Human Rights Violation Hearings — Nelspruit — 1996-09-04

MICHAEL NDOWE: I was accompanied with Matthew Possa to George Bissos and Captain Parker, where I was actually going there to request two things, so that I could get the corpse of my brother for the funeral.  George Bissos to get us a doctor who will do the inquest.  Because the government then could not assist us.  After that when we came back we had to wait for a long time. On the 13th of September 1984 I got a message from - Possa was our attorney then, that George Bissos, the advocate and other advocates who were assisting him, will come to Nelspruit to do the inquest about the death of my brother.  On their arrival there, what I remember, there was a clinical psychologist, Prof Anno Hannon, from Wits.  He came together with the doctor who was representing the family. Now when the inquest took place on the 13th of September 1984, what I remember the police actually gave different statements.  The person who arrested the deceased at Lekasi, he said he was actually in another car.  Those who - the others said no, my brother was brought by another car; no, we did not know exactly which car brought my brother. When they were asked by Adv George Bissos that is it true that you have found in that very car, why, how did it come about - how did you reach the destination. It was found that no, there were some discrepancies here.  When Dr Viljoen also gave evidence there, he explained that he did make some prescription, but he did not write on the papers which are normally used by the medical doctors, it was just written on a scrap of paper.  The doctor also agreed that he did admit that the
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time when he examined the deceased, the police were there, the security police were there.  He said that. Dr Bissos referred to another case which was once detained, that he is not allowed to examine a person who is arrested while the person are still around. He agreed.  What I discovered in that report of the inquest, was that the doctor who was a district surgeon then, he was reported in the South African Medical Council, but we were never given the full details. We are not sure whether he is working or he is not working. I think the Truth Commission will also assist us in that regard. Now furthermore, three months after the inquest had already stopped, because the statements were actually different. Some of the police who were expected to come and give evidence, they could not be allowed to come.  They had to suspend the inquest in order to get those people to come and give evidence there.  Then we came back again in November.  It was on the 13th then.  The inquest sat again on the 13th of November.  During that time nothing was told to our attorney Possa. They never even told us whether he is busy, that he will not be available. They never even worried to inform Adv Bissos that there would be an inquest. They only fetched my mother. There was nobody, there was nobody.  It was only my mother.  As my mother was sitting there alone and nobody from the family who was sort of assisting her.  It was only the magistrate.  The magistrate informed my mother that my brother was actually hanged, that is the discovery they received. I wanted to find out exactly.  Those people who are actually standing on our behalf, how come that they should not be present there.  Then from there the family don't believe whatever has been said, that my brother was hanged, as said by Prof Hannon.  According to 
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him, and according to the evidence, that was obtained from his pastor and even the evidence gained from the principal of his school, it is not true what has been said that he hanged himself.  Us as a family also, we don't believe that our brother did hang himself. It is now almost 10 years. We want now the Truth Commission to assist us, if possible, that this inquest should be brought back again.  The captain who was actually in charge of the Security Branch at that time, we would be pleased, more pleased if he could appear before here and to tell us exactly how did he give the commands to his police officers.  Because the officers were giving different statements.  He allowed police to be present while the examination of the corpse was going on. We request the Commission to bring them here. They must come here so that we could also cool down.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very, very much for what you have shared with us.  It is a very sad story and it seems that ... I am just wondering, do you know what the name of the security branch person is who was in charge?

MICHAEL NDOWE: I know him very well, because when I was standing close to him I got him there. I was with our attorney Dr Possa. I can reveal the name if you want.

CHAIRPERSON: If you would want to, that's okay, if not you could give it to us afterwards.

MICHAEL NDOWE: I will give it to you later. It is written there in the inquest paper.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much. I would like to thank you and your mother for coming today to share your story with us. I think people in South Africa do not realise how costly freedom has been for this country and how many unresolved stories and deaths there are.  We will talk to Matthew and
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to George to see if they have records.  We will try and get all the documents together which form part of the inquest record.  We will try and come back to you with some answers.  Thank you very much for sharing your story with us.

GEJANE PAULINE MBIBA: We saw on the TV, let them give us the prints of that photo so that we might get the information how our child was killed. I can be very much happy, I can feel the legs, I know I cannot get him back, I can be very much happy if the Truth Commission can try to investigate and expose them, even his children want to know that to have the information.  They just get rumours. We do want that.

CHAIRPERSON: Mamma, we will try and assist you to get that information.  We will try and get those prints for you.  Thank you.
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