Human Rights Violation Hearings — Mmabatho — 1996-07-08

GAREKWE THEKISO: I was in 1990, November, October actually. Rophilwe were given study leave for a week.  It was in the morning.  Just after taking a bath as I was preparing to go to school, I was putting on my school uniform and I just heard a loudspeaker, shouting outside that the whole community of Huhudi shall gather in Huhudi Community Hall.  Everybody shall go there.  No one should go to work, no one should go to school, but go to the community hall.
 And I was surprised at what was happening.   And I stopped putting on my school uniform and decided to put on my casual clothes.  I left the house.  I made my way to the community hall.
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 When I got there I found that people were already gathered there.  There were so many people already.  And I was there at the back.  There were so many people in front of me.
 I could hardly understand and tried to follow what was happening.  And I tried to ask, what was happening.  And they said to me, the previous night Killer Yakwe was killed by the police, and the brother also was beaten up by the police.  So that was the reason why they gathered in the community hall.  And that was clear to me.
 There was the police tendency in Huhudi, I don't understand whether they could not use their common sense - when there were problems in the community  there was an order that they would only give you there minutes and you must be dispersed after those three minutes.  They would give us those three minutes and thereafter there would be chaos.  There was smoke in the air, teargas, and we started running away, because we were afraid of that teargas.
 Even seeing that we gave up and ran away they actually went on spraying teargas and running after us. And we also felt like revenging, you know, getting the stones and throwing the stones at them.  Actually when we did that we aggravated the whole situation. The police got mad.   
 This took place for quite some time, up until one.  If I remember quite well, it was around one.  There was just confusion,  you couldn't tell what was happening.  Cars were burning.  It was so painful.  Some people were shot.  I decided, now let me go home and put on my tekkies and I'll come back.   We were at Marudi.  Marudi is closer to where my place was and I could watch the police, the way they were going to.
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 I saw two policemen, two white policemen.  They were very young policemen, I wouldn't understand whether they were SAP or whether they taken and given the uniform so that they could act as police, because it mean that the black people have started again with the trouble.  There were heavy big rifles in position and when they shot, I was the person who liked to watch the Grensvegter comic, every time they tried to shoot this Grensvegter he would jump away.  And when they shoot I tried to jump away like this Grensvegter, but when I stood on my feet I felt a bit cold on my cheek like running water.  When I checked I found it was blood.  It was on my left side.    When I checked on the other side, didn't this bullet passed through to my right side, but I found nothing.
 And then I entered the yard and returned to the room where I found my other friend sitting down.  I sat together with them and they checked where the blood was coming from.  They asked what happened to me.  
 Later we found out that it was a pellet gun shot and by that time I closed my eyes, because I was experiencing some dizziness.  Blood was flowing from the left side of my face and Jomo Gasu arrived in a car and tried to take me away.
 There were many of us injured by this pellet gun shots.  They took us to the surgery of Dr Guru.  There Dr Guru referred me to Vryburg Hospital.   
 When I got to Vryburg Hospital  I opened my eyes.  That was only when I could open my eyes and see.  Suddenly at the hospital they told that they could not actually give me treatment.  
 They took me to Kimberley Hospital.  When I got to Kimberley Hospital there was a doctor, but I don't know the MMABATHO HEARING TRC/NORTH WEST
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doctor actually.  He gave me treatment.  He treated my eyes the way he did it and he put some cotton wool on my eye.  I could only use one eye - my right eye.
 We actually had study leave at school, that was the week.  And the week was going along.  Everyday I was guarded by police who called me stone thrower.  In the evening I was guarded.  During the day they would come to me to take a statement.  
 The statement they took from me, the is the police from Kimberley, who were in Vryburg, they came to me to take a statement in Afrikaans. I said to them, no, I can't understand this language of yours.  I can communicate with you in English or Setswana. And then he asked me, how can you answer me now, whilst you don't understand Afrikaans.  I said when you talk I can understand to a certain extent but later I have a problem hearing you or understanding.  The best thing is for us to communicate in English.
 There was the other guy who was a boer.  He was bit strange.  He had this scar on his face.  On the other side he was rough.  I would ask myself whether he was a policeman or not.  He insisted that I make my statement in Afrikaans.  I said, no, I couldn't do that. They then agreed that I should make my statement in English, about what happened.   And later on they said, you are lying man.  What you are telling us are lies.  
 And then I said how can you ask a statement from me, whilst I'm telling you say I lie.  Therefore, it means 
that you must know what has happened.  Therefore, give me 
a statement, in stead of asking it from me.  They then said, you have a big neck, hey.
  We were at the fourth floor at Kimberley Hospital and MMABATHO HEARING TRC/NORTH WEST
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they showed me the ground and they said, can you see down there.  I said yes and they said we are going to throw you down there and you will die.  And we will tell the people you tried to run away from the hospital.
 And I told them, no, when I die  - there's no one who will jump out of this high building and I wouldn't be the first one to die, being killed by the police.  There were many people who had been killed by the police before. Therefore, my name would be in the history books that I died for the people and I was killed by the police, because seemingly it was their job to kill people.
 Some of them were angry and they went away and the others stayed with me.  I stayed there for about a whole week and then I asked them on a Friday at the hospital, next week I have to write a test, therefore, I would like to go home, so that I can write.  They then discharged me from the hospital.
 They gave me a date on which I had to return to Kimberley.   I went home that time, writing the test, using only one eye.  And I had enormous pains while I was writing the test, but I managed to write. 
 The time came for me to attend the hospital at Kimberley and my grandmother with whom I was staying gave me the money to go to Kimberley.  And when I arrived at Kimberley they removed the thing they put in my eye and I couldn't see any more.   And then I asked him... The doctor said to me there is nothing I could do to help you.  Your eye won't be better again.  When I felt my eye the pellet was still there.  It was not removed.  I lost my sight.  I'm only using one eye to see.
 I left Kimberley and went to Vryburg and I was very MMABATHO HEARING TRC/NORTH WEST
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frustrated by then.  I was very angry at what happened to me.  I stayed at home and I told brother Joe Mogasu and brother Hoffie, who tried to send me to doctors in Kimberley, but nothing helped.
 Whilst I was still at home the police came to me.  They said they wanted to see me in their office regarding something.  I can't remember the street name in which those offices were, but they were police offices and those offices were near the Magistrate's court.
 There they took their experts and we drove to the location where I was shot.  And when we arrived there they investigated in their own way, asking me the position I was in when the police shot me. Those were the type of questions they asked me.  Thereafter they told me, we have finished, you can go home now.  And then I went home.
 One time as I was at home they came also.  They told me there was no case against me.  I am free now.
 I was surprised and I was wondering what was happening.  I actually took the paper and I throw it away.  I was actually lost and I didn't know what was happening, but today I feel bad because my left eye has been deformed and I cannot go on with life this way.