Human Rights Violation Hearings — Duduza — 1997-02-04

NHLANHLA JOHN BUTHELEZI: They were referring to me because the police
were searching for me, I was forever in hiding.  I had connections in Daveyton, and in many other townships so I could hide and I would occasionally come home.  As the police were looking for me, police use to come to my place every time, quite often, driving private cars and Casspirs and vehicles.  They will come at night and also during the day.  Templeton Sibake left a message with my mum that they were going to bomb my house as they did with Tobela's.  
 The following day my family decided to pack everything and we, they left the house, vacated the house.  That took place for two months, keep going away from the house and back sometime.  At times they will come and take my younger sister with and they will take a briefcase full of money and they will ask her and say, if you, only you could tell us where your brother is, you will get this lot of money and she consistently said, I will never sell my brother.  Until 1985 when I was detained, as I have explained before, about my torture and how I was assaulted.  Police will come and look for me and not find me and yet I was at Denosa Police Station in hiding.  
 After that I was charged and ten accounts against me.  I do not remember quite well the date, but there were ten charges.  I had an advocate, I have forgotten my advocate's name, told me that I was under, arrested under Section 29.  After the Attorney, Priscilla Jana, tried so much to locate me, because the reason why they were hiding me is because they had severely assaulted me, so they were trying by all means to keep me away from my family, because my family would discover how much I was severely wounded and they will take further steps.  So that is the reason why I, they were hiding me.  Mr Tim Boyes is the Advocate.  He said I was under Section 29 and yet I knew that that meant Internal Security Act and I was not supposed to have visitors and food from home.  So, he said I should plead guilty and I will only be sentenced for ten years and that will be it.  I said, no, I object to that because I know Section 29 will mean this and that to me, no visitations and no food from home and I decided to change this advocate.  At home they said, no, I should not change him, I should continue with him.
 They took everything from my room.  They recovered petrol bombs, 9mm from my room that I had taken it from a police home when we were, when the houses was, when the police house was set alight.  They had those petrol bombs as exhibit on top of the Magistrate's table in the Court of Law.  I said it explicitly clear that this was a frame because those petrol bombs were not in my room.  I said they broke through the window and they had those petrol bombs with them.  So, I refuted all of that and I insisted that they broke through the window and they put those things in there, they did not find the petrol bombs in my room.  When the case went on, I won the case and I was detained under the State of Emergency.  
 I was detained for two weeks and immediately I was released, I was arrested at the gate and I was charged with treason, 38 accounts and we were quite a number.  There were H Embata there, there was Joseph Tobela, the late, as well.  We were tried at Modderbee and in the process I kept fighting and having altercation with the prison warders because our treatment was different from other inmates and the gangsters that belonged to the prison were so much used against us in a form that they will attack us.  There were 
Comrades also who arrived from various places and they use to assault other prisoners and I started fighting the prison warders and I was removed from where I was to the other room and they starved me for seven days.  
 I had no way to inform my family back home so that they will know what kind of treatment I was getting and take further steps.  That went on and on and the diet also was not up to standard and I also suggested that they should ask our families to give us food, to bring us food.  I even told the Captain and said, the food is conducive enough for the pigs, not for people because often times I will be in the front of the queue queuing for food, I will look and inspect the food and I will influence the rest who were behind me not to dish up, because the food was not conducive enough.  They would interrogate me also and ask me why am I doing that and I will tell them and reason with them that this will, is not conducive food for people, but for pigs.   As time went on I decided that they should give us better food probably.  Maybe if they give us that, also on the other hand they will in prison, they will poison us.  Maybe we should just be in one, in unity with all other inmates.  Let me leave that one.  
 We were taken to Leeukop Prison now and we, when we got there I assaulted one of the police there and I threw porridge, hot porridge on him.  After that they asked all those who were coming from Duduza, they called me and Alexander and others.  They said we should come and they want to talk to us because we are a problem in the prison and we were taken to maximum Leeukop where we were trialed and we were taken to solitary confinement.  We would only get opportunity to exercise only for five minutes every day.   Before we were taken to Heidelberg High Court I told them and complained them about my health as I was not feeling well.  I was taken to Modderfontein Hospital, a private clinic there.  I was operated there.

MR LEWIN: Sorry, where was that, Mr Buthelezi?

NHLANHLA JOHN BUTHELEZI: Pardon.

MR LEWIN: Where was that?

NHLANHLA JOHN BUTHELEZI: It is Modderfontein Hospital, a private clinic.  I could not see the directions because I was in the back of the bakkie, but I saw that that was Modderfontein Clinic and that is around Johannesburg, if I am not mistaken.  As I was still suffering from the operation pains, I was chained and we were taken to Nigel Prison.  Before we were taken to Nigel Prison we appeared in front of the Judge in the Supreme Court and we were transferred thereafter to Nigel Prison.
 As we kept attending that case from the second February up to May, I was sentenced six months imprisonment.  Some of the accused rendered confession statements to the Chief Magistrate and those were arrested for Ms Dilana's case.  They told us at the High Court when the case went on that they were pressurised to give statements and also include us so that all that led us being even worse treated.  What led to my being sentenced was that not, I had 38 accounts, not even one single one of those was the truth, but everything suited me because the State witnesses said everything that was in the statements of those accused.  That is why I was sentenced to six months.  Maybe I should leave it there and now go back to the threats I got from the location here in Duduza.
 I will explicitly emphasise the fact that I will never reconcile until I mention those who wanted to attack me and kill me.

MR LEWIN: Could we have quiet please.