Human Rights Violation Hearings — Klerksdorp — 1996-09-24

DR RANDERA: Good morning Ms De Kock and welcome.  Would you please like to introduce the person who is with you this morning.

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: It is my husband, Mr De Kock.

DR RANDERA: Thank you.  Welcome to you too, Sir.  Mrs De Kock you have come to talk this morning about the bombing of your school in Klerksdorp.

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: That's right.

DR RANDERA: Adv Denzil Potgieter is going to help you in telling your story, but before I hand over to him would you please stand to take the oath.

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: (Duly sworn, states).

DR RANDERA: Thank you. You may proceed.

ADV POTGIETER: Thank you, Dr Randera.  Good morning, Mrs De Kock and Mr De Kock.  May I add my welcome to that of Dr Randera.  As we have heard you will testify about an incident which happened on the 16th of December of 1991, relating to the arson of your school, the building that housed your school and certain other related incidents of threats and harassment.  Now would you like to tell us how it came about that you started the school?  I think it was in January of 1989.

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: Yes, it was actually, it started years and
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years and years before that. It really realised.  Living in this country we had the desire in our innermost hearts and beings, to establish something that we can do well for the whole nation, not just for certain sectors of the nation.  Just to pour our lives into that school, because we are educators.  To pour our lives into it and just to offer our people in this nation something to bring back dignity to the nation, to bring back self-respect to the nation.  To uplift people and to bring healing to the nation.  This was the real desire of our hearts.  We were not politically motivated.  We were not politically involved ever.  We were just normal citizens with a desire to do something to help the people of this nation.

ADV POTGIETER: Now what you then actually founded was a private school.  Would you like to explain that?

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: Yes, it was a little private school. It started with 20 children and in the beginning there was only one little, if I can call it - I see children as children. I mean I don't care what the colour of people is, I see people as people.  There was only one little Black girl that came because nobody knew really at that stage, what we wanted to do.  So we had 20 children and one of these children was a little Black girl.  The government of that time wouldn't accept this little Black girl as a child.  So we couldn't get registration.  They said no, we must have 20 Whites.  So we had to pray and search for another White child to get the school registered.  But eventually with a long struggle, and a lot of pain, we had the school registered.

ADV POTGIETER: When about was that, Mrs De Kock?  When did you manage to get the registration done?
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HELENE KROON DE KOCK: We got it done during the year of 1989.

ADV POTGIETER: And what was the composition of the pupils at that stage?

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: At that stage we had 20 White pupils and one little darling Black little girl.

ADV POTGIETER: Where did you start the school?

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: We didn't have a lot of support to start the school.  We started the school with what we had, and that was a small little building, a wall, that was bombed later on, and we started it there, with the desire that it would grow and that it would reach the people that it was meant to reach.

ADV POTGIETER: It was here in Klerksdorp that you started the school?

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: It was in Wilkoppies, Klerksdorp.

ADV POTGIETER: Now you managed to get registration. How did things then develop from there onwards, until 1991 when the particular incident happened.  How did it grow, did you actually get a greater mix of children from the perspective of culture and so on?

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: Okay.  With the motives we had we never realised that other people are not going to see the situation in the same light.  You think people think the same way as you do and actually, with a shock, you realise it is not the same.  When the people started to learn that we are an open school, that we are non-racial, non - there is a no a denomination attached to the school, it is absolutely open to every person with their own viewpoints.  The only motive we have is to really educate children, the people started to come.  When we enrolled the first 30 little Black students, the problems really started.
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Unfortunately even the people that started the school with us, withdrew their children. They turned their backs, they walked out.  We realised that we are in this thing alone now.

ADV POTGIETER: Were those the people that withdrew their children?

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: They withdrew their children, they walked out because of the children we enrolled at that stage.  We had to make a decision there, whether we are going to run with the crowd and with the popular view at that stage, or are we willing to be deserted totally, rejected totally.  I mean, I know the depths of rejection, I know where - I know what it means to be totally rejected by people that you thought is your family and your friends.  People of your own language group and whatever.

ADV POTGIETER: Were those the people that actually withdrew their children?  Were those the types of parents, it was basically White parents that withdrew their children.

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: That's correct.

ADV POTGIETER: When you had a greater number of Black pupils enrolling at the school.

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: That is correct.  It was a very great shock to us, but we had to go through that.  We had to stand with the people that needed the education.  That was the motivation.

ADV POTGIETER: How did things then develop with a larger number of Black pupils enrolling, some White parents withdrawing their children, how did things go for the school from there onwards?

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: I just want to say that by the time we enrolled the 30 little Black students, there were 64 White students at that stage.  So the survival of the school was
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really placed in jeopardy when they walked out.  We had to -actually we had to restart the school.  That was the first restart.  The second restart was after the bomb.

ADV POTGIETER: Now this first restart, when about was that, which year was that?

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: That was, I would say in October, we took the children in in October, from July to October in the first - in the second year, 1990.

ADV POTGIETER: 1990?

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: 1990.

ADV POTGIETER: And perhaps briefly ... (intervention).

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: We took them in when they started to come.

ADV POTGIETER: Briefly, at that stage, what was the political situation like in Klerksdorp?

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: Because I was not very much involved with the politics, and I just have a heart for the people, it was very difficult for me to understand their political motivations. I just realised that I have a lot of things in the town council against me. I started realising that and the people in the area started to become angry, but even at that very stage, we didn't realise the extent physically.

ADV POTGIETER: And you say that you had a difficult relationship with the town council?

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: Very difficult.

ADV POTGIETER: At that stage do you know which political grouping controlled the town council?

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: I never asked, but I can guess.

ADV POTGIETER: Would you want to venture a guess?

HELENE KROON DE KOCK: Well, I think it was the present government of that time's town council.

ADV POTGIETER: That was in 1990.
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HELENE KROON DE KOCK: That was in 1990.