Human Rights Violation Hearings — Newcastle — 1996-09-12

COMMISSIONER: As Mr Dlamini has said we will try and get in touch with the people at Consol.  We also have the power to make recommendations to the Government as to how people like you might be assisted, and we will be making those recommendations.  So we thank you very much for coming in

COMMISSIONER: and telling us your story today, and we are glad that your wife could be here to assist you.  Thank you very much.

WITNESS:   Thank you.

COMMISSIONER: (Inaudible) ... we welcome you here today.  Can you hear me and understand me through the earphones?

SIPHO ZWANE: Yes, I can hear you.

COMMISSIONER: (Inaudible) ... from Sibongile township in Dundee, and you have come to tell us about your assault, torture, whilst you were in detention in 1986.  Before you give that evidence can you please stand to take the oath?

SIPHO ZWANE: (Sworn, States)   (Through Interpreter)

COMMISSIONER: Mr Lax will now assist you.

MR LAX: Thank you, Chairperson.  Good morning, Mr Zwane, welcome.  Thank you for coming once again.  Before we start with your arrest and your detention and the things that happened to you during that time can you tell us a little bit about yourself?  Just for the record, you were born on 18 August 1944, is that right?  These events happened to you during and after 1986.

WITNESS:   That is correct.  Can I go on?  Thank you very much for the opportunity that I have got today to speak.  This opportunity I got ... (intervention)

MR LAX: (Inaudible) ... carry on let me just ask you one or two small questions.   Are you married?

WITNESS:   Yes, I am married.

MR LAX: And how many children do you have?

WITNESS:   I have got three children.

MR LAX: What are your children's ages, just for the record?

WITNESS:   The first-born is about 22, but I am not sure, I am not exactly sure.

MR LAX: (Inaudible) ... younger than that?

WITNESS:   The other one is 13 years old, a daughter.  My other one is eight years old.  It's a son. What do your children do?  Are they schooling?   ---  Yes, they are all schooling.

MR LAX: Thank you.  Are you working at present?

WITNESS:   I am no longer working.

MR LAX: And your wife, is she working at all?

WITNESS:   Yes, she is working.

MR LAX: Thank you very much.  Now, you've told us that round about 16 June 1986 at that time you were employed by the Blood Transfusion Centre in Dundee as a clinic operator, is that right?

WITNESS:   That is correct.

MR LAX: Please tell us what happened on that day.

WITNESS:   When I started working - on the 16th of June 1986 we were under a state of emergency at that time.  That was in 1986, June.  There's something that I want to explain.  I don't know whether I am making a mistake.  That is the date on which I was arrested.  I think I said on the 18th.  It was on the 17th of June 1986.

MR LAX: That's not a problem.  We can correct the record for that purpose.  Thank you.

WITNESS:   I will start relating on the very first day that I got arrested.  I was at work and I was from Khombe Hospital.  Khombe is next to Nqutu on the way to Nkandla.  On our way back from Khombe Hospital - and I was a driver at that time, I was driving one of the cars from the Blood Transfusion Services - just as we were passing by Nqutu Hospital, we were between Nqutu as well as Nzinyathi, and we saw a roadblock which was made by the security forces.  They were in two cars.  They stopped me at that time and I stopped the vehicle.   And Mr van Huyssteen, who was leading the team of the Security Police said to me he was arresting me under the state of emergency.  As I was starting to explain he handcuffed me on top of my watch.  My other colleague was asked to take out the watch, the wristwatch, and that he should not talk, because he was going to be arrested if he talked.  They took me out of my car and they put me into their own cars.  And they had handcuffed me to the front, and they changed that and handcuffed me to the back.  And we were on our way to Dundee.  They asked me whether I wanted to go home or I wanted to proceed straight to Newcastle.  They went along abusing me verbally and telling me that I was going to tell the truth, and they were threatening me at the same time.  Along the way they asked me as to where Mr Masondo was working, and I told them that he was working at the laundry.  They went to fetch him from the laundry, and it was in the afternoon now.  He was also arrested.  We were both detained, and we were handcuffed together.  They asked us if we would like to go to our respective places so that we could report that we had been detained.  They took us to our respective homes.  They first started at Mr Masondo's place, and they handcuffed Masondo only and they took him inside his house.  I was left inside the car.  I don't know what happened inside Mr Masondo's house, but apparently they searched the house extensively.  And we proceeded to my house.  The very same thing happened to me.  They took me inside my house and they started searching the house.  They threatened my wife and asked her as to why she did not restrain me when I was getting involved in politics.  My children were so traumatised by the situation, as well as my wife.  They took me to the head office in Newcastle.  Along the way they were threatening us and verbally abusing us, and there were also black policemen at that time.  When we got to the head office in Newcastle we were asked whether we wanted to be kept in one cell, and we agreed that we would like to be kept in one cell.  They took our possessions, as well as belts and wristwatches.  There was a major now, Major Eugene de Kock.  He is the one who was verbally abusing us and showing us blood on the walls, splattered on the walls, and telling us that if we did not speak the truth our blood would also be on the wall.  From there we were taken to the cells.  We slept in the prison cells.  The blankets had lice, they were dirty, and we slept on the floor.  There was a small little mat that they gave us to sleep on that mat.  We slept without food on that night, and they told us it was none of their concern that we were hungry.  On the following day we started getting interrogated.  They interrogate Masondo as well as myself.  At times they would interrogate us during the night, and they would show us down there.  They put us at a top level of the floor, showing us down that if we do not want to speak the truth they were going to throw us down.  We stayed there without food.  All the food that we had was porridge.  And we would have that porridge twice a day, that is in the morning as well as during the day, and in the evening there would be no food at all.  We were not allowed to speak to each other as detainees.  We were told to keep quiet just like corpses.  During the interrogation they would fetch you in the evening, very late in the evening, and they would interrogate you whilst you were standing, and you were not allowed to sit, move or balance yourself.  At times we would say that we want to go to the toilet even though we didn't want to because we wanted to get some rest.  We would stand until we get dizzy and fall.  Whenever you had fallen you would be kicked.  We were being interrogated whilst we were handcuffed.

MR LAX: What were they interrogating you about?  What were they asking you, what sort of questions?