Human Rights Violation Hearings — Pretoria — 1996-08-15

MATLAKALA ELLEN MORUDU: I will do so.  I had a problem in 1983.  My eldest son passed away.  His name was David.  He left South Africa.  I had a problem with police.  Day and night they would come looking for David.  I would tell them I do not David's whereabouts.  Then they said if I find him, I must tell them.  I said to them if you find him, tell me.  They wanted a photo of David.  I said I do not have one.  I said David has gone.  They pestered me timeously until I received a letter from David.  I did not tell them because it was not my duty to inform them that I receive a letter from David.  I know for a fact that the letters pass through their hands.  They did not come to ask me about David's whereabouts.  Then after that they never, they stopped coming to my house.
 Then they came after Moss.  Moss was a member of COSAS.  In 1984, if I am not wrong, 1986, if I remember well, Moss and the members of COSAS had a meeting at one Church building.  At that meeting a bomb, I am sorry, a teargas was fired through the Church windows into the Church.  They started dispersing, but unfortunately Moss was caught by one policeman called Sinki who started hitting him on the head. Then people who were with him started helping him to let him, help him escape and then brought him in a combi.  His head was swollen.  I asked him is it not better that you go to hospital for treatment.  He said, no, because if I go to the hospital they would follow me there.  I tried to heal 
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him and treat him with iceblocks.  He was a little better then.
 As time passed by, when I was not around because my husband was on leave, he would look after him.  However, there was a building contract.  However the building contractors name I forget.  I think he is Khambule.  So my husband thought of having part-time job at that contractor.  One day when I came from work I was shocked to see police cars in the streets from that end to the next end of the street.  When I arrived at home the yard and inside the house, everything had been perused.  Everything was just mingled.  I asked myself what had happened here.  I asked them in the house what had happened.  They said come inside and look for yourself.  As I went to the bedrooms the bed and mattresses had been torn, the wardrobes had been destroyed.  Everything was thrown on the floor.  I wanted to know what had happened.  They said the police were here.  They were here with one man.  They had handcuffed him and the legs also were handcuffed, were cuffed.  
 On their arrival they found one boy named Terry.  He came to my place and they said we wanted Moss.  Terry said Moss is not here.  When they asked him he said, I do not know where he is, but they asked whose car is this.  It was Tom's car.  He said it is my brother's car.  They demanded the keys to the car.  He said that Tom took the car keys because this man pointed the car to the police.  So they forcefully opened the car, the car boot.  So they went into the house, started searching.  Moss was not in the house so they left.  Moss had already heard that the police were looking for him so he did not come back home, but he did send someone for his clothes.  So we gave him the clothes.  PRETORIA HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
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As we asked some of the boys in that section they said to us, we plead with you to tell Moss not to come here because in the street there are people who must inform the police if Moss would come to the house.  
 The police wanted to kill Moss or if ever it happens they wanted to have him dead.  We said to Moss, please do not come at home.  He stayed at his sister's place in Johannesburg.  The police came to my house and as they entered they would not knock at the door.  Then my kitchen door is a wooden door.  They would kick it and fling it open.  My husband was present, he would run to his bedroom so they thought it was Moss.  Then they continued to kick the bedroom door until the policeman's boot broke the door.  They found my husband in the bedroom and they asked him where is Moss because he was scared he said Johannesburg.  Now I suddenly noticed that now we have trouble in the house.  They asked him Johannesburg where.  I said I do not know.  I said I am not around with Moss so I would not know where in Johannesburg he was.  They asked Terry where Moss was.  I said to them Terry is not Moss's friend.  He is not around with Moss.  You can go to Moss's friends, we know nothing about Moss's whereabouts.  So they left.  
 I have passed something here.  I will go back again.  When they brought this man who they had handcuffed, when he, they got into the house, they thought it was Moss kicking the doors.  They found that is was Thomas and not Moss.  They asked him his name.  He said my name is Thomas.  He was speaking in Afrikaans.  They asked him where he worked and he said SABC.  They asked for his ID.  Immediately there was Moss's ID on the rack or the shelves in the kitchen.  Then one policeman named Erasmus because I did recognise him when PRETORIA HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
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he appeared on TV.  He took the ID, Moss's ID and left with it.  We did not see, unfortunately, Erasmus took it and left with it.  When Moss was still in Johannesburg we could anticipate there could be problems.  We sent someone to tell Moss that the police are on your tracks.  We did not give them the address, but maybe they can find it.  
 There was one friend of him who was named Junior Makwere.  He took Moss from Johannesburg, left him in Potchefstroom at his aunt's place.  We knew the place and then we visited him.  We did not tell my husband because we saw that he gets scared very easily. We use to go to Potchefstroom and visit Moss and told him that they wanted you dead or alive.  
 When my husband was still working at this contractor, Khambule said the owner of this building contractor, I would ask you to come and look after my tiles or my building materials because people steal them.  He said to him I will be here with you when you are watching over these building materials.  He came back and said I, is there electricity at that site.  He said, no, Khambule said he will give me a torch with some candles.  I left him to go and look after the building materials at Khambule's site.  Khambule did not arrive.  He was there alone.  When I left work he was already here at the house and he told me that Khambule did not arrive during the night to watch over the building material.  I said to him that place is not safe.  How do you perceive it, but he said he will ask Khambule.  During the day he did so and I enquired why he did not come to look over the building materials with him.  Khambule said, my wife was arrested because she sells liquor at home.  So I left the police station at three o' clock.  That is why I 
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could not come to the site.  When I came from work he said I am leaving again for the site because Khambule said he will come and be with me to look over the building material.  We refused him to go there, but he ultimately went there because if his material would be lost or stolen he would accuse me.
