Human Rights Violation Hearings — Soweto — 1996-07-22

FANYANA MAZIBUKO: Commissioners I shall be very brief.  A number of things that have been said need not be said by me.  What I would like the Commission to know relates to my being at Morris Isaacson High School and what I saw there, and my activities and those of my colleagues in the Teacher's Action Committee.
 I will divide my presentation to you into three parts. The first part will be to create an impression of what it was like at Morris Isaacson before 1976, and the second part will be a period '76 to October 1977. And the last portion will be what happened after 1977.
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 Morris Isaacson was a highly disciplined school, almost military in its discipline.  The other side of Morris Isaacson is that it was politically aware.  In my arrival at Morris Isaacson a number of things happened which indicated this.  Examples of this political awareness and the leadership of the principal as a politically aware person is firstly the Tiro case.  In the Tiro case the principal decided to employ a person who had been expelled from a university, Umgoputsitire(?) against the wishes of the Department of Education.  And secondly there was the allowing by the principal of the formation of several organisations on the premises, including for example the formation of the organisation which was first called the Azanian People's Writers Association, which was initially AZAPOA, but later changed to Medupi Writer's Association.  And also the principal was not easily compliant with instructions from the Department, example, when we were instructed to teach in Afrikaans he invited the Inspector who was giving this instruction, and he told him it will not be done.
 And again there was a special relationship between teachers and students.  I want to refer specifically to Tsietsi Mashinini himself.  Tsietsi lived to the north of where I lived and had a friend who lived to the south of where I lived, and in a day they would pass twice or thrice where I lived, and occasionally they would find me doing garden and they would join me, and the discussion would start with academic work and it would end with political discussion.  That was the environment in which Tsietsi Mashinini went to school.  He was my student.  I was his physical science teacher.  He was not bad at physical 
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science but he loved more the languages and other social sciences.
 Now because of this, just prior to the occurrences of June 16, to be more precise about three weeks before, I remember him and myself and Mr Matabata having a meeting in Mr Matabata's office wherein he briefed us on the intentions of students and he asked for advice wherever he wanted to have advice.  I must say that he gave as much as he wanted to and kept away from us what he wanted to keep away from us.  So by June 15 when this was publicised we had an inkling of what was going to happen.  But what really did happen we had no idea it would really happen.
 On the morning of June 16, now I will be very brief on June 16 because a lot of things have already been said, at assembly we went through the normal procedure, at the end of the praying Tsietsi Mashinini climbed onto the platform and he started a song and placards went up and he led the students out of the school.  Because we expected there was going to be a march we simply stood aside and we were in agreement with this.  
 We remained for a few minutes and then followed the march.  I drove in a Volkswagen through the column of students just to see what would be happening there.  When I realised that nothing serious was happening I made a U-turn and headed back for the school, but when I got to school I arrived at the same time with a message which was on radio that a shooting had occurred in Orlando West. I immediately got into my car to go and see what was happening there, but unfortunately it was difficult to travel through.  I finally had to find my way back to school, but on my way I remembered I had a wife who would probably be stranded in 
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town.  I quickly drove to town to fetch her, dropped her at home and then went straight back to Morris Isaacson.  
 I passed a spot where people were congregated and when I asked what was happening there I was told a White person had been killed there.  I continued to Morris Isaacson, and as I approached the school I remember meeting a policeman who was training a gun on a group of students, fearing that he might actually shoot I stopped, got out of the car and I told him that I knew these students, they would not do anything out of order.  He turned around, aimed at me and because I immediately got scared I went round the car, he fired and I remember my Volkswagen used to drive around with a bullet hole in the door.  So I ran back into the car, drove off, and I remember as he turned around a brick landed on his head.  I didn't wait to see what happened to him.
 I drove into Morris Isaacson, I found there was chaos there.  I was told that police had been there and fired teargas and everybody was rushing to the taps to try and wash teargas from their faces.  Some students were bleeding and we, together with other teachers, ferried some to Baragwanath.  Several trips were made and I remember feeling very tired at the end of the day and going home completely confused as to what the next step would be.
 There are many other things that one saw during that afternoon, but I would like to move onto the next day and the days after.
 The next day few students came to school, and we hung around with the principal and other teachers and a few students milled around the school.  Police came chasing some young people who went into the yard and it became clear to us that they were shooting at, the police were shooting at 
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these young people at random, and some of the teachers wanted to move away but the principal gave instruction that no one move.  So we stood there, faced them and I think they got unsettled and they moved on.
 By the next week on Monday the students started coming back to school, and we witnessed this procedure of police coming to school, harassing students, and when students started running they would fire at the students.  So we had a system of young people who would patrol around the area.  I remember one student called Pinda who was on a bike most of the time and who would give me information as to the movement of police around the school, and would vacuate the school whenever there was a chance they would be at the school.
 During those days a number of students were shot and we used my car and Mr Matabata's car to ferry them either to Baragwanath or where we thought there was likelihood of students getting into trouble we took them to Dr Givoa or to Dr Asmad who treated these students without questions.  I remember Pinda himself and a student called Homre and Trafoma who once had to come to me with some of my students, I didn't know him at the time and they asked for transportation because Traforma had to go out of the country.  I gave them a car to take Traforma wherever they wanted to take her to, and they did bring my car back.
 In the days that followed it became clear that Tsietsi's life was in danger, and he had to be advised to leave the country.  I remember that before the principal was detained he had been with Tsietsi on the Sunday night where it was being planned that Tsietsi should leave the country. Now what convinced us that his life was in danger is that on SOWETO HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
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one day the police came to the gate and as I saw them approach the gate I locked the gate, and there was a serious confrontation between them and the students which was short of shooting.  And what scared me the most was that as I was having an altercation with the police, telling them that they will not enter the gate, I saw Tsietsi pass between me and the police wearing a balaclava and an overall and he was singing very casually, pushing a wheelbarrow like one of the people who were busy building the laboratory in the school.  And he announced that it was tea time and he had to go and have tea in the township.  He went through a hole in the fence and off he went.
 At that point I became convinced that these fellows, the police, were looking for him and they were not going to arrest him.  Secondly he was reckless enough to play games like what he had done. And it was decided that he has to be advised to get out of the scene.  And also we felt that if he got killed the morale of the students would go down.
 Then beyond that an incident which I think the Commission ought to be aware of, in September after the police I think had attempted several times to arrest students in the school they ultimately surrounded the school, I think around the 21st or 22nd of September, in fact they had been in the houses around the school because we didn't see them.  As I emerged out of the school cottage where I had been drinking morning coffee I realised that the students and the teachers were already being ordered to stand in line and there were police around every inch of the fence.  And the students and teachers were ordered to get into a police van.  There were about 120 students and about 16 teachers.  We were all driven to Protea Police Station 
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where students were initially interrogated and they were very badly beaten up.  We remained there for the entire day and at the end of the day we were distributed in various police stations.  I was taken together with some teachers to Dobsonville.  Some teachers were taken to Jabulani Police Station, most of the students we learnt were distributed in various police stations.  We were subsequently on various days also interrogated and with some strong arm tactics here and there.  
 But one day which really got us worried was when teargas was thrown into the cells and we could not get out of the cells because we were locked in there.  However, somehow it was luck that made the commanding officer arrive just at that time, and we managed to scream our voices hoarse until he heard and ordered the cells opened.