Human Rights Violation Hearings — Nelspruit — 1996-09-05

MR LEWIN: Thank you, Mamma.  If you feel you have forgotten things then there will be time to say them as well.  Could I just ask some questions about your son. You say he is now getting towards 22, 23.  So he was about 17 years when this happened, was it?

PHALISANE LSBETH MTHOMBENI: Yes, I don't know, I can't remember well at the time how old he was, but now he is 22.  By now on the
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25th November he will be turning 24.

MR LEWIN: Okay.  When he was at school at that time, can you describe how he was?  Was he a normal, healthy young schoolboy?

PHALISANE LSBETH MTHOMBENI: No, he was healthy.  He was a bright person, more especially when it comes to school subjects.  Where he attended at school he used to come position one or two.  In the secondary school level, if I refer to different schools, there are four schools in Waterval-Boven. He went to Bonweni Secondary School and at Memeza too. He was always number one. He was a hard-working person, very intelligent, very intelligent.  During the examination time his teacher, Mr Louis, used to say to me pray, pray hard, I know Joseph is going to come first. He was very intellgent, but now he is a useless person.

MR LEWIN: Can you tell us a little bit about what was happening at the school, which led to the police coming to arrest them?  Why were the students rioting, why were they complaining?

PHALISANE LSBETH MTHOMBENI: There was no co-operation during that time.  There was some misunderstanding at that time. If perhaps a school child could die, people were marching, teachers did not actually conduct the normal classes.  So there were a lot of disturbances.  The police were always surrounding the schools. Then those kids used to say you can come around, but never enter the school yard;  if you enter the school yard you will see what you are going to see. They used to stand outside, pointing guns at school pupils inside. These police were just walking around, outside the fence, with their guns. So there were some disturbances.  Well, I can't tell more than that.
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MR LEWIN: Did Joseph and his friends say they belonged to any organisation?

PHALISANE LSBETH MTHOMBENI: Yes, they were members of the comrades, they were ANC.

MR LEWIN: Thank you.  Could I just ask about the time that you found him, when he came out of the police station. You have described to us very graphically how badly he was beaten, he particularly. In your original statement you also mentioned that the boys were covered with blisters.  Do you know where that came from?

PHALISANE LSBETH MTHOMBENI: Yes, they were swollen because they were beaten by the police.

MR LEWIN: Blisters, can you describe how they got blisters?
You said Joseph had blisters on his legs.

PHALISANE LSBETH MTHOMBENI: When I asked my own son, the time when he was a little better, I had to ask him what have they done to you. Then he said on our arrival there, they had to separate us. We were not beaten in one cell.  Mr Ntumsi, he used to open one cell and put one and then he brought a few police and said well, do whatever you want to do. Those who were inside there had to do whatever they wanted to do. Then my son said, I was beaten, I was beaten with that fire extinguisher bottle pipe, they were kicking me, they were actually knocking me with their fists. They took out - at the same time there was a kettle and they switched on the water.  After that water was boiling, they said to me are you still an ANC member.  He said he continued to say I am ANC and then they poured the warm water on his legs.  Then they said it is your Mandela, your father who says you must do this and we must kill you. If you don't die, we will put you in a bag and throw you away where your mother will never NELSPRUIT HEARING TRC/MPUMULANGA
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find you.

MR LEWIN: You also mentioned the use of an electric wire. Can you remember about that?

PHALISANE LSBETH MTHOMBENI: Yes, I remember that.  Yes, they were shocked and all others, they do say, they do agree that they were shocked. Well, I don't know how, but I am told that they were shocked.  They were put, they did almost everything to them, every nasty thing.  They were shocked, electrified, electric shocks and beaten and even they poured boiling water on them.  They were shocked and they were beaten.  I think my child was worse.

MR LEWIN: Could I just confirm that you did lay a charge against the police, which would have been immediately after your son had been released.  Did you mention in the charge any specific names of any policemen or was it a general charge?

PHALISANE LSBETH MTHOMBENI: By the time when we came to the ANC offices in Nelspruit, there at Nelspruit police station we actually laid charges and we said we are opening the case here.  We want to know exactly why our kids were beaten. They had to question us.  We want these people to come before the court of law. We said yes.  Then he said well, it is okay.  He gave us some notes and then gave us contact numbers.  If there is something perhaps you would like to say or contact or if someone dies amongst these boys you must inform me.  He gave us those papers.   But he said to us if you don't contact him he will contact us.  But he never came back to us.

MR LEWIN: So this form that you saw four years later, in 1995, the form, did that have anything to do with the original charge that you had laid?
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PHALISANE LSBETH MTHOMBENI: When it comes to the form, because we brought this form to the ANC office. He said to us as he was reading through that form, he said to us well, the case is now finalised here.

MR LEWIN: But was there any clarity about what the case was that he was talking about?

PHALISANE LSBETH MTHOMBENI: No, it was not clarified.  We only asked Jakes what is the interpretation of this form, what does it mean.  He said to us, no, the case is finalised.  We said but we never appeared before the court of law. So he said, in other words this case has been heard somewhere else, because here it says this has been finalised, you need to sign here.

MR LEWIN: And what was final?  Do you know at all?

PHALISANE LSBETH MTHOMBENI: NO, I don't know.  Because they did not appear before the court of law.

MR LEWIN: So as far as you know, nobody, none of the police were ever punished for what happened to your child?

PHALISANE LSBETH MTHOMBENI: None.

MR LEWIN: Thank you very much, Mamma.  I will pass you back to the Chair.

PHALISANE LSBETH MTHOMBENI: I have forgotten something.  Those people who came, who came to my house, there was one of the police members, Const Schoeman, he was from the local place. He was standing right in front of the door.  He said, he is the one who asked me is Sipho your son.  Then he said do you have children? I said, no, I only have this boy.

CHAIRPERSON: We want to thank you, Mamma, and I wil request other Commissioners maybe to ask if they have got questions.  Yasmin Sooka.

YASMINE SOOKA: Mamma, I just want to ask you a few questions.
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What was your son and his friends doing at the time?  What was the reason for the police actually picking them up that particular night?

PHALISANE LSBETH MTHOMBENI: They were doing nothing during that time.  This police had a very negative attitude.  When he used to meet these boys, he used to harass them. He used to harass them, more especially Mr Schoeman.  If he sees these boys he will either shoot at them, without anything, without any provocation.

YASMINE SOOKA: The other thing is, Mamma, are there medical records available from the time immediately when you took him to the doctor, where the doctor said that Sipho was hurt the most and that one day he might suffer from epilepsy.  Do you have medical records proving that?