Human Rights Violation Hearings — East London — 1997-06-12

CHAIRPERSON: Nomakhepu Jane Ntsatha.

JUNE CRICHTON: Number?

CHAIRPERSON: Number ten.

JUNE CRICHTON: Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Before you sit down, we would like you to take an oath.

JANE NOMAKHEPU NTSATHA: (Duly sworn in, states).

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.  You may sit down.  Dr Smangele Magwaza will lead you with questions.

PROF MAGWAZA: Good morning Nomakhepu.

JANE NOMAKHEPU NTSATHA: Morning.

PROF MAGWAZA: We welcome you for having come here today to share us, to share with us such a horrendous experience you have had in your life.  From the information I have in the file, you have gone through every possible violation.  You have been tortured, you have been beaten, you have been detained and many other things have happened to you.  We would like you to share it with us, all those experiences.  Can you start by telling us what happened to you starting on the 24th of November 1981 and in the process, Nomakhepu, you can tell us broadly what was happening at that time.  There must have been something that was happening at that time.  I leave it to you now.

JANE NOMAKHEPU NTSATHA: What happened is that the ANC and other political organisation had been banned.  I joined the ANC underground in Lesotho.  I went, because I have got family in Maseru.  I was working for the ANC.  I would come in and out of the country.  My task was to form cells and stay in Zwelitsha.  In 1980 when I joined the ANC I formed cells in Zwelitsha.  I got certain Comrades.  After that some Comrades wanted to leave the country.  I left with them.  I had a seven month old baby that I was breast feeding, a boy.
 In November I left with the Comrades, Thabo Bashe, Mncekeleli Peter, Phumezo Mene.  I have forgotten the other Comrade's name, because he passed away.  On the way, we were travelling by train, in Burgersdorp we were waiting for a bus.  We realised that we were missing, Phumezo Mene was the only one there.  I do not know what happened, but apparently they had gone to the township.  It was only the two of us that got onto the bus eventually.  There were two brothers.  I left with the one.  The other had gone to the township.  I do not know what he had gone to do at the township.  Phumezo and I got onto the bus.  We were on our way to Aliwal North.  
 On the way a car stopped the bus.  Khumbula Thabo and other gentlemen came.  They identified themselves as policemen.  I was with my sister as well.  They asked if I was with Cora.  They left with Cora.  Khumbula Mene, there is also a brother.  Phumezo Mene and then there is Khumbula Mene.  Khumbula is the one I was with in the bus.  After that Thabo gave a signal that these were the police, therefore I did not divulge anything.  When we got to Aliwal North towards Stickspruit a Boer and a Black man got onto the bus.  They said that they are looking for a woman with two children.  It was only myself that was left.  I was taken to the Aliwal North Security Branch office.  
 They asked where I was going.  I said I am going to Stickspruit.  They asked who I was with.  I told them that I was with my sister and my child.  They said I was lying.  They called other police.  There is a Boer, Bezuidenhout, he got onto the table and pulled my hair.  He said I must tell the truth, where, I said I was going home.  They took something from a sack.  He left with the sack as well.  They came back with it.  It was wet.  They put it on my face.  I think they referred to it as a canvass bag.  They suffocated me.  They, my child was crawling at the time.  They just gave him a toilet bag to play with.  I told them that I was going home.  They were slapping me until I fell on the floor.  Bezuidenhout sat on my stomach, took my babies little blanket and stifled me on my face.  
 After that they said they said they were going to detain me.  They are going to take my sister and my child and take them home.  I asked them to leave the child with me, because my baby was being breast fed at the time.  They took me to Jamestown Police Station.  I spent the night there.  I saw four cars.  Thabo was in one of the cars.  We came back to King William's Town.

PROF MAGWAZA: Excuse me, Thabo was the other Comrade.  I am just clarifying?

JANE NOMAKHEPU NTSATHA: Thabo was one of the Comrades.  When we got to King William's Town they put us in different rooms.  They put me in a particular office.  There was a Boer who spoke Xhosa very well.  I later heard that his name is Hattingh.  He ...

PROF MAGWAZA: What is his name?

JANE NOMAKHEPU NTSATHA: Mr Hattingh.

PROF MAGWAZA: Okay.

JANE NOMAKHEPU NTSATHA: He said I must tell the truth, tell them where I was going.  I told him I was going home.  He said that if I do not tell the truth, I was going to be beaten up.  The floor was wet.  He said a man had been beaten up and urinated on the floor.  They said that if I do not tell the truth I was going to be beaten just as much.  I insisted that I was going home.  They came towards me with a sack.  They threw me on the floor somehow.  They pulled my legs.  They put electric shocks on my breasts, on my stomach and at the bottom.  Also, around my jaws, because I would bite my, the inside of my mouth, my oral cavity when they would, I was on shock.
 They said I must tell the truth.  They said I must go to Hattingh.  Hattingh said that I was going to tell the truth.  I could not control my bladder because of the electric shocks.  I had just given birth as well.  Therefore I think there was something around my uterus.  Hattingh said I must sit down.  I told them eventually that I was from Lesotho, I was recruiting ANC members and forming cells.  He asked who was recruiting, who had recruited myself.  I said it was Sima.  They asked for forgiveness for having tortured me.  They asked if I could work for them.  They are going to release me.  They are only going to detain the rest.  They said now and again I would bring them information.  They also said that they wanted me to help them with a certain gentleman they wanted in Lesotho.  I said that I would not be able to do that.  They must just detain me.  They said that they would pay for my university fees, give me a car and give me R1 000,00 every month if I worked for them as an informer.  After that, the following day they put us together.  Thami and them said my eyes had gone blue.

PROF MAGWAZA: Excuse me when you say "Thami and them" it was Thami and whom?

JANE NOMAKHEPU NTSATHA: Thabo Bashe, Mncekeleli Peter, Phumezo Mene, Khumbula Mene.

PROF MAGWAZA: Okay.

JANE NOMAKHEPU NTSATHA: I told them that I had been beaten up the previous day.  I had green bruises all over me.  I showed them the bruises.  I told them that there were electric shocks that I, they applied on me.  We went to Zwelitsha together with Hattingh and them, the police that is.  I cannot remember whether they had hand-cuffed me.  We went to my house and they found ANC documentation, a Steve Biko portrait, also S Chaba.  They took that.  They took me to Barkely East Police Station.  They told me that I was going to be detained under the Section 6, Terrorism Act.
 I stayed with my child in a cell.  November, December, January, February.  Four months that is.  They said that I must give them my life history.  I must write it down for them.  I did that.  One afternoon at about half past four, it was very warm, I was with my child.  My baby just had a vest on.  They said I must just come quickly.  My child cried, because they insisted that I leave him behind.  My child was crying.  They said that I was talking shit.  They said that I must tell them exactly what I did in Lesotho.  I had not written down the truth.  I told them it was.  I said that my baby was crying, I had to go back.  They said that they would not release me until I tell the truth.  After that a Boer stood behind me and hit me, slapped me from the back.