Human Rights Violation Hearings — Durban — 1996-08-30

WITNESS:   Sure.  The circumstances of Lennie leaving the country was not very clear to us at all, even up to right at this point in time.  We weren't sure exactly what was the reason for him to leave the country, and there are still lots of things that we need to - we've got unanswered questions on that regard.  But he was involved with the UDF.  Of course he started off in his - should I say community work from the time he was a young boy in high school, and he worked with the Helping Hand Society in the Bayview area.  He worked with the Bayview Residents Association, and of course was also, I think, in the - with the inauguration of the UDF was one of the first members.  That's when the UDF started to be in - at that time.

MR LAX: He was a student at Durban-Westville University.  What was he studying there?

WITNESS:   He was doing a Bachelor of Arts degree.

MR LAX: A Bachelor of Arts?

WITNESS:   Ja. Did he complete his degree?   ---   Well, he never got to - I have prepared some notes, and if I can perhaps go through them that will make it a lot simpler.

MR LAX: Please go ahead.

WITNESS:   And there's also - there's something that I prepared that I want to - I felt needs to be said.

MR LAX: Please go ahead.

WITNESS:   Thank you.  Of course we come to this - you know, I come to the Commission as the spokesperson for my family, and whatever I am going to say will be a recollection of events surrounding the death and life and circumstances of my brother.  Firstly I was very pleased to hear of the establishment of the Truth Commission, and it was something that we prayed and hoped for for the last 10 years, and it has been actually almost 11 years since - or 10 years since I last saw my brother alive.  We always believed in truth and justice, and it was something that we always thought will - that truth and justice will always win, whether it's today, tomorrow, or in 10 years' time.  And it was this philosophy that really made me think about myself and look into myself after Lennie had died, and I asked myself, firstly, do I want justice - as we believed in this philosophy of justice and fair play?   Do I want justice to be served onto the wrongdoers, especially those that had administered justice the way they did to my brother, and the people of this country?  Do I want it to be meted out in the very same manner?  And there were times I wanted this type of justice, I wanted this jungle justice, blood for blood, and an eye for an eye, but fortunately there were times I wanted to learn the truth.  And those times that I wanted to learn the truth actually calmed me in my need for such justice.  Truth is what we all want, and truth I think is what we deserve now.  But the most soul-searching part comes after truth, and that is forgiveness.  I had to think long and hard about forgiveness.  I am still fighting with this.  It's not an easy battle.  There are times I seem to be losing - losing the battle.  At this time I am compelled to know the truth, but in knowing the truth I will obviously at one point in time have to forgive.  But what do I forgive, who do I forgive?  It seems this road of forgiveness, or this battle that I have with forgiveness seems to be a round going around in circles all the time.  Until this road straightens up perhaps I can forgive.  But through this Commission I hope that these perpetrators will give us the truth, and only the truth.

MR LAX: Since my first visit to the Commission's office I placed great faith in this Commission.  I placed faith in the investigators and the advice, so it was with great regret that I learned through a radio phone-in programme last Friday that some procedure to apply for amnesty was long and complicated.  I am talking specifically of those that are now serving prison sentences.  I urge the Commission to find ways of making this process as user-friendly as possible.  It seems that there are still forces out there waiting to taint this Commission.  Let us not give them this pleasure.

MR LAX: I was also amazed to hear on the very same programme that a certain group of people feel it is a waste of money.  To them I say remember Eschel Rhoodie, the information scandal, the toilets in the veld, etcetera.  Now, that was a waste of money.  Did you complain then?  No, you went on to vote the Nationalists back into power.  This Commission is a small price to pay for the truth.

MR LAX: And then there were people who feel, some people who feel, that it will open old wounds.  I find it strange that most of these people are the ones who are not carrying the wounds.  I want to say to these people our wounds have never healed.  It festers with infection of uncertainty and sorrow.  Let us bleed these wounds, root out the infection with truth, stitch it up with reconciliation, let it heal with time, and let the scar be the reminder of that wound.  And also let this be a history lesson for our children, and not of hatred.

MR LAX: As I explained a little earlier on, Lennie belonged to these societies, the Helping Hands, the Bayview Residents Association ... (intervention)

MR LAX: Just for the sake of the other people in the audience, the Helping Hand organisation, just explain what that is.

WITNESS:   It's a charitable organisation.  I think they align themselves with the Cheshire Homes for the disabled, and so they - and of course that just being one of the projects that they undertake, but it's generally a community-based organisation doing charitable work and community work in and around ... (intervention)

MR LAX: I just wanted you to explain essentially that is a non-political organisation.

WITNESS:   Oh no.

MR LAX: Focused solely on benevolent work within the community.

WITNESS:   Of course, yes.  Yes.

MR LAX: Okay.  And there again he was also a member of the UDF.  In 1982 he obtained a matric exemption, and the very next year started at the University of Durban-Westville.  Lennie's main aim or his dream was actually to study veterinary science, and of course you would understand how difficult that was - or still is, I think, at that time, being - with the medium being Afrikaans, and I think I am right in saying that he did apply and was turned down.  I think it would have been basically based on the fact that Afrikaans being as a first language, and of course we never did Afrikaans as a first language medium.  And that I think started to make certain things grow in Lennie's mind.  He could see the discrepancies of the system in every way everywhere he looked.  I think at one time in the early eighties we started to watch a lot of television, and rugby was playing, you know, a lot of rugby, we were inundated with rugby, and himself and his friends got together and they wanted to just play rugby.  You know, it's a new sport to us.  And then they looked around and there was no facilities, nothing, and there again these inequalities that seemed to have been growing - or should I say this awareness growing in his mind all the time.

MR LAX: And of course he was involved in the school boycotts in the early eighties, and there again one of the principal aims of the boycotts were to rid us of this Afrikaans, which went far beyond just being an ordinary or a normal language, but of oppression and of hatred.

MR LAX: Mr Naidu, if I can bring you to the time just before Lennie left.  In your statement you've told us that he went into a sort of a hiding.  He didn't stay at home any longer, he moved around from place to place.  Obviously as he became more increasingly involved in politics so the attention that he got from the security forces, and the Security Branch in particular, increased, and you tell us  in your statement of surveillance, of tapping of phones and stuff.

WITNESS:   That's right.

MR LAX: You confirm all of that?