Human Rights Violation Hearings — Johannesburg — 1996-04-29

ROKAYA SALOJEE: I was married for two years and six days to be exact when he was detained.  I don't know whether they took him from the house or from work because I was at work.  In any case when I heard that he was detained I went to Grey's(?) building and they wouldn't tell me where my husband was.  Only after a couple of days when I went back they told me that he is in Rosebank Police Station.  When I asked for a visit I never got a visit.  In fact in all the time he was there I got two visits.  One was five minutes and the other one was ten minutes, or maybe a little more.
 Why I asked for the first visit because I believed that he was sick.  I also found it out accidentally because when I used to take food to Rosebank Police Station and I saw the policeman there he had a bottle on the shelf and I asked him, but he wouldn't tell me anything, so I decided to go back.  Those days we had a trick to say if you want to know whether your husband is interrogated or not, or whether he is at his cell or not you should ask for the dishes and for 
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his clothes. 
 So after about a week again I asked the warder there please man I don't know what to do because I've got no more dishes and I've got no more clothing because  - out of winter.  I think he slipped up and he said well your husband hasn't been here for over a week.  After he said it he realised it and he even asked me please don't mention that because we are not in charge of the detainees, we are only to take the food in and the clothing in.  So I asked him can you give me the clothing, so he said I can't give it to you because it's not clean.  What I meant by that I knew exactly.
 In any case I went back and I asked for a visit which they granted me.  And apparently those days you couldn't get into the bus and I was a bit late and I phoned the security police to say that I am late I've got to take the bus to Rosebank and we are only allowed seven non-whites.  In any case I got there and it was rather late already.  When they opened the cell door I saw my husband had a patch on his head.  When I asked him - I didn't even greet, I just asked what happened to you and this one policeman said that he bumped his head in the cell.  So I said that's funny he must have been drunk because there is nothing else that's in the cell that you can bump your head on.  They closed the door on me and told me to go away, which I did.  I had no alternative.
 I didn't even speak to my husband.  All he said to me in Gujerati, is that I should keep quiet.  He still wanted to speak and they closed the door because we were not allowed to speak any other language, but if you could speak Afrikaans you were better off than English speaking.  
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 But in the end I went back again and I asked to see my husband again.  And this time I had to lie, it wasn't a lie, it was the truth but I was worried to say that I am in financial difficulties and I need to see my husband to ask where should I borrow money.  That was in Grey's building, they didn't immediately, after a week or so they allowed me. When I went to Grey's building there were eight men standing and he was standing in the centre of the room.  When I got there they told me you've got five minutes to tell your husband what you want.  They didn't offer me a seat, they didn't offer him a seat.  I had to stand about three feet from him before I could speak.  I couldn't ask anything, that's the only thing I could ask.  Then he said ja I must go to the family and ask for money.  And they told me that is all, I have to leave.
 Then when I went back again they told me that I asked the same thing again that if I could see my husband, because I realised he was sick, they must have polished him up that day when they brought him there because I wasn't allowed to go near him.  But in any case when I asked for another visit Colonel Clint, he's a late now, and he actually swore at me.  I wouldn't use the language of course that we come there and make a nuisance out of ourselves.  Our husbands that are detained are better looked after than them.  He had (...indistinct) and he showed me where it pained.  I said I am not interested in your health, I am interested in my husband's health.  And he refused to give me a visit.
 In any case I continued and then on the 9th I was getting ready to take food to the prison and I think it was just half an hour before I left, Swanepoel and I don't know the other members because they said they were Railway 
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Policemen, and they said to me that you needn't go to the police station because your husband is in the hospital.  So I asked them which hospital.  They told me in Johannesburg Hospital.  In any case I had my (...indistinct) and a friend of mine they phoned every hospital and they couldn't find any trace of him.  So they went back to Coronation and said no he must be here, they said even if the king comes in we have to register the patient.  Then came the Press people.  In the meantime everybody knew what happened to my husband but I didn't because maybe I didn't want to believe it.
 There was a Press fellow by the name of Terry.  That was the last time I ever saw Terry.  I was sitting in the lounge and he came in and he said to me Mrs Salojee I'd like a statement from you.  So I said Terry how can I make a statement when I don't even know where my husband is.  And I think he didn't think he said your husband is in the mortuary.  He never went to the hospital.

YASMINE SOOKA: Can I ask you mean the police themselves never notified you that your husband ...(intervention)