Human Rights Violation Hearings — Pretoria — 1996-08-13

DR MALAN: ... give the testimony.  Will that be in English or Afrikaans.  You have the choice.

DAWN GEORGINA BOTHA: I will give my evidence in Afrikaans ...

DR MALAN: You will speak in Afrikaans?

DAWN GEORGINA BOTHA: ... but you may ask questions in English.

DR MALAN: Thank you very much, but before you start will you please just rise and lift your right hand.

DAWN GEORGINA BOTHA: (Duly sworn in, states).

DR MALAN: Thank you and you may sit down.  You and your husband, Nico, both gave us a statement together and you have decided that you will give evidence.  Will you please tell us what you have to tell us and at the end we will possibly ask you some questions.

DAWN GEORGINA BOTHA: I would like to give evidence surrounding the death of my brother, Leon Lionel Meyer, on the 20th of December 1985.  This happened in Maseru, Lesotho.  I know that his name was mentioned during the sittings in Durban.  I also believe that his family, Jacqueline Quinn, gave evidence according to him and I now wish to give evidence on behalf of my family.
 Leon was never happy with the state of affairs and often questioned things.  He was often questioned by the police.  I remember a specific incident when him and a few his friends were fetched by the Security Police and taken 
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for questioning.  This questioning lasted for more than ten hours.  He was at the age of around 16 years already detained.  There were also other youths who had the same point of view.  He was constantly detained and due to the constant torture Leon left the country in 1979 with a friend.  This is just after he matriculated.  They kept in contact with us telephonically, but he was often cautious with the kind of information given to us.  
 He told us that on one occasion just five minutes after he spoke to us he just missed a bomb explosion at the Maseru Post Office.  So just five minutes after speaking to us this bomb exploded.  Apparently people were aware of the fact that people from South Africa often used that telephone to phone his family.  My family home has often been visited by police.  After his visit to Lesotho he left to Angola.  He then left for Cuba and the then East Germany.  When my father died in May 1983 my mother who is a cancer sufferer received another one of the numerous visits from the Security Police.  I then decided to go to Lesotho prior to my father's funeral in order to come back to South Africa.  My mother refused point blank to do this.  
 During the funeral of my father there was a big contingent of Security Police present.  After my father's corpse was brought to the house did the police stop people from entering the house.  People were only able to show their last respects to my dad after the police left the room.  During the funeral the Security Police stood on top of the grave.  They wanted to see if Leon, my brother, did not perhaps show up for the funeral.  In 1982 he nearly died again in Maseru and during this time Chris Hani also nearly died.  The death of these men, his friends and mentors, 
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caused him great suffering and when his daughter was born a few years later he named her after a bird.  
 Whilst we lived in a small fishers town in Laaiplek we received a visit from an Italian lady who use to work in Maseru.  Her name was Maria Donnata.  Leon apparently had given her a letter which she was to give to me.  She then, by bus, left Cape Town for Laaiplek.  They must have been aware of her visit and must have informed the police because the bus driver left her at the house of Dutch Reformed Minister.  They opened the letter, they read the letter, they made a photostat copy of the letter, they then closed the letter and then gave it back to her.  They then asked her to take the letter to us and should we give her a letter in return she was to first bring this to the police station.  She did not tell us anything about this, but the next morning she broke and told us what happened.  We then decided against writing and giving a letter to my brother.  We personally took her back to Cape Town.  
 A few months after my mother's death, she died in July of 1985.  Now a few months later on the 20th of December that Leon died and also that his wife Jacqueline was also murdered in a gruesome fashion.  It was at one o' clock in the morning and it was on the 20th of December in 1985.  A few days prior to that their daughter Finnicks turned one year old.  Leon apparently was in the bathroom when they entered the house.  They first murdered Jacqueline.  We could later see how Leon tried to get through the burglar bars in the bathroom.  There were bullet holes everywhere visible.  The bathroom floor was splashed with blood and the same in the kitchen and in the passages.  There was body parts and blood visible in the kitchen as Jacqueline's chest PRETORIA HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
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was shot open.  I bought cleaning material and after Christmas myself, my sister and my three brothers and uncle and several family members went to the house where the murder took place.  We personally washed the blood from the floors and from the walls.  We removed the body parts from the floors and we used ammonia to clean the house.  We opened the doors and windows, but the smell of Jacqueline and Lionel's death stayed in the air.  In the South African newspapers the LLA, the Lesotho Liberation Association was held responsible.  However, it later became evident that this was a fictitious organisation.  
 Lionel did not die immediately.  He went and tried to get to his neighbour.  He also said that they spoke Afrikaans and that they, apparently, were white because they had covered themselves with something in black, but you could see the white skins coming through.  We were tortured and when we got to the border the border police told us that we would die in the same fashion.  My brother and his wife did not deserve to die in such a manner.  He was a very loving person and dedicated to his duties towards the ANC.  He was a Christian and belonged to the Youth Organisation of our Church.  I find it totally unacceptable that his life had to be cut short in order to uphold the status quo of apartheid.
 I therefore beg that children of ANC members who died should have free education.  I believe that they should receive free education both at school and at university.  In the Rapport Newspaper of 19 May their names were mentioned.  In a television programme of earlier this year once again they mentioned names and again in a statement from Warrant Officer Nortje, they also mentioned the incidence.  They 
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mentioned that Nortje who was a member of Vlakplaas and in 
there he explained the entire happening in Lesotho.  In the Truth Commission Special Report they exposed the entire story.  In there Nortje states that the incident was planned by de Kock. He is currently accused of murder and apparently he was assisted by a police agent who lives amongst people in Maseru.  The other policemen, the other Vlakplaas policemen were Snor Vermeulen and another unknown person.  There were also Security policemen of Ladybrand involved, Joe Coetsee and Joe Willemse.  According to Nortje did Adams and somebody else were they responsible for the murder.  All the policemen who were involved received medals.  I would like to know why the Commission have not, long ago, found or received the statement from Nortjie.  I would like to know why Nortjie or any of the others have never been summoned to bring about the facts.  The Commission have heard several stories of victims, but have still not done anything in order to find the truth.  You do have the right to call us witnesses and the question that we, as the family have, is why do you not do this?  Thank you very much.