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

DR BORAINE: ... was that the previous witness requested witness protection and when people request that, unless there is some very good reason we have to grant them that and the place of safety where he has gone closes at five o'clock and the witness protector did not want him to travel later in the evening.  So the request came from our witness protector and I can now announce that because he's actually in protection and will be looked after.
 I call and invite the next witness Mr Paul Hlongwane.  Mr Hlongwane welcome. We are pleased to see you, you've had a long wait.  Can I ask you to please put on the headphones so that you can follow.  Can you hear me now and you can hear the translation.

PAUL HLONGWANE: Yes.

DR BORAINE: Thank you very much.  Again let me say a very warm word of welcome to you, thank you very much for coming. I have to ask you to take the oath so if you will please stand.

PAUL HLONGWANE: (sworn states)

DR BORAINE: Thank you very much.  Mr Hlongwane in a moment you are going to tell us a story which covers a very long period of time.  In fact there are two distinct - starting briefly in 1960 and then again much later on in 1987, so there are two chapters, if you like, to your story which we
JOHANNESBURG HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
2 P HLONGWANE
look forward to hearing.  To assist you in telling that story Commissioner Hlengiwe Mkhize will take over from me now and guide you.

MS MKHIZE: Mr Hlongwane it has been long.  At the moment we can see that you are very tired, but maybe before I talk to you I think it is necessary to remind you, the Commission and those people who are here, especially from the time when you started being harassed.
 On 30 March 1960 a state of emergency was passed.  The Act gave the Minister of Law and Order, Commissioner of the SAP, a magistrate or a commissioned officer the power to detain any person where in their opinion this was desirable for reasons of public safety.  It allowed detention without trial and it authorised any commissioned officer to detain without a warrant any person suspected of political activities and to hold them without access to a lawyer for 90 days.  Under this legislation we have been told that you are one of the first people in South Africa to serve the 90 days in detention. 
 Having said that I would like you to greet the Commission and tell them about yourself and your life that led you to be one of the first people to be detained.

PAUL HLONGWANE: I greet the Commission.  My story is quite long and so much that in the 1960 affairs I wouldn't be able to give you the dates, it's quite long.  As you see this is my last born. It's quite long.  But then the reason that got me into jail it was the Sharpeville affairs.
 We went to Orlando Police station to protest against the innocent children and women who were shot and killed at Sharpeville.  I remember very well it was a few days, few months after Verwoerd had ordered ten Saracens, and those 
JOHANNESBURG HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
3 P HLONGWANE
very ten Saracens were used in Sharpeville to mow down people.  So we were busy campaigning and fighting against the influx and pass laws.  So we decided to protest and we got to Orlando East.  Thereafter we were locked in.
 In fact we were the first to be sentenced for three years.  Before that it was three months with the defiance campaign, two months, so forth.  We got to Leeuwkop where we dug sand and all that.  Now in this final sentence we were 300, three years option of 300, 300 ...(indistinct).  We were together with Robert Sebuko.  He's the first man to get that severe punishment.  We were sentenced to hard labour.  We had to go to Pretoria ...(indistinct) for classification because we were over one or two years.  From there transferred to Stone Yard where we lost one of our men who was a carpenter.  Well he died due to food which was not correct for him.
 In the meantime for six months we were at Stone Yard preparing to be transferred to a destiny which was Stoffberg where we had to build and dig a lake which was 75 feet deep.  I remember one of our men there, the late Mr Mtuping who was bitten by a snake whilst we were in prison.  And what we required seeing that we were sentenced, we wanted to improve the life of prisoners in jail.  We ordered many - you know in the first place we wanted prison regulations and we were punished for demanding prison regulations because the food was not normal, it was inhuman, and sleeping we would sleep on concrete with mats that people use outside for cleaning their feet. So life was really unbecoming.
 At one stage whilst we were digging that heavy dam the White warders from Free State, all over, were summoned to come and ill-treat us or thrash us with pick handles.  We 
JOHANNESBURG HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
4 P HLONGWANE
call that battle, it was the Battle of Pick.  We got, some of them unfortunately, the people who were badly hurt, they are now late.  Now that is the first instance which I wouldn't embark on it for a long time.  We did our sentence.  By the way during that period Sebuko Robert number four, he wrote a letter with a toilet to Kwame Nkrumah appealing to him to send us 45,000 pounds by then.  And then Verwoerd declared a state of emergency.  So the money was transferred to Basutoland, to Msimghtele.  All the same we had to continue with our sentence up to the last.

MS MKHIZE: Just to assist you or to help you rest a bit maybe I will direct you.  I just wanted the Commission maybe to get clarity from you as to what exactly happened to you especially during 1960 because it's important for us as we will be comparing with your experiences in 1987.  You mentioned the beatings that you were beaten up badly.  If maybe you can remember during that detention time what else do you consider to have been bad treatment?

PAUL HLONGWANE: The food we were given, you know beans, spoiled beans that is usually given to the pigs, that's what we used to be fed on.  And the punishment we would get randomly was to be isolated, solitary confinement, for instance if you feel sick or anything they would take you to solitary confinement for observation.  You would only get water from ...(indistinct) which would really make you sick, because it would take you about two or three days having one meal which was what do you call it, (speaks Zulu) spoilt mealies, there was no ...(indistinct) whatsoever.  When you would complain they would tell you that look you're a prisoner, yours is to serve or die.  We were in a maximum term, no privileges whatsoever.
JOHANNESBURG HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
5 P HLONGWANE
 Then we finished our sentence, three years.  Well fortunately we didn't lose our men, we only lost one man at Stone Yard.  Right, we were released after finishing our sentence which carried another three years suspension.  
 We were hardly back, hardly two or three months, we were again rounded up and detained.  It was the beginning of 90 days.  It started with us because of the incident that took place at the Cape ...(indistinct), something like that, you see.  We were rounded up and detained.
 If you remember well Goldreich the lawyer, advocate was dealing with our case.  Unfortunately he had to skip and the way he skipped he acted as a minister, Anglican minister with cassocks and all that.  He went to Swaziland. Okay.  The detention took a year.  Eventually we were released, but in between they would pick us and detain us so much that I didn't have time to go and work or be employed.  I only survived because of the knowledge I got from school doing carpentry or building.  I don't know if that is sufficient for 1960?

MS MKHIZE: Thank you very much.  It has certainly clarified us, although you mentioned that in between, maybe the Commissioner would like to know what was happening in between ...(intervention)

PAUL HLONGWANE: They would pick me up and detain me you know.

MS MKHIZE: Well ...(intervention)