Human Rights Violation Hearings — Klerksdorp — 1996-09-23

SUSAN J VAN DER MERWE: I saw this in the report, I had this in the report from the police, it was in 1982. I cannot remember the date too well, when I applied for a report regarding his death and at the time of his certification of death. After the certification of death the police, in fact the attorney who did this for me, sent me the police report.

YASMINE SOOKA: (Speaker's mike not on).

SUSAN J VAN DER MERWE: Yes, that is correct.

YASMINE SOOKA: What was his name, ma'am?

SUSAN J VAN DER MERWE: It was the firm Dyason & Odendaal who were acting for me. They are today known as Dyason only.

YASMINE SOOKA: (Speaker's mike not on) ... this question, because you are using the name Mr X. It seems that the person who is probably testifying in the capacity as an informer, and I would just like to know if you know anything about what actually transpired when Mr X gave his evidence?

SUSAN J VAN DER MERWE: The only information which I have is what was in the report. I do not have any - I never saw the person, except for what was written in the report. That is the information which I have.

YASMINE SOOKA: Thank you, ma'am.

CHAIRPERSON: Mrs Van der Merwe, firstly I would like to say that we appreciate the fact that you have come to come and give evidence here and also, we would like to express our sympathy towards you and your family. It is, one could say, it is, but in English they say that it easy to praise someone that is fasting on a full stomach, because you do not feel the pain and suffering, the pain and the suffering is not yours, it is that of the other person. But I hope that the feeling itself when you gave evidence here, that
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you felt that people in the audience sympathised with you. The first witness whom we heard this morning, spoke in the same vein, about if only they could find the remains of their son, that they would like to be able to bury him. Here you come along and I believe that it is something wonderful for our country, to be able to experience and accept the fact that we are all but human, Black or White, we all feel the same pain, we all feel the same anguish. When you said here that a person can only be a person by other people, for all the people here to hear that, they are all standing with you. We hope that the truth will surface one day, about what exactly happened to your husband. 
 We would also like to say that we appreciate the fact that you are not bearing any grudges, and that you could say the way you did, that your story is about pain and you say that it is but a drop in the ocean, when one takes into account the other pain which so many of our other people experienced.
 The fact remains, it is still pain, it is your pain, it is something that happened to you and we pray firstly, that God will annoint the wounds with His Holy Spirit and soothe it in that way, and in that way bring about healing. But also, that now that we have a new system, that we all will be determined that things like these, which you have told us about, will not happen again in our country. That each and everyone of us will say I have decided that I will work with everyone who wants to rid this country of violence and keep it out of this country.
 Thank you very much for what you have said about weapons and so forth, and we hope that those who have heard your evidence will take cognisance of it. Thank you very 
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much. Thank you.

SUSAN J VAN DER MERWE: Thank you very much.
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