Human Rights Violation Hearings — Louis Trichardt — 1997-04-09

CHAIRPERSON: We shall now call upon Mr Frans Mauda.  Welcome Mr Mauda.

MR MAUDA: You are also welcomed.

CHAIRPERSON: Could you introduce the person next to you?

MR MAUDA: It is my sister.

CHAIRPERSON: Welcome sister.

MR MAUDA: We welcome that with pleasure.

CHAIRPERSON: I now hand over to Dr Randera.

DR RANDERA: Mr Mauda, good afternoon.  Would you please stand to take the oath.  If you will just repeat after me.

FRANS MAUDA: (Duly sworn in, states).

DR RANDERA: Thank you very much.  Ms Joyce Seroke will now lead your case.

MS SEROKE: Mr Mauda you have come to tell us about the disappearance of your brother, George, in 1986.  Could you just tell us briefly the events leading to that.

MR MAUDA: I will say that my elder brother was a man who was working in a furniture shop.  He was one of the people who was working as the money collectors.  That day, on Sunday, the manager came.  When the manager came he asked me about my brother.  I told him he is not yet back.  Then my brother heard the rumours that the manager was looking for him.  It is then that, I think, he took the Police that he found from Chakoma.  Then when they found him they took him to Louis Trichardt.  When they took him to Louis Trichardt what happened we do not know.  He was beaten the whole night.  I do not know why he was beaten because he was a money collector.  He was beaten the whole night and electrically shocked so that he can tell the truth.  Whether it is money or what, I do not know.
 Then while I was at work, my sister came and said my brother going to the hospital.  Then I sent her to go and visit there at the hospital.  In coming back to the hospital she told me that my brother is dead.  I was surprised.  Is he dead?  Yes.  So it means the Police beat him the whole night and it was hard.  He was not ill and he never consumed any medication.  When going there to visit my brother at the hospital they said that the people with the mortuary keys are not present.  Must I go without seeing my brother?  They said, yes, come next week.  
 In going there the following I find my brother.  Because he was in the mortuary he was hard and he was dead I asked them to make a post-mortem to can explain how he is injured.  Then I said, it seems, I said something that my brother was supposed to be disappeared, for saying that the post-mortem must take place.  
 In going back to Elim to take him to the mortuary here in town, Louis Trichardt, in arriving there, I found that he was bandaged, the whole body, the face and the neck and they wrote the name.  I was unable to identify him.  I asked them to unveil the face.  They refused.  They said that is against the law.  I was surprised.  I said, how can I take a person, without seeing if it is the right person.  They said, no, it is the right person.  It is then that I just took that corpse and my sister and then we took it to Louis Trichardt.  
 Here at Louis Trichardt, it was during the evening and we were unable to remove the bandage to see if it is the right person.  Then we left it like that in the mortuary.  Then we decided that the funeral would be for the following week.  In going back to the mortuary we wanted to take the corpse for burial.  Then, arriving at home, we looked for the pair of scissors.  We found out that that was the wrong person.  
 I took that corpse and returned it back to the Police.  I told them that this is not the right person.  I think if that person is dead and they give me a different body and then I take the corpse back to Police.  The following day the Police came back to me and said take that corpse it is your brother.  The following day they came and then they took that corpse and asked us to bury that corpse.  I said, no, that is not the right body.  
 A whole week passed and then the Police came and asked me to bury that corpse.  I said, no, that is not the right person.  I do not like this.  Then for a while, I do not know what happened.  And now, I went to the chief's kraal to ask the chief that my brother has disappeared.  Is it possible that a man can disappear here in this village without his burial?  What must I do?  I have lost many things.  I bought cows for the people who will come and assist me for the funeral.  Then the chief came to me on Sunday and then he said, so what must we do because my brother disappeared.  The chief did not want the matter to go further.  He never gave us advice on what to do from there.  I was having no money to find for lawyers and my money was already lost.  And then the chief told me that if a person is talking here in my country you can kill me.  
 It is then that we stopped to join that committee and then we ended there.

MS SEROKE: Mr Mauda, you say your brother was a debt collector?

MR MAUDA: Yes.

MS SEROKE: Did he have any enemies in the village, because of his job, of the type of job he was doing?

MR MAUDA: No, there were no enemies.

MS SEROKE: When the Police arrested him why did they say they were arresting him, what had he done?

MR MAUDA: I do not know where they met, but you know, I just did not know.  It just happened like that.

MS SEROKE: Where they asked by his employer to arrest him?

MR MAUDA: What I can say is the manager knows very well.  He is the one who can account.

MS SEROKE: Is the manager still in this area?

MR MAUDA: I do not even know the name of the manager.  He might have been changed by now to any other area.

MS SEROKE: In your statement you say that at that time, the White people were indiscriminately attacking Blacks in Louis Trichardt do you think perhaps your brother was also a victim of those attacks?

MR MAUDA: Let us understand it clearly.  You know that time, during those days, not now, during those days, if at all you were involved in stealing they will kill you, beat you to death.

MS SEROKE: Do you think that your brother may perhaps have been involved in stealing or some theft case?

MR MAUDA: Well I am not saying that my brother was a criminal, it is just that he was working there.  I would not know whether he was collecting money or goods.  I would not tell.

MS SEROKE: When your sister, Poppie, went to see him, did she actually identify him as your brother when she came back that I mean he was dead?  Have you seen him, have you seen his corpse?

MR MAUDA: My sister really recognised him and identified him as a dead body.  Now what happened about the bandage, I have never seen it.  They just bandaged him, the whole body including the face and everywhere.  I have never seen such a thing.

MS SEROKE: So after your sister had identified him there was a mix-up in the mortuary and you were given the wrong corpse aand you were never given the right corpse of your brother, how did the mortuary explain that?

MR MAUDA: The mortuary people, when we went there, it was around half past four and when we entered and produced the card, they gave us, the mortuary staff, they opened.  As they were opening, well the Tsongas, they were saying please be quick, be quick, be quick, be quick.  I wanted to ask them to unveil the face so that I shall see.  They said, now what are you going to do with this?  You need not see this.  I told my sister that look, I cannot take the corpse without seeing the face.  But it was written, the name was George Mauda, which was my brother's name.  We took it as it was.

MS SEROKE: During this time was there any political upheaval in your area?

MR MAUDA: No, there were no political upheavals then.

MS SEROKE: And up to now, you do not know what happened to your brother?

MR MAUDA: Up to now I do not even have a clue as to where he disappeared.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.  Dr Ally.