Human Rights Violation Hearings — Krugersdorp — 1996-11-14

CHAIRPERSON: Our next speaker is Mrs Phadi. Whilst she is coming up we would like to welcome Mrs Joyce Dhanda who is the assistant-director of nursing at the Vereeniging Hospital.
 Good morning. We welcome you.  Can you tell us who is accompanying you?

MRS PHADI: This is my elder brother, Jerry.

CHAIRPERSON: We thank him and welcome him as well.  We will hand over to Dr Randera who will administer the oath.

DR RANDERA: Good morning.  Rebecca, you have also come to talk and tell us about your brother, Jacob Phadi.

MRS PHADI: That is so, Sir.

DR RANDERA: We are going back to 1982, almost 14 years ago. Your brother also was a member of the PAC. Before we get to that will you please stand and take the oath.

REBECCA PHANDI: (Duly sworn, states)>

CHAIRPERSON: I will hand over now to Piet Meiring, to lead Rebecca.

PROF MEIRING: Mrs Phadi, Rebecca, if I may call you so, a word of welcome from my side too and to your brother. It is good of you to have come here today.
 You are going to tell us about your brother who was a member of the PAC and who disappeared round about 1982, June 1982.  Before we start, may I just ask, were you living in 
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Kagiso at this stage?

MRS PHADI: I am staying in Extension 3, David Budeba Drive, 124, 64 is the house number.

PROF MEIRING: How long have you been staying there?

MRS PHADI: I think it is five years.

PROF MEIRING: When your brother disappeared, where did you stay then, also in Kagiso?

MRS PHADI: No, it was not in Kagiso, it was in Magaliesberg.

PROF MEIRING: In Magaliesberg. You were living in Magaliesberg.

MRS PHADI: Yes.

DR RANDERA: Please tell us from the time your brother left the house and everything started.

DR RANDERA: Yes, Sir.

PROF MEIRING: Thank you very much.  Rebecca, please tell us what happened to your brother and the concerns you have about your brother.

DR RANDERA: When Japie left in 1977 we were very hurt.  Japie was the child whom we loved very much.  He was active. He liked going to school.  He was very intelligent. He liked children.  After he left, he disappeared.  We were surprised and wondered where he was. After a week the police came and these police tortured my mother.  Then they searched the house.
 Before the police came, when Japie arrived in Botswana, he wrote a letter.  In that letter he wrote that he was going to study in Botswana.  He said he is not going to stay in Botswana.  From Botswana he would go to Zimbabwe, he would go to Lusaka, he will go to Zambia.  
 After this letter arrived the police came.  Then the 
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police tortured my mother. Then they searched the house.  They say they heard that Japie is around.
 After that first visit they kept on coming to torture my mother.  They came again.  The next time they came with 16 vans.  Then they surrounded the house.  They kicked the doors and entered the house.  Two of my brothers were then arrested. It was George and Dumile.  George was 15 years at that time.  Dumile was 13 years old at the time.  They took them with them.  They tied them on the trees.  Then they beat them.  George cannot hear properly now and he
was mentally disturbed.  After that George died. In 1980 George became sick and died. After he passed away my mother became cardiac.
 The police were harrassing my mother all the time.  In 1982 my mother was still ill at the time, George passed away at Lorato Hospital.  On the day she died Japie came home.  When Japie arrived he didn't know that my mother had died.  He hid himself at my aunt's place in Kagiso.  He arrived after we had already buried my mother.  He arrived at dawn, round about three o'clock to my mother's grave. Then he threw a little stone.  He was not around during the funeral, he went to the tombstone to throw a stone.  After that he went to my aunt at Kagiso, to stay there.  
 When I went to give the statement I went to tell my cousin in Kagiso that because Japie is staying with them for a long time, they should tell me what is happening to Japie.  Then they told me that Japie was a member of the Pan Africanist Congress.  My cousin told me that at night they would go to places to plant bombs.  He told me again that Japie went all over the country.  He mentioned four countries.  He went to Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lusaka and 
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Zambia.  
 When I listened to my cousin because he had so much information. I want to request the Truth Commission to request my cousin to come and give evidence, because he was the one who was staying with him in 1982.  
 I request the Truth Commission to help us to look for Japie.  Even if he has died in a far place, they should bring the bones home.  I thank you.

PROF MEIRING: Rebecca, thank you for your story. Your family has gone through a very traumatic time over many years.  Can we just go back and may I ask you a number of questions surrounding your story and some of my colleagues around the table will no doubt also want to ask a few questions.
 I want to know about Japie.  You said that you were very hurt when he left the family.  You did not know at that stage that he was involved in politics. Was that a surprise to the family?

MRS PHADI: The family was not aware at that time.

PROF MEIRING: You told us that he was a very friendly young man and that he was good at school.  What standard was he  in at school when he left home?

MRS PHADI: He was doing Form 5, Std 10.

PROF MEIRING: A very disturbing thing you told us about, was when he left and you didn't even know where he went to, that the police came and your family was tortured, your mother was tortured and your two brothers were tortured. In what way was your mother tortured?

MRS PHADI: They would torture her, they would push her and kick the doors and ask her questions about her son's whereabouts.
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PROF MEIRING: She was not physically harmed to such an extent that she had to go to hospital?

MRS PHADI: Please repeat your question?

PROF MEIRING: She was no bodily harmed so that she needed medical attention after that?

MRS PHADI: She was suffering from diabetes and cardiac problems as well.  Thereafter her condition became worse and she landed in Lorato Hospital and this led to the fact that her leg was amputated.

PROF MEIRING: Thank you.  You told us about your two brothers, George and the other brother, that they had a very rough time.  At one stage they were tied to trees and they were manhandled. Eventually you said that George died. Is that correct?

MRS PHADI: Yes, that is so.

PROF MEIRING: How old was he when he died?

MRS PHADI: He passed away in 1980.

PROF MEIRING: The other, your other brother, what became of him?

MRS PHADI: He is still around, he is working but he has memory loss sometimes.

PROF MEIRING: Can you just give us his name again, please.

MRS PHADI: His name is Dumahole.

PROF MEIRING: Thank you very much.  You said that in 1977 your brother left home and he wrote a letter directly afterwards to say that he studied in Botswana. Then for a number of years there was no news of him. Was it only in 1982 that you heard from him for the first time?

MRS PHADI: That was the first time when we saw him in 1982, he sent that letter.

PROF MEIRING: Was that when your mother died?
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MRS PHADI: In 1982 he arrived the same day as my mother  passed away.

PROF MEIRING: Was it just a coincidence, he didn't know about her death, he didn't come to the funeral, it just so happened that that was the same time he came home?

MRS PHADI: That is so. He was not coming to the funeral, it was just a coincidence.

PROF MEIRING: Did you speak to your brother when he returned?

MRS PHADI: No, I could not talk to him, because we were very busy.