Human Rights Violation Hearings — Cradock — 1997-02-17

XOLILE DANIEL NTOZINI: (sworn states)

MR SANDI: Good afternoon to you Mr Ntozini, are you well?

XOLILE DANIEL NTOZINI: Yes thanks.

MR SANDI: According to the statement you're going to give evidence about yourself, incidents from January 1984, how old were you at the time?  Perhaps you'll remember later. You were 20, you were born in 1964?  Were you a student or were you working?

XOLILE DANIEL NTOZINI: I was a student.  I had to stop in 1984.

MR SANDI: Were you connected to any political organisation?

XOLILE DANIEL NTOZINI: Yes.

MR SANDI: To which organisation?

XOLILE DANIEL NTOZINI: There were no organisations as such in Middelburg until the UDF was started.  I became a member of the United Democratic Front because I was aware of their aims and what they were fighting for.  I then went home to try to pass on the message on to the people so that we in our own community could start UDF as well. I started this organisation back home.

MR SANDI: Which year?

XOLILE DANIEL NTOZINI: 1984.

MR SANDI: Is that why you started having problems from 1984?

XOLILE DANIEL NTOZINI: Yes.  My life changed totally.  My house as well.

MR SANDI: Apparently you were detained and tortured.  Could you tell us what happened from 1984?

XOLILE DANIEL NTOZINI: I was an acting president at the time. In previous years at home in Middelburg the police were half the number of the people in the community, so what would happen is that if you were in any way connected to organisations that were banned, half the police would come to our communities to threaten our families.  It was therefore difficult to start this organisation as people were fearful, but we tried with other comrades under such conditions.  I'd be detained now and again but I persevered.  We would have meetings now and again.  We'd have meetings on our own, not the whole organisation, but even then the information would slip through to the boers.  I stopped studying at the time.  I thought I'd wait a while so that this organisation could be established in our community.

MR SANDI: Under what conditions were you detained the first time?

XOLILE DANIEL NTOZINI: We tried to organise a march or an open gathering, that is how it started.  Whilst we were marching on the street, the police came.  They said that they're only giving us a few minutes to disperse.  We did not disperse, we continued to march, there were police everywhere from the front and the back.  They then started shooting.

MR SANDI: Were there any people who got injured?

XOLILE DANIEL NTOZINI: Yes they were, it's just a bit sad that some of them are not here today.

MR SANDI: You will please give us details later, did you get arrested that day?

XOLILE DANIEL NTOZINI: No I was not, I got a chance to run away.  After a week they got me, on a Monday morning when I was with a friend of mine.  They were in a private car in which they put me and drove me to the police station.  At the police station we did not walk through the main door, we went through the back yard where there were more than 30 policemen, three in the car who told me to get out when they parked the car.  They climbed out with sjamboks and batons, and I realised then that things were bad. Forcing me out the car they beating me and when I tried to get out the police that were at the back yard already started beating me.  I tried to hide under the car but everybody was beating me, I did not know what was going on, I could not hear anything, I was just being beaten up.

MR SANDI: For how long were you beaten up?

XOLILE DANIEL NTOZINI: About thirty minutes.

XOLILE DANIEL NTOZINI: Do you remember any people that were beating you?  The names, the identities of the police.

XOLILE DANIEL NTOZINI: Yes those that I remember well were the ones that drove me to the police station.

MR SANDI: Do you have the names?

XOLILE DANIEL NTOZINI: Limen Malidi unfortunately passed away. Tiketiki's still alive.

MR SANDI: Where is he?

XOLILE DANIEL NTOZINI: He's not in Middelburg anymore.

MR SANDI: So you don't know whether he's still a policeman where he is?

XOLILE DANIEL NTOZINI: I don't know.

MR SANDI: And the third man?

XOLILE DANIEL NTOZINI: Majola.

MR SANDI: Where is Majola.

XOLILE DANIEL NTOZINI: He's in Mossel Bay. I don't know whether he's still a policeman or not.

MR SANDI: Why did they stop beating you up, how did that happen?

XOLILE DANIEL NTOZINI: There is a coal room somewhere, I jumped over to it, next to the door.  I was giving them a chance to stand before me, and they ordered me to get out. I told them to wait a while, two of them jumped over to take me out and I had to jump into the midst of the rest of them.  Mr Limen Malidi took me to the captain, to tell him that I'm the man they've been looking for.  The captain was not in the office, he had gone to town and I was then taken in the state I was in to offices on the second floor where they tried to interrogate me but they could not get anything out of me as I was bleeding.  They put me in a cell, it must have been after dinner in the afternoon ,I had not eaten since morning and they had arrested me since 8 o'clock in the morning.

MR SANDI: How long were you in detention for?

XOLILE DANIEL NTOZINI: Are you talking about that particular day?

MR SANDI: Yes that day.

XOLILE DANIEL NTOZINI: The entire day.

MR SANDI: When did they release you or what happened at the end of it all?

XOLILE DANIEL NTOZINI: Nothing happened.  The next day I was accused of public violence together with comrades that had been arrested the previous week.

MR SANDI: So you were arrested a week later?

XOLILE DANIEL NTOZINI: Yes.

MR SANDI: But you were accused of the same thing.

XOLILE DANIEL NTOZINI: es I was.

MR SANDI: Did you go to a court of law?

XOLILE DANIEL NTOZINI: Yes I did.

MR SANDI: How did the case go?

XOLILE DANIEL NTOZINI: We got out on bail and the case didn't go any further.

MR SANDI: I noticed according to your statement that you were arrested again?

XOLILE DANIEL NTOZINI: Yes I was.  When I was out on bail I still had to continue going to the court of law.  This one particular day when we went to court, but there were no proceedings, we walked home, I wanted to inform them at home as to what was happening.  There are two townships in Middelburg, there's the old township, then there's the main road that separates the old township from the new one, I walked through the old township, there is a policeman who is called Ben Metsi, there were other police in his house.  He was moving his furniture into a van and other police were helping him. I don't know what was going on because I was from court.  I asked the others what was going on and they said we were not allowed to go to the new township by the police.  I said that I'm going and two other comrades joined me saying that they are going to the new township.  We walked the police, past the sports fields, we crossed the main road, there was a field next to the main road and when we got to the middle of it a yellow detectives' car started approaching me.  I said to my comrades that these people are after me and suggested that we should walk back.  As we were walking back there was yet another car from the Special Branch which had not been there when we walked past the first time. Well then, I said, there is nothing we can do, these people have plans about me.
 We tried to run away because there are footpaths but it came after us.  I then told the comrades to walk ahead so that we can find out what was going on and I was going to walk behind them.  There were four police in the car, two white police, Ben Malite.

MR SANDI: Was he the only one you knew amongst these police?

XOLILE DANIEL NTOZINI: I also knew Mr Botha, he was also a detective.

MR SANDI: What did you say to them?