Human Rights Violation Hearings — Johannesburg — 1996-04-30

GOTLA PAULINA MOHALE: In 1976 I wasn't working.  I had a baby, a baby boy.  I was a member of SCM, Student Christian Movement.  I was working with the students, that's during the time we were fighting the Afrikaans issue and the equal rights as far as education was concerned.  We marched in 1976.  We used to march to John Vorster.  When we arrived at New Canada they started throwing teargas at us.  Some of our friends died there and others were arrested.  But that day I managed to escape.  I wasn't arrested.  Some of them were being looking after by friends but I was travelling to Swaziland.  I was helping the other children to escape the country.  They used to sleep under the table and throughout
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and then we used to take a combi so  that they could go to Swaziland, get further training in Swaziland.  They wanted to cross the border of Swaziland.  
 But on that it happened that when we left, it was on the 16th, but I was also booked to go, because I realised it was beginning to hot-up.  When we arrived at the border gate - before we arrived at the border gate there was a road block.  We just saw a huge light and they stopped the driver.  They told us we know that you are going to cross the border.  You are going to get military training so that you can come back and start killing White people.  We said no, we were lost.  They arrested us and they put us in a cell in a prison near the border gate.  That place was stinking, it was filthy, and I was alone, I mean I was the only girl among them, the rest were the boys, so they closed me separately from that group.  We said we were coming from Krugersdorp.  We told lies.
 The following day the police came in a truck.  They came from Krugersdorp to fetch us.  They were from the Special Branch.  It was Coetzee, it was Tsutsubi, a Black policeman and Berg or someone like that, I can't remember exactly.  They took us to Krugersdorp Prison.  But I was still locked in a cell on my own.  It was like a charge office or some kind of office.  But others were kept somewhere else, I don't know where.  We stayed there for a week in this place.
 The following week they came to fetch me.  They took me to the office of the Special Branch.  They said I must tell the truth because they have got all the witnesses against me.  They took out an album.  They said I must identify all the students that had left and all those that I had taken 
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out of the country.  They told me that they knew everything.  They also told me that I was typing the ANC pamphlets, the Spear of the Nation.  They were also looking for Paul Masebe.  There was also another guy we were arrested with, his name was Inch.  When I started denying that they hit me. They made me hold onto a telephone directory. They put food there and water there.  They said if I don't speak the truth I will not get water or food.  They said I must tell them the truth.  They said I must sit down and write a statement.  I did write a statement and they said I was lying.  They tore that statement up.  They kept me standing again.  They started hitting me with a ruler.  When I was getting tired from holding out they used to hit me with a ruler.
 From then I said, there was nothing I was saying to them.  I was playing games.  They asked me do you want to go home, they said if you want to go home tell us everything, then we'll release you, you can go home because you are wasting your time.  You must reveal everything.  We've arrested big fishes like Tokyo Sexwale and they stay just next to you, and these people I am talking about they were my neighbours, they said you work with those people.  Tell us where are the guns, where are the guns?   I said I don't know anything about the guns.  All what I know I was going to Swaziland but I don't know anything about the guns.
 And then I just stood there.  They wouldn't even let me go to the toilet.  Eventually they did allow me to go to the toilet to relieve myself.   And Tsutsubi said to me, if you don't speak the truth we are going to change because you are playing.  They took something like an umbrella.  They were shocking me.  It was an electric shock.  They shocked me throughout my body.  The whole night I was standing there.  JOHANNESBURG HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
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They said they will keep me there because I didn't want to speak.
 On the following day they blindfolded me, closed my eyes with a cloth.  They made me hold this telephone directory.  They said I am playing, I don't want to speak, they beat me up.  But what surprised me is that I was strong.  I kept on standing.  I didn't fall, I didn't collapse.  I said what I've told you it's the truth that I know.  They said to me, we want guns, tell us about guns, don't play with us.  We've arrested big guys like Tokyo and others, but you don't want to tell us where you've hidden the guns.  I said I don't know anything about guns. They continued beating me up.  This was the second day.
 On the third day I collapsed.  When I became conscious I was in a cell.  I don't know how I arrived in the cell.  They gave me some tablets.  These prison police in Krugersdorp they picked me up and took me to the District Surgeon  but it's in the same prison and this doctor said there is nothing wrong with me.  I was smelling of blood.  There was blood that had clotted throughout my fingers, between my fingers, my toes and so on and my body and in my back.  I had nerves in my head.  When I just heard the key unlocking the prison cell I just used to be so petrified.

MS SEROKE: In your statement you explained how they were torturing you, that they put your hands up, that you must hold on to a directory for a long time.  When you got tired they would hit you with a ruler on your fingers, on your shoulders, they also shocked you with an umbrella thing, where did they put this thing?

GOTLA PAULINA MOHALE: They were just putting it on my body and on my legs.  They used to put it on my hands and throughout my
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body and my legs, and I started menstruating.  I had clots coming out of me, it's like blood was clotting throughout my body and my legs.  On the third day I collapsed.

MS SEROKE: Were you taken to the doctor so that you could be examined after this torture?

GOTLA PAULINA MOHALE: No they didn't take me to the doctor, they used to drug me.  They were drugging me, they gave me a lot of tablets.  I was asleep the whole time.  I couldn't even walk, they were picking me up.  The doctor said they must take me to prison in Krugersdorp because there were also women who had been arrested.  These were the women who were looking after me.   They used to pick me up when this doctor was there and they would see me in those offices.  I stayed there, my mother could not even come and visit me.  I stayed there until my clothes were dirty and torn.

MS SEROKE: How long did you stay in prison?