Human Rights Violation Hearings — Pietermaritzburg — UNKNOWN

WITNESS:   Justice Harcourt, the one who sentenced me in 1963, didn't want to hear anything about our torture.  That is Justice Harcourt.  In 1975 or '76 Judge Howard - I think he is one of the fascists.  He didn't want to listen to what we were saying, because whatever we said in court that particular day he was adamant that nothing happened to us, therefore he was not going to listen to us when we were telling him about our torture and all that sort of thing.  He decided that we were lying.  That's one of the tricks of ANC Umkhonto we Sizwe people, that we were trained to trick the Court, not to tell the Court the truth, therefore we were not tortured.  Therefore there was no need of trying to make any specific complaint to Justice Howard, because we saw him that he was a dangerous Judge himself.  Because before he could sentence us he keep on promising us that he was going to sentence us to death, therefore it made us so stubborn that even if we are sentenced to death nothing that we are going to beg him for being arrested or being charged of this high treason case.  So that we decided not to complain to him.

MR LAX: Thank you.

MRS GCABASHE: Mr Xaba, we've heard your story.  I would request you to tell us about your journey to Groote Schuur Hospital when they operated you on your arm.  Did they tell you what they were operating you for?

WITNESS:   They said I had suffered a stroke, and they operated me at the back of my head.  They told me that the veins supply my brain with blood had bursted and I needed an operation.

MRS GCABASHE: Thereafter how did you feel, and how do you feel now after the operation?  After the operation did you feel better or did you feel worse up to now?

WITNESS:   As I am saying it's very difficult for me to say how I really feel, because now I've got arthritis.  I am suffering from arthritis, which affects my right-hand side.  Now my whole body is aching.

MRS GCABASHE: Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you for having come.  Thank you for having had the courage to come, not only to share with us your pain and suffering in that fateful year of 1976 in particular, forgetting for the moment about what had happened earlier on in Southern Rhodesia, just that fateful year of '76.  You know the way we have been socialised, whether it is in terms of western culture or traditional society, is that you seldom see a man weep.  We have all been brought up by our society to take the attitude that cowboys don't cry, and when a man of your calibre, that's an elderly man, a man who has spent time in the cause of liberation, a man who has suffered for it, weeps, it says something.  And for me I can quite relate to what has happened to you, especially the period, especially the people, the personalities you have mentioned.  When we were arrested in 1976 in Umtata, with ... (inaudible) ... and my brother and others it was the same Colonel Dreyer, or Captain Dreyer, who came to interrogate us, so I know him very well.  It was the same colonel, the very first question he asked from me was, "Where are the weapons?  Where have you kept the weapons?" and one of the things that he did mention was that we would go the same way as ... (inaudible) ... so I can quite understand your case and suffering.  One of the most disturbing things, of course, is that some of these people are not only walking out there, and having never paid their debt to society.  Some of them are still occupying positions of authority in the civil service in public positions.
Speaking as a lawyer I sometimes feel very concerned about the role which the legal system has treated people who believed in its capacity to stand for them.  You have mentioned the question of Judges, you have mentioned a specific Judge in uncomplimentary terms.  Some have mentioned the role of judges.  Today you heard the testimony of Professor Aitchison, who spoke in very simple terms when he said it was known that torture was used by the Special Branch to extract confessions, and one of the most shameful aspects of this period was the unwillingness of prosecutors, Magistrates and Judges to resolutely refuse to co-operate in legal processes corrupted by torture of suspects.  That's what he said earlier on in the day.  Earlier on when we had hearings in this very province Krish Govender of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers made the same point about our justice system.  It is a system that needs to be overhauled.  It is a system that needs to get your trust, and I hope that these testimonies in the Truth Commission will help towards a realisation in those who man our justice system that there is a need for that system to be totally transformed in order for the legal system to serve the new democratic order.  It is testimonies like yours that will assist in that process of transforming the criminal justice system in this country. 
Thank you again for having had the courage to come.  Thank you.

NOMUSA MAKOWANI: (Sworn, States)

MRS GCABASHE: We greet you, Nomusa.  I know that you are here because you want to give your testimony, and this is not nice stories.  Let me start by saying we are here for you and we sympathise with you.  Before we can start I would like you to tell us more about your family.

WITNESS:   I would like to ask if you mean my family from home or my maritary family?  Which one?

MRS GCABASHE: Now that you are married I would like you to explain to us more about your own family, the one that you are married to?

WITNESS:   I am Nomusa Makowani.  I am from Willowfontein and I am married, and I am not in good terms with the people, but they came and sympathised with me when my husband died.  And I also have one child, and his name is Luwazi and he is seven years old.

MRS GCABASHE: You said seven years?

WITNESS:   Yes.

MRS GCABASHE: Is he in school?

WITNESS:   Yes.

MRS GCABASHE: What standard is he in?

WITNESS:   One, standard one.

MRS GCABASHE: Is that all, it's you and your son?  Where do you stay?

WITNESS:   I am staying at Willowfontein.

MRS GCABASHE: Do you have your own house?

WITNESS:   Yes, I do have my own house.  I am staying at my own house.

MRS GCABASHE: I would like you now to tell us more about what happened on the 27th May in 1990.