Human Rights Violation Hearings — Umtata — 1996-06-18

TEDDY EDWARD MWASE WILLIAMS: Thank you Sir. I am sorry, I want to just shorten this thing on the mutiny. So what happened is this, I was in Kamalunga as an Engineering Instructor, well I was popular among the trainees Kadas. As all these Instructors and the rest in fact they, the, most of the Instructors were genuine you see, we knew who was innocent and we knew the sell-outs and some of the sell-outs were Security men and they were appointed above us but we knew that but we couldn't speak, so in fact there was this boiling that was taking up in the camps, you know, it was this swelling that was supposed to burst you see, so the guys, some Comrades were taken to fight UNITA, they refused. When they refused Joe Modise called them half-baked soldiers, cowards and so on and yet the Comrades explained that "Listen, it is not that we are scared to fight, their bosses want to fight the Boers not UNITA. If we fight UNITA we are going to die here in Angola. We want to go inside South Africa and die in South Africa fighting, so what happens is that they were kept in this camp far away from the trainees, they were understood to be having a bad influence. Well I continued there in Caculama and this mutiny thing started. The Comrades in Kamalunga, they mutinied over through the Administration, well they told them this "Listen you guys are simple puppets, they are not going to kill you - we don't want you to go to South Africa and fight. They disarmed the Administration and the Security, they took the trucks, the whole armament, they went to some other, it was called the Eastern Front, of which we didn't recognise it, because it was not in South Africa, it was in Kapuso, another town in Angola, the UNITA had overrun that town, taken it and we went there we pushed UNITA out of that town and was supposed to guard that town, because it was said our logistics used to pass through there. Our argument was that we were able to secure our trucks to and fro with logistics, even if we die at no point had we failed to secure our trucks, especially the June 16 detachment, because it was well trained. Right, OK. This mutiny went to Kapuso, at Kapuso the authorities there, they wanted to resist, they were overrun, trucks and armament was also taken there. The mutiny or mutineers grew - the number they became strong it was most the whole detachment now that was in that thing, in Angola except the Security and another transit camp that was called Vienna. We were prepared to go to Vienna, we knew that the Security would try to fight there and we were prepared to shoot them out and disarm them. I was still at Kamalunga. Another man who was in that thing, in the June 16 uprisings, Bongani came to me, he was a friend of mine, he was also a Military Engineer, he came to me and told me that ...(intervention)

MR SANDI: Could you please confine yourself to the question of the Human Rights Violations to yourself. Especially what happened to you during the ANC camps so that we should not take long with peripheral issues, we would like you to tell us of yourself, tortures and experiences. Just a small reminder for you to confine yourself to the things that have happened to you and what you did, especially when you came back to the country in 1985. What steps did you take to raise your complaints with the Organisation concerned?

TEDDY EDWARD MWASE WILLIAMS: Thank you Sir. First, I was demoted without any reason given, secondly, that was in Kamalunga and then in Caculama, in 1983 while I was that thing - head of Engineering Department I was punished, I was punished, I had to carry a sack on my back, doing tactics.....

MR SANDI: Yes, you have already mentioned that, how you were punished ....

TEDDY EDWARD MWASE WILLIAMS: I didn't mention that Sir. I just said the punishment was like this, I am trying to confine now the whole thing to myself.

MR SANDI: Mr Williams, you have come to the Commission to say that you were a victim of gross Human Rights Violations by an Organisation which you have mentioned. The request by the Commission is that you should confine yourself to those issues that deal with your ill-treatment or maltreatment whilst you were in exile and what did you do when you came back to the country.

TEDDY EDWARD MWASE WILLIAMS: So I was punished, I carried this sack for six hours. I was running doing tactical exercises, that is crawling, jumping up immediately with a sack on what weighed more than 30kg because it was wet and it was sand and it was cold, I ran with this sack for 24 rounds around the grounds and then some of the people, the perpetrators who did this to me, "No, this one looks very tough, he didn't have enough", they said he must have some more tactics. They took me to a - that thing - a rivulet, there was a rivulet in Caculama, they said I must, they took some of these things from ZAPU from ZIPRA where Selous Scouts, you see people who were working for the Rhodesian Armed Forces were infiltrated ZIPRA where harassing and frustrating ZIPRA Comrades so they did, they did this also to us, I was put in this rivulet, I mean I am hot now, very hot after doing many rounds and tactics, put in this rivulet to stay there with my head under the water, I was told not to come up, if I come up I will be battered with an automatic rifle - that is a AK - will be beaten, and I had to suffer this all along I told myself that I wish the Lord gives me the power to survive. I prayed all along, and indeed the Lord did answer. I survived this. I stayed there, when the mutiny was at Vienna, Bongani came, he said to me, listen we know what happened to you, you can't stay here, join us, let's be a force, let's challenge these corrupt authorities so that we can go to South Africa. I said OK, wait, my time has not come.

MR SANDI: I'm sorry, Mr Williams, can I interrupt you. Besides what you have said so far, are there any other forms of brutality to which you were submitted - and if one, what is your instruction to the Commission, what are you asking us to do, do you understand, do you say that we should take this up with the ANC?

TEDDY EDWARD MWASE WILLIAMS: Thank you. There are so many. In Kapuso, I was done the same thing by a man who we knew was a sell-out, was an informer, was known "Green" in Kapuso - that Eastern Front. I was taken to the Eastern Front because the ANC was beginning to be feel UNITA. So we were taken there because we were fighters, real fighters. We went there, we tried to put a check on UNITA and after that I was punished, once more again for being given a party by Soviet Comrades, you see they called me to a party and then I was punished that I am having parties and so on, without seeing the authorities and I get drunk, while I am supposed to be ...(intervention)

MR SANDI: I am sorry Mr Williams, can I ask you once more what is your, your request to the Commission, all in all before I hand over to the Chairperson.

TEDDY EDWARD MWASE WILLIAMS: OK. Let me go on. So there was this mutiny, at Kakuso I was re-called back to Kathlawa and then I stayed in Caculama. Later on I ran away from Kakuso to the mutiny

MR SANDI: You have mentioned the mutiny already, I asked you if there is any other form of brutality to which you were subjected to?

TEDDY EDWARD MWASE WILLIAMS: Yes sir. As mutineers, we were rounded up - excuse me, I would the Commission to try and protect me also - because you see I am a determined person. When I stand for a principle, I stand for it, I don't think anybody or anyone - that's why I was able to survive up to this point. And that's why the 16th couldn't break me - including the National African Congress itself.