Human Rights Violation Hearings — Pietermaritzburg — UNKNOWN

WITNESS:   When we got arrested at Durban Station we were taken, put into cars.  We were separated.  There were quite a lot of cars.  We were driven.  You could have thought that we had killed so many people in South Africa the way the boers were surrounding the Durban Station.  They had every type of dog and every type of gun you could ever see.  And we were only seven that were getting arrested.  We were taken and put into cars, brought back to 'Maritzburg.  When we got into Loop Street Police Station they started blowing their horns, and policemen started showing their faces right at the tops of the building.  They were making all these sorts of noises.  They were whistling, calling us bridesmaids and brides.  Our hands were tied as well as our feet.  We were being taken up right at the top of the building.  That's where we were separated, we were put into different rooms.  Each and every one of us had his own room.  That's where it started.  They asked me as to what had I gone to do in Durban.  I told them I had gone to visit my friend in Durban.  They said no, I was lying, I had plans of my own.  I flatly denied that.  That's when they started assaulting me.  They told me that I was going to tell them all the truth.  I was being kicked, assaulted.  At about 10 o'clock I told them - I admitted to them that I was actually a passer-by in Durban, I didn't plan to stay in Durban.  That's what I wanted to tell them, because there was absolutely nothing else that I could say.  I told them  that I was just a passer-by.  Then they said, "Oh, you were a passer-by."  They asked me about the ones who left during 1975 as to their whereabouts, the ones who were at Sobantu.  I denied any knowledge of those people, and I denied ever knowing where they got to.  They told me I was lying and they continued assaulting me.  They undressed me.  They took gravel stones, they put them in my shoes.  They said to me I must wear these shoes, put my feet inside.  They tied the shoes so tightly.  They said I must skip or jump 100 times, and the stones were pricking my feet underneath.  I kept on hopping.  I was being assaulted with fists, especially in the stomach.  I was being told that I was going to tell the truth.  They took a towel, made it wet and tied it into a knot, and assaulted me with it on the face.  They said I was going to tell them the truth as it is.  I should tell them about the 1975 people.  I flatly denied knowledge of it.  They said to me, "Oh, you don't want to talk."  They brought a rope, they tied it in my penis.  They took two very big books, they tied them in my penis.  They said if I fall they would hit me with the fist, and each time I was falling, losing balance, they kept on hitting me.  I just couldn't keep on standing with all those heavy things on me.  I ended up falling down.  They undressed me.  They took the towel, they blindfolded me with it.  They ... (incomplete - end of Side B, Tape 3) ... they were changing each other, giving each other a chance to assault me.  At about five in the morning they put me down.  that's when I lost consciousness.  When I regained consciousness I was in Mooi River.  I don't know how I got to Mooi River.  It was on a Monday when I regained my consciousness, and I remember losing consciousness on a Sunday morning.  I asked the policeman as to where I was.  He told me I was in Mooi River.  I asked him how I came to Mooi River.  He said to me when I arrived I was a corpse, I was dead.  When I was asking that I was flat on the floor, lying on the ground.  My whole body was aching because they were jumping on top of my body with boots, and my hands were tied so that I couldn't defend myself or fend off the attackers.  I stayed there in Mooi River.  I was eating porridge twice a day.  On Saturday I would get the porridge thrice.  Until I spoke the truth I would eat the porridge for three months, and I wouldn't wash.  I was going to drink water from a plate like a dog, and I would kneel down like a dog and crawl when I drink this water.  I had lice because I didn't wash.  I had one blanket to sleep.  I was put in a shack in Mooi River.  I was told that I was going to speak the truth.  If I wanted water  they told me that I wasn't going to get any water.  They gave me water in a plate, and when I finished drinking that water they would tell me that I would get my ration on another day.  At times I would drink rainwater, because there was a hole in this little cell and when water was dripping I would drink that water that dripped from the roof.  That was all I could get.

UNKNOWN: Were you taken to Hilton Prison?  Just tell us what happened at Hilton Prison.

WITNESS:   I was taken from Mooi River.  It was in December.  I was taken from Mooi River to Hilton.  When I got to Hilton I was also kept in custody.  I stayed in Hilton.  The station commander asked me as to what was actually happening to me, when was I arrested.  I told him it was quite some time.  He told me that he could see it because I was emaciated.  I looked like I had been buried and exhumed.  I told him that I had a very difficult time where I was.  I wasn't given water to wash.

UNKNOWN: What happened in Hilton?  Were you also harassed and tortured?

WITNESS:   Also at Hilton I encountered some problems because I got sick.  I had a sore throat, I had ulcers in my throat.  Those who had arrested us were phoned and they said I mustn't be taken to the doctor because I wanted to run away.  They brought me some medicine to gargle.  I used that medicine to gargle.  I couldn't even eat.  A week ended with me that taking that treatment and I felt slightly better.  In Hilton I was taken out.  I never appeared in court.  I was never even told as to when I was supposed to appear in court.  I was just released.  I was told I must just go out.   We hear the difficulties that you've been through, but I just want to ask you a few questions with regard to your story.  Let me just take you back a little bit.  You said at the time that they tortured you they kept on asking you as to whether you knew the people who went out in 1975.  Did you know those people?   ---   Yes, I did.  They were too many.  There were many people that I knew who went away in 1975, and I didn't know all of them.  Yes, I did know them, but I couldn't tell each and every one of them, and I didn't know where they had gone to.

UNKNOWN: The police who tortured you, you say it was Potgieter, Meyer, Mbatha.  Where are they now?  Have you ever seen them?

WITNESS:   There are police who were fetched specifically from Newcastle.  There was also a policeman whose name was Mbatha in Newcastle.  Driemeyer and Potgieter are police who worked in Loop Street.  I don't know whether they are still working in Loop Street.  Driemeyer, as the captain of those police who were working there in 1970, he knows them exactly because they are his subordinates.

UNKNOWN: What about the Mooi River police, do you know any of them?

WITNESS:   Yes, I do know them.  I was taken by the police here in Loop Street to Mooi River, then they were told that they must ill-treat me.  I asked them why were they ill-treating me, then they told that they had got a special directive to ill-treat me.

UNKNOWN: Do you know the police in Mooi River?

WITNESS:   I know one of them.  It was Mdlalose.

UNKNOWN: What about the Hilton Police, do you know any?

WITNESS:  I know Nzimande.  He was in Hilton.

UNKNOWN: It is clear that you were severely tortured and you didn't get any help.  How is your health now?  How are you feeling?  Is there anything that changed within you after you were tortured, something that still affects you even today?