I attempted to put my foot down I was punched by the first respondent until I picked it up again.  The second respondent then referred to a local personality, one Dr D M Naidoo, saying, "You know Dr Dilly," referring to Dr D M Naidoo, "we silenced him.  He was a prominent Natal Indian official.  He is now very quiet because we tamed him."  They tried to tame me, which they failed.  "You know P Doolay?  We also put him in his place and silenced him."  He then looked at this watch and said, "After all this time, 13 hours already, we have hardly had any sleep, tell me are you still going to continue with your lousy politics?"  I replied that I had to do justice to my political convictions.  Whatever I did or said was motivated by Christian principles.  I was then punched once again by the first respondent several times on my side.  The second respondent then left the room, stating that they were going to use torture treatment on me.  He returned a few minutes later with a steel box.  It was a large steel box, Mr Commissioner, and in that steel box, Mr Commissioner, there was a doctor's stethoscope, and there were other security members there who were fully armed.  I can't make a move.  And the first respondent pulled off my coat.  He took my coat out.  Then they put a thick pad round my neck, Mr Commissioner.  They put a thick pad round and they put a steel clamp - they put a steel clamp and they started pressing that steel clamp, and it pressed my neck in such a way that it never leave no mark, but the pad was helping, and then it hit me into my nerves and I fell giddy, and then I nearly passed out.  I was in pain, and eventually he released the clamps and he removed them.  The second torture, Mr Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, at this stage the second respondent put a mask, a special mask with some odious chemical inside the mask, and they put it and they bound it up.  They said, "Breathe now."  I said, "I am not going to breathe because I can feel this thing is having an adverse effect upon my moral structure.  And I was forced - I couldn't breathe and I had to breathe, and it hit me inside and I just passed out.  And right up to this day, Mr Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I am suffering from a nervous breakdown, I am suffering from loss of memory, and also emanated epilepsy.  He clamped against my - ordered me to inhale.  I tried to avoid it by holding my breath, but eventually I was forced to inhale it.  I screamed just as I passed out.  The next thing I remember was that I was being warned by the first respondent as follows.  "If you ever open your mouth, you say what happened to you, you must remember that you are fighting with fire and you can't win."  I told them that when I left I was going to see my lawyers.  The first respondent then got furious and shouted, "You fucking coolie, you do that you will see whether we play with you or not.  You don't know what hit you.  The law is made to suit us, not bastards like you."  At that time, Mr Commissioner, the Magistrates, the Judges, the prosecutors were all on these people's side.  They were not on our side.  "Even the Judges and doctors are on our side.  The next time we won't bring you here.  We will take you far away, and just remember, and we - we will get even with you if we have to