Human Rights Violation Hearings — Tembisa — 1996-11-26

KATE BOOI: Edward was arrested on the 11th of June 1986.  When the state of emergency was to be uplifted he was arrested the evening before.  It was quarter to 12.  When they came to fetch him there were many.  It was a big group.  It was soldiers and policemen.  I saw one White man amongst these policemen who said his name is Mr Smith.  There were three other policemen.  The other one said he is Twala, but the other one I cannot remember them clearly but I was just scared and frightened.  The whole house was surrounded by the soldiers carrying guns.
 I think it was 23 people who came to arrest Edward alone.  They said they wanted to search the house.  The ones who came in earlier they searched very politely, and they 
TEMBISA HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
3 K BOOI
found Edward and they left with him.  I tried to get him dressed up warmly because it was in winter.  He wore two jerseys and two pants as well and I told him that you must go like a hero.
 Thereafter I went to wake my next door neighbour up.  It was at 12 o'clock at that time and I asked her to help me to follow these policemen.  It took some time because my neighbour was still asleep but he woke up.  We came to Rabasoto Police Station but we never saw even the vehicle that took him.  It is not a Casper, it is something that - it's a vehicle that would be used to load cattle.  We don't know where this went.  We asked about Edward but they said they don't know him.  
 Then I went to Mrs Zodwa's house so that she should be able to advise me what to do in this instance because I did not know what to do at that time.  When I got to SeZodwa she said that go home and sleep and you wake up in the morning and go and see Mohamed Bam who is a lawyer in Johannesburg, he will advise you.  
 Before I went there I went to the police station again just to confirm that so that wherever I go I should be able to know where he is.  On my way back they said they don't know him.  They don't know Edward.  They said they don't know such a person.  I wanted to know where did they take him to.  Luckily on my out I met Twala the policeman and I said to him you are the one who fetched Edward, where is he?  He said I don't know.  I am definitely sure that they have sent him to Robben Island, but I wanted to know how, without my knowledge.  
 Then I went to the lawyer.  He is the one who helped me to know that Edward was not arrested under the state of 
TEMBISA HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
4 K BOOI
emergency, he is in Tembisa, but it's got nothing to do with the state of emergency, but it's to do with the MacGregor blast here in Kempton Park.  And that's the only information I got from the lawyer.  He said that he'll appear on the 16th in court.  We just waited.
 I was thinking that they would release him finally.  But on the final date he was swollen, they had assaulted him.  They released him on the fourth day.  His hands and legs were chained.  It was over 11 cars that brought him, police cars and they had dogs with them as well.  We were frightened as to what is happening.  He cannot walk.  His face was so swollen.  
 They sent in a dog to sniff his clothes that he had on in Kempton Park, but we had not washed the clothes yet, they were still in the washing basket but they were throwing things all about and this dog went straight and took all the clothes that he had on, the pair of jeans and the T-shirt, and they said yes we found now what we are looking for.  
 My son cried and he just said that all I need is water because for four days and four nights I never had water nor food and you could see by his state that he had to be given water, he was genuinely thirsty.  I said to these policemen how can you keep a child without eating for four days, how can you keep a child in this situation.  He said that we do give him food, he's had two jars full of water.  Thereafter he wanted some bread but he could not eat that bread.  He ate two loaves so that he should be able to live with this food. They said that we will find him in Kempton Park because it was on the 15th on that day. On the 16th his matter will be held in court.
 We did wake up the following morning and I was 
TEMBISA HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
5 K BOOI
accompanied by some other people.  We drove off with a car because nobody was allowed to travel in the Township.  They didn't even want us to leave, but fortunately we had someone who was an interpreter in court and we were driving in his car.  He is the one who talked with these policemen so that they should allow us to go to court and we did.
 In court we found out that Mohamed Bam sent his representative, Patel, but now he was not using my son's statement.  The information was distorted to the extent that even him, my son, told me that I must not give up, I must go to Omar because he trusted that Omar would be able to release him. He knows that he won't be granted bail but he definitely would do something.  When we wanted to give him some food they said he's not allowed to get any food.  He was still kept in Kempton Park at that time.  
 We tried again to find a lawyer. There was a meeting in DPSC that we were supposed to attend at the Methodist Church and we were all being called to come and give our complaints.  On our way back a child told me that they didn't allow me to give Edward food but he's still kept in the cell.  Then we found Omar.  At that time there was another lawyer that was a partner of Mohamed Bam who said we must all go to Kempton Park and that is when then they allowed us to give him the food and he managed to eat.
 There were all these hassles about my son's food and they were carrying him around in the township and they were covering his head and they were assaulting him all the time, but when Omar was found all this came to an end, and that is when we were allowed to see him.  He said the best thing for us to do is to remove him here so that he must be transferred to Modderbee so that he should be able to  
TEMBISA HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
6 K BOOI
communicate with him, and he did that exactly, and we went there. He was transferred to Modderbee and he stayed there for five months and we were still struggling for him to be granted bail.  The bail was granted towards the end of September 1986.  It was R5 000, his bail.  Because I was accompanied by a women's group it was agreed that we would make a plan so that we should be able to raise this bail.  He stayed there for a month until we managed to raise the funds.  The lawyer tried to reduce this bail to R2 000 and the women's group assisted me because I am poor.  I've got nothing in my possession.  The women's group assisted me, even the business people and they tried day and night to assemble all these funds and then he was finally released.
 On his release he stayed with us for some time.  Because he was granted bail without any restrictions.  The policemen didn't like the fact that there were no restrictions attached to the bail.  They treated him as if he was going to escape.  He kept on appearing in court.  In January when he appeared in court again he said to the people that because the matter has been postponed too much I am free now.  He said it openly in front of them, but I will come to court.
 After some time he left. They arrested him at the Holiday Inn.  I think he was trying to go to Botswana.  He was going to travel by air.  He was still at the Holiday Inn but they arrived there and they arrested him.  I don't know who told them but they found him there.  Because he was not at home for three days I realised that he was sleeping there at the Holiday Inn.  They found him there.  Holmes arrived who was handling Eddie's matter.  He was accompanied by another policeman.  When he got home he just called me 
TEMBISA HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
7 K BOOI
Auntie because he didn't know my name, he wanted to know whether do I know about Edward's whereabouts, I said I don't know, I don't know where he is.  He said go inside the house and we all went in.  But the way these people harassed us we could never sleep, we had sleepless nights and restless days.  To the extent that I lost my temper one day and I told them that we are fed up of you people.  We cannot rest because of Eddie's matter because we don't move around with Eddie and we don't know about his activities.  That helped because their visits subsided.
 On that particular day when Holmes came in I said to him you must please sit down because you cannot talk to us while standing, and I told these policemen with him that they must sit down.  But when he sat down he said you mustn't be surprised we have arrested Eddie.  I wanted to know why.  They said no we want him to go and sign.  But I said no, they said in court without restrictions.  He said to me they are aware that he is leaving.  I said I am not aware of that but he was never told to come and sign at the office.  Well they took him.  I was told that he would be going to the High Court.  I thought that they were talking about the Supreme Court, but I went to all the courts but he was not there.  I only found that he was in the High Court because I don't know Johannesburg well.   There I was told that he must come and sign every day at the police station and he did that and he was released.  He did exactly as ordered signing daily.
 On the Good Friday of 1987 in the evening he went to the policemen.  On arrival there he told them that he's a member of the ZCC congregation and he must go to his congregation because they must go there.  After Good Friday 
TEMBISA HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
8 K BOOI
that was the last time I saw him up to today.