Human Rights Violation Hearings — Pollsmoor — 1996-11-26

ADV POTGIETER: Re-start.  Can I please ask you to stand, please be seated.  The next witness is Amina Elizabeth van Dyk.  And David Mathews - David Matthews is not here.

<UNKNOWN>: It's her husband.

ADV POTGIETER: Oh! okay -  Mr and Ms Van Dyk.
Good morning Ms Van Dyk.  Are you going to testify all by yourself?  I will then ask you to take the oath.  Would you please rise.
AMINA ELIZABETH VAN DYK Duly sworn states

ADV POTGIETER: Thank you very much, please be seated.  Ma'am the incident took place on the 29th of August 1985.  Is that correct?

MS VAN DYK: Yes, that is correct.

ADV POTGIETER: That is the day after the march in connection with which the first few witnesses testified.  Okay, would you like to tell us what happened with you on that day - the 29th of August.

MS VAN DYK: On the 29th of August - I was working at Lentegeur Hospital.  Thereafter, at 5 o'clock the evening I came home. I had been off for two days.  My uncle asked me to go and fetch Dawie, the deaf and dumb boy.  I went to fetch him in Weskop Avenue.   The bus didn't turn up and I went home.
He asked me to  go and look on the other side - in Wespoort Avenue and I went there.  I stood at the busstop -  myself, a postman and two boys, the 13 year old and the 11 year old.  The Riot Squad guys were hiding in other people's yard.  
While the two boys were standing there, I told them they should go home or else something was going to happen.  The postman asked me why I was standing there and  I told him I was waiting for the deaf and dumb boy, for  Dawid  - and their bus didn't turn up.
While we were standing there, suddenly they started shooting.  And when they started shooting, we ran.  I tripped and fell and the 11 year old boy fell on top of me.  I pushed him off me and I got up.  I looked for help and I was full of blood.  My nose and my mouth were bleeding and my clothes were full of blood.  The lady on the corner gave me a cloth.  I wiped my face and I went home and lay on the bed because I was dizzy.
The oldest child, Allen, phoned the ambulance.  The ambulance came to fetch me and took me to the hospital.  They assisted me into the ambulance because I was totally dizzy in my head and my body was shaking.  I was feeling utterly numb and thereafter  we went around to fetch the two boys.  I asked them where we were going.  And they said to me - no, they were going to take me to the police station and the two boys are going to be taken to the mortuary.  
I got out of the ambulance and they put me in another ambulance.  We were taken to Groote Schuur Hospital.  I was in hospital for a month. I was discharged on the 22nd of the 4th  month 1987.
Before I was put into the other ambulance, the one policeman from the Riot Squad used violent language.  He called me a pig.  I said to him - "what do you mean I am a pig?"   He said to me - "We should have shot you dead instead of the boy".
I said to him - "If you had to shoot the boy dead, his father would have killed me".  And he said to me - "He can't help it, because we coloureds deserve it".  Then I was taken to the hospital and since then  nothing has happened and I have been in a state of confusion ever since.
I lost my one eye and it bothers me because I get these sharp pains in my eye.  I get migraines and then sometimes I want to have nothing to do with my children, because of my pain.  
This has caused me to lose my  job, my house and my medical aid benefits and I have got absolutely no income.  I would like you people to assist me in getting my job back.

ADV POTGIETER: In 1985, when this incident took place, you say that you were working?

MS VAN DYK: Yes, I was working at Lentegeur Hospital.

ADV POTGIETER: Where you married at the time?

MS VAN DYK: No, I was unmarried,   I was living with my uncle.

ADV POTGIETER: And your uncle is David Matthews? Is it his son who you had to fetch at the busstop?

MS VAN DYK: Yes, he was schooling at Wittebome

ADV POTGIETER: And he was brought home by bus?

MS VAN DYK: Yes, he was brought home by bus, but that day, when I went to the hospital - the principle phoned to say that they can't come through because it was too dangerous.

ADV POTGIETER: So they couldn't come back by bus that day?

MS VAN DYK: No, and when we were taken to hospital, they were brought in by car.

ADV POTGIETER: So, did you have to go and meet him else where?

MS VAN DYK: Yes, I would meet him on the corner on a regular basis.

ADV POTGIETER: So, you would have met him on the corner, or at least you thought you would meet him on the corner and then you would both walk back home?

MS VAN DYK: Yes.

ADV POTGIETER: Do you say it was after working hours.

MS VAN DYK: Yes, it was after working hours.

ADV POTGIETER: Was it late the afternoon?

MS VAN DYK: Yes, it was in the afternoon.

ADV POTGIETER: What time did you come from work then?

MS VAN DYK: Sometimes we would come home from work at 5 o'clock.  Sometimes we would get half a day off and get home at three.

ADV POTGIETER: Okay, you say that at some stage you were standing at the busstop?

MS VAN DYK: Yes, I was merely standing at the busstop.  We were standing there and they started shooting at us and we had to flee.

ADV POTGIETER: And the two boys who were shot dead - they were standing with you?

MS VAN DYK: Yes, they were also standing there - we were all standing at the busstop, because I still said to them they must go home and they said - no, they are not going to go home.

ADV POTGIETER: What were they doing?  Were they just watching or did they do anything?

MS VAN DYK: No, they was merely standing watching.

ADV POTGIETER: They didn't do anything.

MS VAN DYK: No, sir.

ADV POTGIETER: Was there a tyre barricade burning in the road?

MS VAN DYK: No, there was nothing there, in Wespoort avenue there was nothing burning there.

ADV POTGIETER: Before the shooting incident - did you see the police?

MS VAN DYK: I did not see any police.  They were at the hospital, but my uncle said they were very rude and the nurses and doctors wouldn't let them in.

ADV POTGIETER: And while you was standing at the busstop - did you see the police?

MS VAN DYK: No - because I was injured and taken to hospital.

ADV POTGIETER: I assume you were shot?

MS VAN DYK: Yes.

ADV POTGIETER: In the face?

MS VAN DYK: I have got an artificial left eye.  I was shot in my eye.  I still have the birdshot in my body.

ADV POTGIETER: So you were struck in your eye with birdshot and also parts of your body?  Did you see where the police were that was shooting at you?

MS VAN DYK: The policeman that shot me wore spectacles, but I do not know his name or his surname.

ADV POTGIETER: Was he behind that wall

MS VAN DYK: Yes, they hid behind the wall in somebody's yard.

ADV POTGIETER: And did you hear a few shots?

MS VAN DYK: Yes.

ADV POTGIETER: You say there was a postman there as well.

MS VAN DYK: Yes.

ADV POTGIETER: Was he still there when the shooting incident took place?

MS VAN DYK: Yes, he - when I got there he had been standing there already and I asked him what he was doing there and he didn't answer me.

ADV POTGIETER: Do you know whether he was shot?

MS VAN DYK: Yes, he was shot by birdshot.

ADV POTGIETER: Did you know him or was it somebody you didn't know?

MS VAN DYK: Yes, I knew him.

ADV POTGIETER: Did you know him or was he just somebody that you would see around or do you know his name?

MS VAN DYK: No, I don't know his name.

ADV POTGIETER: What about the two boys - did you know the two boys?

MS VAN DYK: Yes, I knew them.

ADV POTGIETER: Do you also just know them as residents in the area?

MS VAN DYK: No, not just from seeing them,  I knew them.  It was Ms Paulsen and the other lady's children.

ADV POTGIETER: At the time when the shooting incident took place, were there any - was there any stone throwing or rioting there?

MS VAN DYK: No, absolutely nothing.