Human Rights Violation Hearings — Worcester — 1996-06-26

MRS FERUS: You see there was another incident and that's what I'm trying to recall.  Nevertheless I'll just continue now maybe it will occur to me just now.  According to the 90 days Act, after 3 months had passed, oh yes, that's what I wanted to say, in terms of the Act the Magistrate had to come and visit the detainees just twice a month to find out whether anything irregular had taken place and so on.   These 2 persons, I can't remember who they were, policemen or detectives who had been interrogating him, he then told the Magistrate what they had been doing to him and laid a charge against them and the Magistrate said, I'll go into this case and I'll see what I can do about it.   
 After 14 days the Magistrate came back and said I'm sorry to tell you but there is nobody who has been touching you.  He then decided now I'm going to start doing my own thing and that is when he started fighting back and that's when he requested the boots because he started kicking and they started tying him to the chair.  He said mother that is when they really beat me up and hurt me.   He never really explained exactly what happened there. 
 From Worcester he was sent to Tulbagh and after the hunger strike he was sent to Roeland Street Prison.  In Roeland Street things were very, very tough according to what he told me but he did say that a day would come when he would tell the story himself, what exactly happened in that prison.  He didn't give me all the particulars.
 They came back to me, it was absolutely nerve-wracking, they would come to my work and they were almost victimising me but fortunately my employer called me in and asked me what is happening, why are these detectives constantly coming here.  He was an English speaking man, a very nice man.   I gave him all the details and he said it's all right Ferus seeing that you have told me, now I know.  That's what happened, they would come to my work.   The police would come and they would say to my son that his grandmother had died.  In those days, I'm sorry if I have to say this myself but I was a young, pretty girl at that time, you have to pardon me if I say this, they told him that I was looking old and grey and they asked him if he was not ashamed that he was causing such difficulties for his mother and grandmother that his grandmother even died because of his behaviour.  They also asked him if he was not ashamed to leave his mother under these circumstances and that it was not necessary for him to have cause this experience to his mother and grandmother.
 They would then also return to me and they would say to me, Ferus you must tell your son that he must speak, you must let him know that you want him to tell them what they want to know then we will let him go.  All of these things exhausted me and I was a nervous wreck.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: So the repeated detentions and imprisonment of your son had quite an impact - an impact on your life.

MRS FERUS: Yes - yes lady yes - definitely.  While he was in detention in Roeland Street, now as I have already told you, I could bring him his clean clothing, and one - there was one day when I went - they told me that Mr Sauerman - he was the highest of the Special  Branch.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: Yes.

MRS FERUS: Mr Sauerman wants to see me at Caledon Square and when I got there, Mr Sauerman was very - very friendly and Mr Sauerman said well all right I'll tell it in Afrikaans, because he was an Afrikaans spoken man.  
He then said to me, Mr Ferus we are not going to waste a lot of time as the proverb goes we'll just start at the very beginning.  He then said that he had made enquiries in Worcester to determine what the relationship between I myself as mother and Ferus my son was and that he had found out that we had a very good understanding and a good relationship.  
Mr Sauerman then told me that he was going to pick up the phone from Caledon Square and phone down to Roeland Street to call in Ferus, he said that they wanted Ferus to speak because he is like a hard rock, he is hard to crack but we don't want Ferus we want the big fishes, the whales.   Ferus is like a sardine in the ocean and we don't want him.  Mrs Ferus we want you to tell him to speak, he must tell us what we want to know.  He said Mrs Ferus we have the right that if he gives testimony he will be able to go home with you to Worcester and the entire matter would be at an end.  ... (interrupted) ...

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: ... that's all right, I'm just going to interrupt you but I wonder, what we heard from you is that you were drawn into the police involvement in the interrogation of your son and pressurising  your son to disclose information and so on and that had an impact on the family.

MRS FERUS: Yes.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: I wonder if we could pause there a little bit and perhaps speak with Patti and ask Patti to tell us from her perspective about Hennie and also to ask her to tell us particularly what happened after he was released.

MRS FERUS: Yes okay - right Patti.