Human Rights Violation Hearings — Pretoria — 1996-08-12

THOKOZILE CHRISTINA BOIKHUTSO: My husband left in 1963 on the 22nd of October.  I stayed in this house until I was evicted by the police who use to harass me.  I was pregnant when they took me to John Vorster Square and I stayed there for three days.  They wanted me to tell them the truth and they also use to visit me at home, kick the doors around and the children will be scared by that time and not be able to sleep.  When they came again they said I am not telling the truth about where my husband is and they said I must report to John Vorster Square every day.
 Every day I would wake up early in the morning and go by train to John Vorster Square for about seven days, on the ninth floor that is at John Vorster Square.  Thereafter they came to evict me from the house.  They took everything 
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outside, my clothes, and they locked the house.  I struggled with the children since then and I sent them to the Roman Catholic Church and they stayed at Mariatrost.  That is where they started school.  When I fetched them I had a place to stay with them so that they could study Setswana.  When my husband left I was one month pregnant and I was being assisted by the Welfare to pay rent and to buy food by that time.  
 After my husband died the Special Branch members came to me.  There were three and they were in two cars.  They asked me and they told me that my husband has been killed.  When I asked them where they told me it was in Rhodesia.  I think that is where his bones are lying.  I do not even know his grave because we tried to make application so that we can go over and bury him, but they said to us it is no more possible because the Government said it would bury your husband.  I struggled so further trying to look for work and staying with some friends because I had no house.  Then I came to Pretoria where I stayed with my relatives.  
 There were Bophuthatswana police who use to come to me and ask me where my husband was and I would tell them that he was in exile, I do not know exactly where he is.  They would ask me when is he coming back?  I would not answer them and they also arrested me in 1990 in October.  They fetched me in a Hippo.  I was very scared when they put me into the Hippo because it was the first time I went into the Hippo.  They forced me into it.  They took me in jail at Zone Five in Garankuwa and these people who took me, I know them.  They are Pule and Witienelo.  They locked me in a cell.  The cell had not been trapped by then.  It was very thin, they were giving me a donkey blanket.  I was sitting 
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on the floor and I had an operation and I complained about this operation.  I told them I am not able to sleep at night and I asked them to take me to the doctor and they promised me to do so.  
 On the third day they took me in the afternoon and they took me to the clinic in Mabopane.  They told the nurse to give me tablets and I said I cannot take the tablets I do not know of because I have not seen a doctor yet.  I will not take those tablets in and they took me back and I was still in the cell where I was sleeping.  I stayed for a further three weeks and three days.  That is when Advocate Pat Kuma said to them they must release me and that is the day I went out, I was released.  When I was still at home they use to come to me, these people, trying to find out about the meetings we were holding, where we were holding the meetings and they were accusing me that I was the person who started the ANC in Mabopane.  
 I would presently like the Government to help us to go and find out where my husband is lying because the children also complain.  They want to know where their father is buried.  People told us that the other exiles have been buried in Lusaka, but my family has never been informed about where my husband has been buried.  I would like the Government to help me to go over and see where my husband is sleeping otherwise the Government should bring along his remains so that we can bury him at home.

RUSSELL ALLY: Thank you Mrs Boikhutso.  Just a few questions.  When your husband left in 1963 did you ever have any contact with him after that?  Did you hear from him?

THOKOZILE CHRISTINA BOIKHUTSO: No, he did not write me.  I think he only wrote a letter to the Welfare Department so that they can
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help me, but I knew he was a member of the MK and he also warned me that he might die or leave without our knowledge.  He asked me only to take care of his children.  He did not sleep at home on those last days.  I would have to send him some clothes through some people to change and I did not even know at that time where he was before he left the country.

RUSSELL ALLY: So the first time that you ever heard about your husband again, was this in 1968 when you heard about him being killed?  Was that the first time that you heard about him after he left?

THOKOZILE CHRISTINA BOIKHUTSO: Yes, it was the first time when they came to tell me at home that my husband has been killed on the 10th of April.  Yes, they came very early to tell me about that and most people who bought the newspaper a while before we got the Sowetan newspaper.  People told me that he appeared on the paper, that is The World newspaper and some people also heard over the radio and they came to tell me that your husband is dead.  He died yesterday and I found their names at the back in The World newspaper.

RUSSELL ALLY: And this was the Security Police who came to tell you that your husband had been killed?

THOKOZILE CHRISTINA BOIKHUTSO: No, they were white Special Branch policemen.  They were three and they had come in two cars which were parked in front of my house.

RUSSELL ALLY: And did they actually say who had killed your husband?  Did they say anybody took responsibility?

THOKOZILE CHRISTINA BOIKHUTSO: No, they did not tell me who killed him.  They only told me that he had been killed, but in The World newspaper it was reported that they were killed by the Rhodesia Security Forces in Salisbury.
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RUSSELL ALLY: Did the ANC ever contact you about your husband and how he had died and who killed him?

THOKOZILE CHRISTINA BOIKHUTSO: No, the ANC has not told me anything.  The MK Commander like Joe Modise was with him and Mrs Misimango also said she was with him.  She showed me a book where his name was and I was worried.  I asked her to show me ...

RUSSELL ALLY: You can take your time Mrs Boikhutso.  Do not feel obliged to continue if you do not want to.

THOKOZILE CHRISTINA BOIKHUTSO: They did not show me his name, but they said it appeared on the list, but they did not show me at Shell House where his name was.  That is what worries me and furthermore we have not received any help from these people.

RUSSELL ALLY: Did you receive a death certificate, an official death certificate confirming that your husband had been killed?

THOKOZILE CHRISTINA BOIKHUTSO: Yes, they brought me one.  It was brought by a lawyer from the Legal Aid.

RUSSELL ALLY: And were you ever given any idea as to where your husband may have been buried?  Do you have any ideas?

THOKOZILE CHRISTINA BOIKHUTSO: No, they did not tell me.  That is these Special Branch members, but when the Pretoria Special Branch had taken me and I asked them to give me a letter to go where my husband was buried.  They said to me, they told me that they had been buried through a mass funeral.  That is they buried them all in one hole.

RUSSELL ALLY: The death certificate, did it actually indicate the cause of death?  Did it say how your husband died?

THOKOZILE CHRISTINA BOIKHUTSO: Yes, it was said in the death certificate that he was killed by the Security Forces and that is they bombed them while they were in the aeroplane.