Human Rights Violation Hearings — Krugersdorp — 1996-11-11

MRS DODO: This is not all that happened, but I cannot continue talking.  I have no house, I have no home.  They burnt my house down.  Even if the storms come, the winds, the rains, I have no shelter.
 Tamsange was in jail for three months.  I tried to get him out of jail.  They would insist that he was not there for three months.  The day that I saw him I could not even recognise him.  His head was swollen, his eyes sunken.  He said to me, mother it is me.  I said it is not you, it cannot be.  He said he was in solitary confinement, I am in solitary confinement.  They poured cold water, ice-cold water on me day and night.  They said that I must tell them 
KRUGERSDORP HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
6 A D DODO
where the guns were that Heinie had brought.  I do not even Heinie he said.  I think I have finished.  This is all I have to say.

CHAIRPERSON: Mrs Dodo, would you like to have a glass of water before I ask a few more questions?  Can I ask a few questions?

MRS DODO: Yes.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.  Mama Dodo I just want to clarify some things first.  On the day that your husband was beaten up, on the 15th of June, you say the police first arrived and they beat up one of your other sons.  Which son was beaten up?

MRS DODO: Norman.

CHAIRPERSON: And I just want to clarify about your husband.  You say that he is now demented.

MRS DODO: Yes, after the beatings he improved after a while, he could walk, but he was demented.  We would have to find him as he would get lost all the time.

CHAIRPERSON: But he passed away in 1992, is that right?

MRS DODO: Yes, he passed away in January 1992, on the 30th of January.

CHAIRPERSON: And Bennet was also arrested the same day as your house was burnt down.

MRS DODO: No, not on the same day.  It was before when they hung him.  Our house was not burnt down yet.

CHAIRPERSON: Okay, and then you lost two other sons.  Norman who was beaten up and then died a few days later.  Is that right?

MRS DODO: Yes, he passed away.  Norman passed away and Richard.

CHAIRPERSON: Now Richard is the one they were looking for.  KRUGERSDORP HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
7 A D DODO
Is Richard the same person as Pitcherman.

MRS DODO: Pitcherman was his nickname.

CHAIRPERSON: And then you also mentioned what happened to Tamsange.  Now he was also arrested at the same time.

MRS DODO: It is the same person.  Tamsange, Richard and Pitcherman, it is the same person.

CHAIRPERSON: But you talk of Richard or Tamsange being arrested first.  Was this before he was shot?

MRS DODO: It was before he was shot because he was in prison for three months.  They shot him in 1990.

CHAIRPERSON: And on the day that he was shot you also mentioned that there were three witnesses and you have given the names of these people as Mungi, Lennie Monareng and Mrs Martha Musnki.  Is that right?

MRS DODO: Yes, it is so.  I saw them in court.

CHAIRPERSON: Mama Dodo, can you try and tell us why you think the Dodo family was singled out by the police for so much attention, harassment and eventually killing of two of your sons?

MRS DODO: They claimed that Richard thought he was too intelligent.  Apparently he is the one who brought the spirit of the struggle in the township.  Nkosi uttered these statements.  They said that he had corrupted the township.  He was teaching the other children about things that happened in 1912.  They said that they would get him, he thinks he knows too much.

CHAIRPERSON: How old was Richard.  Sorry.

MRS DODO: I was not there at the time.  I do not know exactly what was happening.  Only Tamsange would know what he did.

CHAIRPERSON: How old was Tamsange at the time, when he
KRUGERSDORP HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
8 A D DODO
died.?

MRS DODO: He was about 18 years of age.  He gave up on his schooling because the police were after him all the time.

CHAIRPERSON: Do you know anything about these guns the police kept taking about?

MRS DODO: They searched and looked all over from corner to corner.  The toilets that we were using at the time, the bucket system.  They would even search in the toilets.  They did not find them.  They would break my dishes looking for these, they would throw everything aside.  They never found them.  Every single day they would do the same thing.  I would not even lock or close my door because they were going to come.

CHAIRPERSON: Mama Dodo I just want to mention that our research document talks about Richard Pitcherman Dodo being a witness in the killing of Eugene Embulawo who was supposedly shot by somebody called Venter Rampete.  Do you remember anything about that?

MRS DODO: No, I know nothing of this.  I do not know anything about it.  They were all together in jail.  I do not know.

CHAIRPERSON: Mama Dodo, I just want to ask my last question and that is you say that you have no home.  Where are you staying at the moment?

MRS DODO: I stay in a shack.  If it rains I have to go next door.  My house is just zincs.

CHAIRPERSON: But who do you live with?

MRS DODO: I stay with the two boys and a girl.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much Mama Dodo.  I do not know whether my colleagues would want to ask any further questions.
KRUGERSDORP HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
9 N A NOMANDLA

MS SEROKE: Mrs Dodo, are you on pension?

MRS DODO: Yes, I am.

MS SEROKE: And your house, as it was burnt down, is there somebody staying there.

MRS DODO: I stay there.

MS SEROKE: As it is?

MRS DODO: Yes, as it is.

MS SEROKE: What is your request to the TRC mam?

MRS DODO: I think that they should do something about my house.  I stay outside.  I got a bit of hope because there were photographers and lawyers coming.  Also an ANC lawyer.  They came and took photographs, but they never did anything about it.

MS SEROKE: Thank you mam, we have heard your request.  We will pass on the request.

CHAIRPERSON: Within a very short period of time you lost three very important people in your family and you also lost your home.   Can you tell us what support there has been for you from the community or from the Church, any other organisation that you have appealed to?

MRS DODO: I did not get anything.  I did not get anything.  I got blankets from my employers because everything was burnt down.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you Mama Dodo.  Mama Dodo, we have no further questions.  We thank you very, very much for coming today to talk about this very painful part of your life.
 Last week I sat at a, not last week, the week before, I sat at a hearing in Alexandra where we heard a mother, again, talking about the loss of three sons.  All within a very short period of time and, again, there are so many mothers throughout the country who have come and who have 
KRUGERSDORP HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
10 N A NOMANDLA
talked about the loss of their children, the loss of their husbands.  Often, mothers have not known what their sons or daughters were involved in in terms of the struggle that people fought and there may be other reasons that we need to find out about as we go through the stories that we are going to be hearing today and as our investigations will reveal, but I hope today that you have got some comfort from coming to talk about these stories.  
 I also hope that the councilling services, the councilling people who are here today will give you as much support as is necessary through the next few weeks and months.  Thank you very much for coming.

MRS DODO: I also thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Mama Dodo, is there anything else you want to say before you leave?

MRS DODO: I have nothing further to say.  I have said it all.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you Mama Dodo.
KRUGERSDORP HEARING TRC/GAUTENG