Human Rights Violation Hearings — Middelburg — 1997-06-04

CHAIRPERSON: Prof Meiring will be assisting you and I will ask Mrs Sooka just to administer the oath.  If you have no objection to taking an oath and then immediately hand you to Prof Meiring.
 Mrs Sooka please.

YASMINE SOOKA: Mrs Thabana, will you stand for me, please.

MAMOKONYANA M THABANA: (Duly sworn in, states).

YASMINE SOOKA: Thank you, you may be seated.

PROF MEIRING: Mrs Thabana, from my side also;  welcome.  Your are going to take us back to 1985 to the 23rd of August and you're going to tell us about your brother, Theo, and what happened to him.  Will you please relate in your own words what happened that day and afterwards.

MAMOKONYANA M THABANA: It was on the 23rd of August 1985;  I was sitting at home.  And one of the teachers, by the name of Lorraine, came to my house to tell me that I had to go to school, because my brother was shot.  I also talked to Sole and he told me that someone had been shot.  I went together with this teacher.
 But before we went, I called the hospital to enquire as to what happened.  They told me that he died before getting admitted to hospital.  I went straight to the police station.  I met Mr Mahole and asked him about the whereabout of Theo.  I explained to him what he was wearing.  And he said;  he referred me to another police station at AVBOB.   They said, yes, we did receive such a person, but we cannot allow you in to see the person.  We went back home.  After a few days, I, my husband has to go to the police station and he was told that they were going to ban people from coming to the funeral.  And we refused.
 During the time of service, they came, the police who told us that we should limit the number of the people who'll have to attend the service.  So we were then taken to the police station.  We're told that the funeral was banned.  So we did not know what to do, but we asked to go to, to get permission from the commissioner.  The commissioner told us that, okay, the funeral can proceed, but under certain conditions.  The coffin should be lowered.  Then the kids that will be attending, should be limited.  
 We were told that Theo was a leader and he also taught people to use teargas.  He was attending school in Springs.  During the time of his schooling in Springs, he was suspended.  Then we took him to attend school here in Witbank, in Middelburg.

PROF MEIRING: Thank you, Mrs Thabana.  Would you mind very much if I ask a number of questions;  just to make things more clear to us.
 That day of the 23rd of August 1985, were there other shootings too?  Was that a day of turmoil in the community?

MAMOKONYANA M THABANA: It was when the children from the Sozama school started boycotting.  So Theo was also a student at that school.  But on that day, he didn't go to school.  But when he was still at home, I told him not to go to school, because police had been looking for him.  But he agreed.  Later he decided, he requested me to go to the toilet.  Instead he went at the back of the house and jumped the fence and went to the school.
 When he arrived at school, there were police at the school.  I could see from home - because the school students were fighting with the police.  So I could see that Theo was already at school.
 Then I just asked myself, how did he get out of home?  He jumped over the fence.  When I went to the school, I was told that Theo was one of the people who were shot by the police.  
 They say the police could, was able to see him from the distance.  The distance was estimated to five metres.  So the police aimed at him, because it is long that they've been looking for him.

PROF MEIRING: So the police recognised him as one of the leaders, you say?

MAMOKONYANA M THABANA: Yes.

PROF MEIRING: What was the boycott about?  Why were the children angry?

MAMOKONYANA M THABANA: Children were fighting over Afrikaans as a medium of instruction.

PROF MEIRING: Oh yes.  Did anybody tell you how your brother was shot?  Did they see how he was shot?

MAMOKONYANA M THABANA: Yes.

PROF MEIRING: How did that happen?

MAMOKONYANA M THABANA: They were within the school premises;  then the police started talking through the microphone.  Then they told them that they should not leave their classes.  Then the police started shooting the teargas.  Then he tried to run away in order to be safe from the school.  Everybody was trying to run for his safety.  So he used the small gate that the police were using.  So they tried to run away through that small gate.  So they were so many, but most of them were wearing the school uniform.  There were about four.  So amongst them, they're wearing the same uniform, but they were able to recognise him and shot him.  They got him from the streets.  He was already out of the school yard.

PROF MEIRING: And you said that they remembered him from Springs already?

MAMOKONYANA M THABANA: No, he attended school in Springs.

PROF MEIRING: But there was no trouble in Springs?

MAMOKONYANA M THABANA: There was a trouble.

PROF MEIRING: Can you tell us about that?

MAMOKONYANA M THABANA: Yes.  In the same year, I took my child to Springs.  And then, in Springs, they started boycotting, started fighting.  During that time, the schools in Springs closed.  Then I took him back to Middelburg.  When he came to Sozama, then I requested permission that he should attend in Sozama.
 So it was said that he has been leader from Springs.  Then he was, it was said that he should no longer attend school in Springs;  he should come to Middelburg.

PROF MEIRING: How old was your brother when he was killed?

MAMOKONYANA M THABANA: Seventeen years.

PROF MEIRING: Seventeen years;  thank you.  And how many children does your mother have?  Is he the only child, the two of you ...

MAMOKONYANA M THABANA: We're five.

PROF MEIRING: Five children?

MAMOKONYANA M THABANA: Yes.

PROF MEIRING: But he has no children of his own;  he was too young?

MAMOKONYANA M THABANA: Yes.

PROF MEIRING: Can we just talk a little bit about the funeral?  You said that the funeral was very difficult?