Human Rights Violation Hearings — East London — 1996-04-15

NQABAKAZI GODOLOZI: He was going alone.  When he went to the meeting I came back from work.  On the 9th, I received a telephone call and my mother in law told me that I should go via her place.  When I arrived there she told me that my husband Quaqawuli was arrested.  I was also suspicious of that because he didn't come back the previous night and I also was aware about what was always happening because the police were looking for the books.
 On this day, a Wednesday, up to Friday, we didn't receive anything.  On Monday I received a telephone call and my cousin told me that my husband was at court. Because the place where I worked was just opposite the court, I p[ut down the telephone and because we were able to move around unnoticed, I was able to go out and attend the court, but when I arrived back, the policemen were chasing everyone away. I was so surprised why they were doing this so that people could not attend the court but because I had disappeared from work I came back again.  At one o'clock during the lunch hour I went to court again, I went from door to door calling for my husband because at times there were people who were at the cells.
    At that moment I could hear people talking about this 
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incident and the people in Port Elizabeth were talking and I overheard them talking, because they didn't know that I was the wife to Godolozi, and the Port Elizabeth people were all affected by what the police were doing. I learned that my husband was taken to Alexandria.  Two days later my sister came, it was a long time that she was coming, so she came to look for my husband trying to find out what happened, and it was also publicised that my husband had disappeared together with his friend.  I just told my sister that my husband was taken away and we knew that they didn't just get lost but were taken away by them.
 So my sister stayed with me, giving me the support that I wanted at the time.  I cannot remember the exact date but it was already in February 1986.  At that time I went to work again because I was still employed.  I told the employers that my husband has disappeared ever since he was arrested and that nobody knows any trace about him. You know that we were aware that the Boers at the time were so sensitive and they were arresting everybody.  My sister organised a car for us so that we can go and look for my husband.  My cousin and our friends, we went to Alexandria.  When we reached Alexandria, we didn't even know where the court was because we're not familiar with the place, we didn't even know where the police station was but, because we learned about this area, we went along to look for my husband.
 My sister had a friend, a school mate at the time, these people were supportive and they assisted us and took us along and tried to show us where we can find people who can help us to look for my husband. You know at the time everybody was alert and aware of this disappearance of my 
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husband and his friend, and we were informed that the Boers at the time were so sensitive, especially the police.  There were two policemen from Grahamstown. I did not even know them but this person was mentioning these people.  We went there, there was a policeman outside the house.  When we saw this person, it was David Mtala who was a policeman. He welcomed us and asked us what we wanted at Alexandria.  
We told him about our problem and he accommodated us.
 There was another policeman inside, he was a bit more mature that the other one, he looked also familiar, I knew his father who was a pastor, he was Mr Moyia.  I made enquiries and confirmed that he is.  We exchanged small talk and I was trying to approach them.

MR SMITH: I just want to get clarity on this Mrs Godolozi, did any two of the policemen say to you that they saw your husband at any stage, were they aware that he was in custody?

NQABAKAZI GODOLOZI: I had not yet asked them about this.  At a later stage they asked me what we really came there for.  I informed them that we were looking for my husband. Mr Mtana told us, that really my husband was here but he had been removed from this jail, he was no longer in Alexandria. So we were aware that he was also talking about Mr Hashe. Mr Nqya looked to his colleague and I could see that he was taken aback about what was happening.  I asked him when they are going to stop taking our people, tossing them from pillar to post?  I was also anxious because I was not experienced and I was not accustomed to doing what these policemen wanted us to do.  We were patient and tried to persuade them to tell us where these people are. I was always afraid that take us and find us here.
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MR SMITH: Did anyone of the policemen say to you that he saw Mr Hashe and Mr Galela?

NQABAKAZI GODOLOZI: Mr Mtana told us that they were both here in Alexandria and they were removed from that jail and were taken to Lowergrans. Moyia also confirmed that.  After that we went away. I was very angry at this time.  They also wanted to prevent us from being injured and I was insisting that we can be taken to the police so that they can give us proper information about our husbands, so that we can confirm what Mtana and his colleague said.  They took us to the police station, I was accompanied by my sister, I met a policeman there, we also told them that we were looking for Mr Godolozi who is my husband.  He also thought he thought he was my brother.  He looked through the records and stated that they are not on their records.  When he ..(tape ends)
.... got back.  I informed her that I have I have got some information and we were advise to Mrs Hashe to go to Mr Petrus Bresha, who was an attorney at the time.  I went there to put up the case, and he took statements.
 We were not staying together and were always having this fear of the police arriving time and again.  My mother said the case should be written and she should be the one who is lodging a complaint about what is happening.  When we went to court Priscilla Jana was the attorney.

MR SMITH: ...(indistinct) has already given evidence, testified that your husband's case was in fact heard in the Supreme Court in Grahamstown.  Did you attend the hearing?

NQABAKAZI GODOLOZI: The Supreme Court in Grahamstown?

MR SMITH: No sorry, the Supreme Court in Port Elizabeth, that ought to be.  Did you attend the hearing of the case?

NQABAKAZI GODOLOZI: Correct.
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MR SMITH: Were you there when Victor Sizane gave evidence?

NQABAKAZI GODOLOZI: I was there.

MR SMITH: You heard Victor Sizani giving evidence about the fact that he saw your husband and the two others in the custody of police in Grahamstown? At that same trial also Mkuseli Nganga also gave evidence, also that he saw your husband in Alexandria.

NQABAKAZI GODOLOZI: And also that they were in Alexandria, I was also present. I explained to them what has happened in the court and my visit to Alexandria.  Mr Sizane explained that he saw my husband in Alexandria and he told the court that he was in bandages and only the eyes were visible.  He told us that Sizani was arrested also, Moyi was one of the police, and Mr Sizani mistakenly went to a wrong cell and Mr Sizani pushed him away and insulted, but Mr Sizani at the time had already seen my husband, and Mr Suzani is therefore my witness.  The other witness is the friend to Mr Sizani and he stated that there was confirmation that Qaqawuli Godolozi was in a cell next to his and he wrote a note introducing himself, he wrote his name on a matchbox and on toilet paper.  Unfortunately the toilet paper was taken away because the police would remove any evidence which would confirm that the people were in custody.

MR SMITH: In court did they try and...(intervention)