Human Rights Violation Hearings — Balfour — 1997-05-23

RUSSELL ALLY: ........ incident of detention and of assault and torture.
Do you swear that the testimony you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God.

MR NHLAPO: (sworn states)

RUSSELL ALLY: Thank you.

THOMAS MANTHATA: Good afternoon .   Are you relaxed ?

MR NHLAPO: Yes, I am.

THOMAS MANTHATA: Can you tell us about the '76 incidents please ?  As it has been said can you brief and to the point ?

MR NHLAPO: In 1976, I can start by saying that I grew up in Balfour and I left Balfour in 1968.  I went to Johannesburg and I stayed with my brother.  In 1976 whilst I was still growing up, it's only then that I started realizing that our people were then fighting with the then system or the then regime.  I did not have much experience in politics and I was with my bother Sipho Nhlapo.  He used to tell me that he was a Freedom Fighter and I realized that my brother was wanted for a certain bomb that exploded in Klapspruit.  When my brother arrived, I think it was in the morning or at dawn on a Saturday, he was brought by certain people that I cannot explain.  I did not know them.  I was sleeping in the dining room.  At that time I saw them bringing him in and he was hurt because you had been involved in a bomb explosion and he had come to seek refuge where I was.  He pointed it out to me that I must not tell anyone that he was there.  We should not disclose his whereabouts to anyone.  I treated my brother in the house until such time that he got back to normal.  Day and night I used to look after him and I used to look out for anyone who was coming and whenever a car approached I didn't wait for the car to get to the gate.  I used to wake him up and that's the life that we led.  I always had to make him aware that there was a car coming.  He always told me that he was going to skip the country and go to Tanzania and that I should not bother myself by giving them the details.  I should give them all the details because they were going to assault me or possibly kill me.  He gave me the permission to give them full details because he knew that they wouldn't be able to get him where he was.  At night I would see the Comrades coming to visit him and they would also thank me for the job that I was doing.   On a Thursday that my brother left, the Comrades visited my place.  They were in a car and my brother told me that he was leaving for Tanzania.  At that time I didn't know where Tanzania was.  My brother left for Tanzania on a Friday.  On the following Monday, the police from John Vorster Square came to my place and they asked me whether I had seen Sipho Nhlapo and I said I didn't know Sipho Nhlapo.  I said that I was a visitor from Balfour as a result I knew nothing that was going on in that house and I produced my ID or my pass book and showed them that I was born in Balfour.  I was still looking for a job at that time.  I did not have the special permit to look for work in Johannesburg.  Whilst I was still at my brother's place, I was visited by the police.  They switched the lights on, they demanded my pass book and they asked whether I knew Sipho Nhlapo and I told them that I knew him and that he was my uncle's son.  They asked me how long it had been since I saw him and I told them that it was a long time since we've seen each other.  They said I should wake up and we went into the dining room.  They fetched my elder brother so that we could sit together in the dining room.  Whilst we were sitting there, the police went out to fetch somebody from the car.  When they brought this person in they asked him who opened the door on the day that they had brought Sipho.  He pointed me out as being the one who opened the door.  They said to me that I had said I was staying at Balfour and I did not know anything.  At this stage I couldn't deny it because that man was pointing me out and identifying me as the man who opened up for him on the day that they had brought Sipho.  I had to confess that Sipho was my brother and he stayed at Ndlamini.  They said to me that because I had told a lie before, I had to be taken in for questioning.  I was taken, together with Sipho's mother and the person who was pointing me out.  We proceeded to John Vorster Square.  When we got there they put us into cells.  They put us in isolation.  They came back and begged me to tell them what information I had about Sipho.  They undressed me.  They found some burn scars on my body and when they looked, I think, knowing that Sipho Nhlapo was injured by a bomb or in a bomb explosion, he sustained burn injuries.  They then thought I was him.  At that time when they looked at my ID book, they saw that my name was also Sipho Nhlapo so they thought I was Sipho Nhlapo.  My brother told me that I should not steal any of his photos.  He had told me that I should also be on the lookout for the long arm of the law.  I took certain photos and hid them in the garden.  That's where I hid them.  After Sipho had left, before he left he told me that I must never ever try to hide his whereabouts because the Boers were going to assault me and condemn me.

THOMAS MANTHATA: Sipho, can I interrupt.  Can you tell us how they handled you while in detention please ?

MR NHLAPO: When I was in John Vorster Square, we were put in our respective cells.  The following morning they came and begged me to tell them about Sipho's whereabouts and I had to disclose that he said that he had gone to Tanzania.  They left us on that particular day.  On the following day we were put in different cells.  That's where I was assaulted.  They would put me upside down.  I don't know how many floors up and that's when they would grab me by the neck and tell me that if I did not disclose the truth, they would let me go and I would fall onto the ground on the floors or stairs below.  They asked me why I did not tell them that my brother was there and he had been injured in a bomb explosion.  I told them that I was very young and I couldn't have known that he was injured in a bomb.   They said to me that if they don't get Sipho they would come and pick me up.  They also told me further that even if they do get him they will call me to come and testify that Sipho was the one or to testify as to his identity.

THOMAS MANTHATA: How long were you kept in John Vorster ?

MR NHLAPO: They took us in the morning and we stayed there the whole day.  The following day we were taken to be assaulted.  At about four p.m. the following day, we were only released after they had got hold of the evidence that Sipho had left for Tanzania.

THOMAS MANTHATA: Was that the time that you were released and you came back to Balfour ?

MR NHLAPO: Thereafter I remained for a few weeks then I came back to Balfour.

THOMAS MANTHATA: So for the period you were held in John Vorster, the only severe treatment was the hand outside the window, pretending that you will drop down and die ?  Had the family had an opportunity at that time to instruct a lawyer about your detention ?

MR NHLAPO: It's very difficult for me because I can't speak about my family.  I grew up suffering and I never had any source of support, I never had parents so I could not be helped.  I always told myself that I had to see my way out.  I did not have a family as a support system.  I always saw to myself.

THOMAS MANTHATA: How old were you at that time ?

MR NHLAPO: I think I was thirty something years old because I was born in 1953.

THOMAS MANTHATA: You couldn't have been thirty.

MR NHLAPO: I could be possible.

THOMAS MANTHATA: Okay.  Can I  - Okay.  Can we go onto another stage of your suffering.  This was '80.