Human Rights Violation Hearings — Klerksdorp — 1996-09-24

MERRIAM M MATETE: Yes, it affected me because my husband was the breadwinner and he was actually educating his ten children.
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And this affected us a lot really.

PROF MEIRING: Your health was not affected, you don't have back ache or any other thing that came from the assaults?

MERRIAM M MATETE: I was assaulted and such a young hefty man was really grabbing me with my throat.  You know, as I grew up, I had mumps and they are still troubling me up till today.

PROF MEIRING: Mrs Matete, thank you so much.  You have told us the story of yourself and of your husband, but I think  that my colleagues at the table would like to add a few questions of their own.   Thank you from my side.

DR RANDERA: Mrs Matete, from my calculation you were 61 years old at the time when this happened.  How old was your husband?

MERRIAM M MATETE: He was 68 years old, he was born in 1922.

DR RANDERA: Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Mamma, can you tell me the lawyer that helped you, was that Ichbal or Ahmad Motala?

MERRIAM M MATETE: I do not know their initials, but I know he was a Mr Motala and the doctor who was helping my husband was also a Dr Motala.

CHAIRPERSON: Mamma, was it normal in the - or usual - in the townships that when they picked you up they would pick old people up with young comrades, and that they would force them to undress or they would be embarrassed in front of younger people?

MERRIAM M MATETE: It was not a common practice.  Their problem was that my husband was inciting the youth this bad spirit and they were saying he was making the people to be against the Coloured people.

CHAIRPERSON: How long after the assault did your husband die?
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MERRIAM M MATETE: He was assaulted in that year when the shacks were removed to Mandela Park and three years thereafter in 1994 he passed away, but in-between he was a sickly person, he couldn't do anything for himself.

CHAIRPERSON: Mamma, after the assault, did you instruct any lawyers to bring a claim against the police for what they did to you?

MERRIAM M MATETE: No, we didn't make any claim, because I was even scared of White people, I wouldn't even go close to them.

CHAIRPERSON: Order, please!  Thank you, Mamma.  Dr Randera has a question.

DR RANDERA: Mrs Matete, I just want to again understand the events of those few days.  Everything happened in Leeudoringstad.  Is that right?  Initially.

MERRIAM M MATETE: That's correct, Sir.

DR RANDERA: And then firstly your husband and your son were taken to Digane outside Klerksdorp.

MERRIAM M MATETE: That is correct.

DR RANDERA: And then a few days later you were also taken to Klerksdorp?

MERRIAM M MATETE: I was also taken to Klerksdorp, that is correct.

DR RANDERA: Now was that a normal thing to happen, did they not have a police station in Leeudoringstad?  Why were police coming all the way from Klerksdorp to arrest you?

MERRIAM M MATETE: There were police nearby, but at Leeudoring there were no CIDs.  The Hippos were also driven by policemen whom I do not know.

DR RANDERA: Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Mamma, thank you for sharing that story with
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us.  We recognise that you must have suffered.  You were not at a young age when this assault was done to you and your husband and it is humiliating at that age, as well as quite frightening, I think that it should have happened, and that it should have happened by those people who should have protected you.  We share your pain and we hope that in the telling of your story to us, that you will have felt some kind of release. You have named the people whom you recognised and who were part of this and we thank you for sharing that information with us.  We will pass it on to our investigation unit.

MERRIAM M MATETE: I also thank you.  I want to thank the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that has offered us an opportunity to open our hearts.  These things have been in my heart for quite some time, and you know I wouldn't go to sleep at all, and I think I have taken everything out of my heart and God will help me to ease the pain that was within me. I am glad that you are here.  We can see that we are not on our own, you are with us.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Mamma, for sharing that.
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