Human Rights Violation Hearings — Middelburg — 1997-06-04

YASMINE SOOKA: Mr .....

JOHN M MELATO: Up to now, I have not received anything.

YASMINE SOOKA: Mr Melato, can I just ask you a few questions just to get some clarity?

JOHN M MELATO: Yes.

YASMINE SOOKA: You did mention in your statement that your son has just written his matric exams, but to your knowledge, was he involved in any political structure in the school?  Was he a member of the SRC, was he a member of COUSAS or any of the student movements while he was at school?

JOHN M MELATO: Yes, but not to my knowledge.  As far as I knew him, I didn't know that he was an active member in any capacity.

YASMINE SOOKA: All right.  When you also, when you went to Swaziland with your friend to look for him, did you visit the colleague whose name you had given him, to ask him if he'd seen your son?

JOHN M MELATO: I did.  When I got there Habit was not in.  I was told that Habit had gone to England for further studies for a year.  So even if he had gone to him, for God sake I hope he did, he wouldn't have found him.

YASMINE SOOKA: Okay.  And when you went to Swaziland, did you meet with any ANC people there?  To try and establish if your son had actually joined the movement in the exile?

JOHN M MELATO: I was accommodated, my friend and I were accommodated at pendulous places.  The lady, who is a Middelburg lady who got married to a certain Mr Zwane, she is the woman actually who housed us, who permitted us to be at her home and so on.  We put up there the first night.  And she was very keen the following morning to help us, as best she could.  Up to then and up to now, I didn't know whether she belonged to ANC or to any other party.
 So she said, let's get to Mmabane.  I'll use my car, because with this one he may know about the Middelburg plate number then.  It was still TM that time.  He might hide himself.  Now, if I used the car with the Swaziland registration numbers, if he is there, he may not realise.  
 I just wanted to see him and ask him, if possible, that I want him back, because I wanted him to go to school.

YASMINE SOOKA: Tell me, the first time that there was any admission from the ANC that he was in exile, was when Mr Englove spoke.  Is that correct?

JOHN M MELATO: Which Mr Englove, Mam, if I were to ask?

YASMINE SOOKA: The Nelspruit ANC person.

JOHN M MELATO: Oh.  Enkona.

YASMINE SOOKA: Enkone, sorry.

JOHN M MELATO: Enkona.  I became clear now, that he had joined the ANC.  I was there myself and that, I couln't get trace of him.

YASMINE SOOKA: Do you think, I mean, from what you've said, you seem to be implying that something's not quite right.  What do you, what are you trying to say?  Throughout your evidence you convey the feeling that something wasn't right.  Do you want to just explain that a little to us.

JOHN M MELATO: Yes, Mam.  I feel there is something that is not right.  In the first instance, I'm very sorry that I permitted him to go, I allowed him to go.  After every document, the documentation was made up already, I wouldn't have done that.  Because at a certain stage, I had some feeling of scepticism, but I felt okay, it is true, he is not running away.  Look, he has been sanctioned.
 Secondly, I'm not, I do not accept.  I'm sorry, I don't accept the fact that the alleged ailments that is said he died from, I don't accept that.  I have my own briefing that I got and unfortunately I can not divulge that.

YASMINE SOOKA: Who was the briefing from?

JOHN M MELATO: Their from one of the people who came over and
were in exile.  They had lost say about this boy and the possible disappearance and so on.  So the sooner I feel, to say to me that he died of AIDS, to say the he died of TB, I don't accept that.

YASMINE SOOKA: I wonder if, you know, obviously I know that you feel uncomfortable divulging that information, perhaps publically.  But perhaps we can get our statement takers to discuss that aspect with you.
 Let me just say that on receipt of your statement, I did check the ANC list, you know that they have submitted to the Truth Commission, about the names of young people who went into exile, where they've died or where in fact they were killed, either in Angola or in other places in Africa.
 And I haven't actually found your, your son's name on that list.  But the ANC in their second submission also submitted more lists.  And we're in the process of identifying families of those people.  So we will certainly check your son's name against the second list that they've supplied us.  And if we have more information then we will obviously come back to you.
 I just want to check with you.  Do you know possibly of what name your son used in exile?

JOHN M MELATO: From what I heard like for instance his Melato.  They would call it in another way to corrupt in a way so that they should not ....

YASMINE SOOKA: Yes, yes.  So you don't know that name?

JOHN M MELATO: I don't know that name.

YASMINE SOOKA: Okay.  Thank you very much.  I'm sorry at this stage that we're not able to positively identify his name on the list.  But we certainly will make further enquiries, because we're also obtaining lists from the ANC about people who perhaps died by way of execution or other means.  And we will certainly look into what you've told us.
 But I would appreciate if you could, I understand you can't, you feel uncomfortable divulging publically the other information that you've got.  But if you could make that available to our statement takers.

JOHN M MELATO: Mam, I have made my vow that I should not.  It is something that is very personal, would be informant and so on and what worries now is, what worries me at the end of the day, is the fact that you've got a son who I took into my house at the age of three.  He has now matriculated in 1995 and, and most unfortunately now I have retired from work and I can't be financially useful to him.  That is one factor that always is on my mind and gnaws at my heart like a rodent that gnaws at a piece of blanket.  What is the future of this child?  Perhaps if his father had been, was alive, there would be some help of some sort and so on.
 All the same my children in the union, in their combined discussion and so on, they're trying to help this boy as best they can.  Presently he is now at Johannesburg.  He's doing an engineering, what ever, because he wanted to get to a technikon and he could not.  He got injured, he was on the way, he had gone to for an interview at one of the technikons in Natal.  He slept in the bus and on the return, there was an accident, he nearly broke his back.  He was moving in crutches with some pads and so on for quite a time.  He just got relieved of some of a few pads I think and somewhere in February or March.  
 Now he is, he is a problem to me.  That's me immediate problem.

YASMINE SOOKA: What I can say, is obviously, you know, the ANC has also made provision for people who were members of MK to get pensions.  And personally we will explore that aspect with them and try and come back to you on that issue, because then dependents would probably be entitled to receive that pension.
 But thank you very much for sharing your story with us.  I now hand you back to the chairperson.