 On Saturday when he did not come back I said to my children, why is your father not back at this time.  They said, he will come, you know our father. He likes going around before coming home, but I was getting worried because he was not like that.  Until nine o' clock he had not yet come back, but the place was quite near.  I told myself maybe he will come.  Whilst waiting for him outside the house there were ... as they arrived to the site they got shocked and they called me.  I woke up my children so that we could go to that site.  When we got there we found that they have axed my husband.  Probably they used a tomahawk.  The walls were painted in blood.  The whole passage was painted in blood.  
 This man enquired for a telephone.  Then I said go the Mission and you can get the telephone.  Reverend Moghasu phoned the police and phoned the ambulance.  The ambulance arrived first, the police did not come.  When the ambulance arrived it took my husband and then Thomas left together with my husband for the hospital in the ambulance.  The policemen did not come.  I waited for them.  Khambule arrived.  When he arrived what shocked me because I was with my neighbour, when Khambule arrived he never got shocked, he never showed any expression of shock.  He was, his hands were in his pocket.  He did not show any signs of shock.  I asked this lady could you see the expression on this man's 
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face.  Why is he not shocked because if you find the place filled with blood, painted with blood you must be shocked.  Then I asked him what is this.  He said I am also shocked when I heard that your husband has been injured, what am I going to say to his children.  
 Then I told him you said you will come here and watch over the material with him, but you did not come.  If you here with him you would have seen what had happened.  Then he said, I do not know what I can say.  I will call the police.  He left and came back with two policemen.  They had two, some documents and they asked me my name.  Then they started writing down.  Asked my name, then they discussed whatever it was they discussed.  They said we must not touch anything, we will call a fingerprint expert to come and search for fingerprints. We have been waiting ever since that day, nothing has been brought to us, nothing happened.  
 What happens next, Khambule, the owner of the building contract, never came to us to tell about my husband's condition at the hospital or whether he had passed away or what happened with him, to him until we summoned him and asked him, you have been to the hospital, what has been happening at the hospital and he said I was preparing myself to go for, leave for the hospital.  Then he said he would leave for the next day.  He said to my elder daughter she must go to the hospital.  When they arrived at the hospital the nurse said to my daughter there was one man here and then they started describing.  How do you relate to this man?  She did not want to shock them and said he is my elder brother because we were shocked, he had a tape and then he was recording something from your brother.  However, my 
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husband could not speak, his speech was not audible.  What surprised us was that this man who visited your brother had a tape recorder and he was recording, probably, something from what your husband or your brother was saying.  When Khambule went to the hospital found that my daughter had already been to the hospital he came to us and said your husband's condition is a bit better.  He can eat, I bought him some juice and fruits and then he said he is very fortunate, but when you prepare food for him and bring it for him he can eat, you are very lucky.  I do not understand how he managed to do that with you.  Then I started working out.  
 Then my daughter said can you not leave R10,00 or R20,00 for my mother because my father got injured because of you.  Then that is when he started giving me R20,00.  Then when I asked him again I said to him, he said were you at the hospital and then I demanded the tape recorder that he had.  He said I had a tape recorder, I forgot to tell you about it.  Then I asked him what were you going to do there with the tape recorder. He said I was going to ask your husband who injured him or attacked him.  Then I asked him who attacked him.  He said Japie attacked me.  So I said go and lay a charge against Japie.  Why can you not do that because it is your duty to do that and tell the police who attacked my husband.  He said I will go because I, however I have already laid a charge against Japie.  
 Japie grew in front of my eyes.  Of course he is Moss's age.  We asked Japie what happened, but he could tell us nothing.  So, because Khambule did not pay them well he did not continue his services for Khambule's building contract.  That is when he left the building contractor.  That is where PRETORIA HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
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now we got suspicious because my husband got attacked 
because of this Moss.  It is either the police or some people who were sent there to ask from my husband where Moss was.  It is evident that they were looking for Moss.  So now they sent people to the hospital or rather attacked my husband so that he could tell them where Moss was at that time.  That is how we perceived the whole matter.  My husband left for the hospital.  Then that is where he contracted a lot of diseases.  In 1987 he passed away.  
 When Moss was in Potchefstroom he phoned and said to me I am living, but I received a call from the Reverend.  That is when I got the message that Moss said that he has left.  It was not Moss himself, but he had sent someone to say that he is leaving.  That is how he left, but what I want is that Junior Makwere knowing that Moss was at his aunt's place and Junior Makwere would get people so that Moss could skip the country.  He must come and tell us who assisted Moss to skip the country.  Since Moss left Junior Makwere never came to us to inform us whether Moss left or what happened to him.  We just know that he took him to Potchefstroom to his aunt's place.  What we want is that Junior Makwere must tell us if Moss skipped the country and who helped him.  
 Junior Makwere was detained by the police.  They interrogated him about Moss.  I do not know what he said to the police.  The police said if he, even if you do not tell us what happened to Moss, we know that Moss is in Cape Town.  Junior Makwere must tell us who detained him.  He must disclose the policeman who detained him because the policeman told him Moss was in Cape Town.  According to the police information when they interrogated Junior Makwere. That is my story.  
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