Human Rights Violation Hearings — East London — 1996-04-15

NOHLE MOHAPE: I stayed in Grahamstown for a month and then I was released. I took my children from my in laws.  Just a week after I took them, the police came again and they arrested me.  I had to take my children to my in laws again. After another week I was released again.  Thereafter my in
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laws preferred that I should leave the children so that they cannot be affected by these removals.  I took the children and they stayed with my in laws.  The children were attending school at the time but because I was under a banning order I was unable to visit them.  I was not even to take them to school and could not escort my little one to school like any other parent.  It was difficult for me to do so.  I was unable to attend the meetings which were attended by other parents.  I was unable to get jobs and I was labelled as a terrorist then.  I was restricted from being in the company of more than two people.
 It was a very difficult time for me and I was unable to get employment anywhere.  The banning order was for 1978.  In 1979 I got a job in a furniture shop.  I was employed for five days and the police came again at Elerines where I was working and they took me again. I was given an envelope. I was paid for the five days that I worked and was told that the job was finished.

MS MAYA: How long was the banning order?

NOHLE MOHAPE: The banning was for five years but it was lifted after two years.

MS MAYA: This oppression, can you tell us how long it continued?

NOHLE MOHAPE: After the banning order was lifted I was working at the time at Zingisa Educational Project. This project started in 1971, the people did it for themselves and were also encouraged by Steve Biko. and this Committee was trying to make the Ginsberg community to be able to have their children to be taken to school.  Those were children who were needy were given bursaries and scholarships so that they can be able to continue with their education. For the
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families who were removed from their areas, this was also a benefit for them.  So I was working on this project.

MS MAYA: At this point I would like to stop for a short time so that you can think back again and find out if there is anything that you have left out, that you think might be important.

NOHLE MOHAPE: There's nobody who will ever leave anything important behind. I want to say in his times of difficulties he never became one person.  I also recommend the support of the people who worked with him.  The members of organisations.  Even the people world wide, he received letters from overseas, from people you do not know, even in this country people were sending letters, feeling this hurt together with you, you know these hard times that we were in, the people were together with us.  That gave me strength, that I am supported by the people.  Let me not disappoint them, let me carry on with the struggle and see whether my life reaches the point I want it to reach.
 Now wit this Truth Commission, I've realised that people from overseas, and these people that have been supporting me, I want them to hear today what happened. I am here with a full hope that my children, after such atrocities, will know exactly what happened, because my children and I, we told them that we their father didn't kill himself.

NOHLE MOHAPE: Can I please ask two last questions? How did you feel after the death of your husband? What do you think you would feel after hearing about the Truth Commission?

NOHLE MOHAPE: After the death of Mapetla I was full of hate. I was full of hate that can never be countered. I was hating anybody who was in the police.  I hated them for their
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oppression.  Those were the people who were enforcing apartheid laws on us. They wanted us not to have rights.  Even the children, when you speak to them, you have to tell them these are the people who oppressed us, but one day they will change.  Now these police who are forcing apartheid laws on us will change.  
 That hate stayed with me.  Even that heavy load in my heart was also there, but I told myself that life must continue, I have to be very patient.  Even if I was full of hate, life continued.  You know, even if you don't forget this, even if you don't forget that Mapetla is dead, the children will wake him.  We agreed that this is a nice thing if we agreed as a family that we will go to the TRC and speak out about what happened.  The way we see things. The hard times that we went through.. We want to share with you the difficult times that we've been through.  
 I want to repeat, my hope is that the TRC will reveal, will try to find out what happened to their father, so that when my children are elderly people, they will know exactly what happened to their father. I think I should also know what happened, because as I am sitting here now, I don't know what happened, because he never had any grudges, he belonged to the people.  He was abducted from his house, healthy, supporting his family under the people who followed him.  I have the experience of being tortured, which he also went through.  Now after such things, nobody was to be blamed?

MS MAYA: The last question according to your children. How old were your children at that time?

NOHLE MOHAPE: One of them was six years old and the other one was two. This one at six months, he didn't even know
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her. This one who was two years old doesn't know his dad because he was very young. He is now 22 and the other one will complete 21 years.  They are studying now.  The one is at Rhodes, BCom, 3rd year, the 22 year old one is doing analytical chemistry, he is now busy with his training in this field.

NOHLE MOHAPE: Thank you very much Mrs Nohle Mohape, thank you.