Human Rights Violation Hearings — Upington — 1996-10-03

CASE NO: CT/01404 /

<UNKNOWN>: SEVERELY ASSAULTED BY NP

MR POTGIETER: Good morning Mr Yanta.  Are you well?

JIM BONAKELE YANTA: Yes I am.

MR POTGIETER: That is good to hear.  You are also from Prieska.  You are very welcome here.  Before you testify you will have to take the oath so would you please stand to do that.
JIM BONAKELE YANTA Duly sworn states

MR POTGIETER: Thank you, you may sit.  Mr Yanta you are going to tell us about something which happened on the 7th September 1993, that is quite recent.  You were assaulted, you were seriously assaulted.  Would you like to tell us what happened on that day.  I understand that it took place at about half past six in the late afternoon.  What exactly happened?

WITNESS:  We were coming home from work, my friend and I, Jafta van Staden and we were working in the Coloured township and we were doing sewerage works there and when we knocked off at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, we were on our way home.  We lived in Ethembeni in the location and that was in the Red Block.  On our way home in 20th Avenue a group of young boys approached us.  They were the National Party youth supporters and they stopped us and they grabbed my friend first and they stoned my friend as well.  My friend started running away and they said that they were National Party supporters and they didn't want ANC supporters in the location.  They threw stones at me as well and I also tried to free myself and run away.  I ran all the way to our location and I ran into a house, Nomsizi's house.  The lady of the house asked what's happening and I told her that we were confronted by these young men in the street and they threw stones at us.  The woman then said I must go home.  I then went to the police station in Ethembeni and I laid a charge there.  When I came out of the police station, well I don't know where the other youths of Ethembeni had heard that we had been assaulted.  On my way home in Korda Street I saw the youth league, members of the youth league there and they said that there was one National Party supporter in Nana Nell's house and they wanted to hurt him because they had hurt us.  Nana Nell said that the person hiding inside the house hadn't done anything and that the children should just leave him alone but the children didn't want to leave him alone.  They kept him in the house.  Then the police arrived.  It was Reid and he then took this National Party supporter and took him to Bontheuwel in the van because the children wanted to hurt him because we had been hurt.  I then went home and the next day I went to the doctor and that evening the National Party youth called a meeting.  They wanted to have a meeting with us and with the police but they never arrived at the meeting.  On the Friday the police came to my house because I had lodged a complaint and they said that I should go to Court, that the case was ready to commence and when we went to the Magistrate's Court, we found these National Party supporters there as well.  I only knew two of these people.  The others, well I knew them from sight hut I didn't know their names.  I saw them going in and out of the prosecutor's office.  When we arrived there the prosecutor called us into his office but they called us into the office one by one.  When I got into his office he asked me what had happened and I told him.  The prosecutor told me that when we appear in court we should just say that we don't know these other people, we only know these two people - Glen and Johannes Botha.  We should say that we only knew these two people.  So I said yes they are also outside here but I didn't know their names, just knew their faces.  The prosecutor said well we should just deny knowledge of any of the others and we did what he told us to do and the case started and we told our story but there were some of the others outside and they came to Jafta and myself and told us that we should just drop this case and go home.  We shouldn't continue with this case because we were just all human beings, but we thought we couldn't just drop the case because they never came to the meeting which they had called.  We told our story in Court and then we went home but nothing much came of the case but the National Party never stopped.  They always fought with our supporters and our people when they put up placards and posters and there was a lot of problems during the election period.  There were fights between the National Party people and our people and some of the ANC members who lived in the location had to actually move out of the location, out of the Red Block and they had to come to live in Ethembeni because they were constantly being threatened.  It was PW Simon and Atter, PW Simon and Atter, they were responsible for this.  They encouraged the National Party people to hurt the ANC supporters but the police would often arrive and then they would have meetings with our people and we told the police to go and talk to this PW Simon - to go and tell them that they must leave this and they must drop what they're doing.  The police always said they would but they never reported back to us what they had done and what the National Party people had said.  When we fought back against the National Party people then the police would arrive and they would shoot rubber bullets at us.  They would always stop us and only us.  Meanwhile it wouldn't be the ANC youth league who would be the cause of the problem but it would be the National Party supporters but we would be the people to get shot.  So the fighting never stopped.  The police would bring National Party people into the location, into our location, just to come and hurt our people and when we defended ourselves then we got hurt and we were regarded as the cause of the problems and that is all I have to say.

MR POTGIETER:  Thank you Mr Yanta.  What is significant in your testimony is the fact that you are referring to quite recent incidents in 1993 and I would like to ask you a couple of things just to get clarity in my own mind.  Were you a member or supporter of the ANC youth league?

WITNESS:  Yes I was a member of the ANC youth league and I was a member of the management committee of the ANC youth league.

MR POTGIETER:  What was your position there?

WITNESS:  I was the organiser.

MR POTGIETER:  Was that in Prieska?

WITNESS:  Yes.

MR POTGIETER:  Now at that stage you were employed, you were working in Bontheuwel?

WITNESS:  Yes, Bontheuwel and Rooi Blok.

MR POTGIETER:  Is Rooi Blok a section of Bontheuwel?

WITNESS:  Yes it is the Coloured area.

MR POTGIETER:  Did you work for the municipality?

WITNESS:  No we were working on a contract to lay pipes.

MR POTGIETER:  What were they busy doing actually?  It was the infrastructure sewerage pipes.

WITNESS:  Sewerage pipes yes.

MR POTGIETER:  So you were busy working to try and improve the infrastructure in that area of Bontheuwel and you were then assaulted and attacked in Bontheuwel?

WITNESS:  Yes in Rooi Blok, in the Coloured area.

MR POTGIETER:  And you were assaulted by members of the National Party?

WITNESS:  Was members of the National Party youth.  They lived in that Bontheuwel location.

MR POTGIETER:  And this is the Bontheuwel where you were working to improve the infrastructure.  Now the youth who attacked you, were they Coloured people?

WITNESS:  Yes they were Coloured people.

MR POTGIETER:  Did they know you?

WITNESS:  Yes they did.

MR POTGIETER:  So they knew you were a member of the ANC?

WITNESS:  Yes they did because they would always notice us putting up posters and so forth for the election, so they knew.

MR POTGIETER:  Did they say anything before they attacked you?