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

DR RANDERA: Now earlier on you said that when they were beating you up in Makwassie, or I am not quite sure if it is Makwassie or Stilfontein, they accused you of being a leader of the ANC and also they accused you of burning or wanting
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to burn the municipal offices.  Is that right?

THABANG REGINALD MOPELOA: Yes, that is what they told me.  I didn't, I do not know where they got that information from.

DR RANDERA: Were the municipal offices actually burnt?

THABANG REGINALD MOPELOA: No. No building was burnt, no damage was done to any property.

DR RANDERA: And this question of being accused as being a leader of the ANC, remember the ANC at that time was still a banned organisation. Were they accusing you of being a member of the ANC or the UDF?

THABANG REGINALD MOPELOA: They said I was an ANC member.

DR RANDERA: Okay.  Now in your statement you also make note of the fact that they sjambokked you so badly that you had cuts on your back.  Is that right?

THABANG REGINALD MOPELOA: That's correct.

DR RANDERA: And you still have those marks on your back?

THABANG REGINALD MOPELOA: I still have the marks on my back and these marks have cost me a lot of trouble. I cannot even walk a 250 metre distance.  I have to walk and rest, walk and rest.

DR RANDERA: I just want to come to the last part of what you said now, that you were actually charged.  You admitted to the charges in Wolmaransstad. Is that right?

THABANG REGINALD MOPELOA: That's right, that was at Wolmaransstad.

DR RANDERA: All of you were charged, including Kitty Bone?

THABANG REGINALD MOPELOA: No, no, Kitty Bone and the other members of the group were released, I can't remember the date, but they were released and they were told to go home, but they should find themselves transport.  Eight people were left behind. I was among the group of eight people.

DR RANDERA: And was your sentence a suspended sentence?  Did you spend any time in prison?
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THABANG REGINALD MOPELOA: I only spent eight days, it is three days at Makwassie, five days at Stilfontein and I was taken to Wolmaransstad.

DR RANDERA: Do you remember when the case was heard in Wolmaransstad?

THABANG REGINALD MOPELOA: If I remember well, I cannot remember the day, but it was on the same month of June, but towards the end and I was before the Court in Wolmaransstad.

DR RANDERA: What did you admit to, what were the charges and what did you admit to?

THABANG REGINALD MOPELOA: They accused me and they wanted me to agree that I was part of the group that planned to burn the municipal offices on that day.

DR RANDERA: Thank you, Reginald, I have no further questions, Chairperson.

YASMINE SOOKA: Thank you, Piet?

PROF MEIRING: Reginald, thank you. I just want to ask, you said that you are not able to work because of the injuries that you sustained.  Does that mean there is no work at all which you can do or can you do work set aside for disabled persons?

THABANG REGINALD MOPELOA: I can say with my hands I can work, I am not working at this present moment, but I am trying to run my own business. That is the only work I can afford. I do not walk around, I have to sit and work with my hands.

PROF MEIRING: What training do you have, were you at school, high school or when did you leave school?

THABANG REGINALD MOPELOA: I did Std 7 at school.

PROF MEIRING: Thank you very much.

YASMINE SOOKA: Could I ask, you were charged in Wolmaransstad with public violence and it was probably on the basis of the KLERKSDORP HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
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statement that you made.  Were you then sentenced, did they find you guilty?

THABANG REGINALD MOPELOA: I was found guilty after I was intimidated, that if I do not agree I would go for five years to prison. This means I agreed to the accusation that I didn't even know. I was doing that to let myself free.

YASMINE SOOKA: If you were found guilty, what did the Court sentence you to?

THABANG REGINALD MOPELOA: The Court gave me five years of suspension. Before I go to the court of law the prosecutor approached me, his name was Jordaan. I was still in the cell. He said to me if you do not agree with the accusation, know that you are in hell of a trouble. I was then give the five years suspended and I was scared that I would spend the five years in the cell if I did not agree with what he was saying.

YASMINE SOOKA: I am not absolutely sure about something. You say that the police, when beating you, wanted you to sign a statement. You also say that when you were in the cells, when you were being held in the cells, the prosecutor approached you and told you to plead guilty.  Now did the prosecutor take a statement from you in which you said you were part of this group that wanted to burn the municipal offices or did the police make you sign such a statement?

THABANG REGINALD MOPELOA: The prosecutor didn't make me write any statement.  Not even the police, but what they told me, they said if you do not agree with what we are saying, you will be on your own. When I arrived at Wolmaransstad, they didn't even take me to the charge office to take my statement, to take my fingerprints. They were talking as prosecutors. They were standing aside and they were chatting, we do not know what is it they were speaking, and after that the prosecutor KLERKSDORP HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
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came into the cell and that is where he intimidated me.  He told me that if I do not agree with what he is saying, I would get five years.

YASMINE SOOKA: After all of this, did you lay a charge against the police for the assault?

THABANG REGINALD MOPELOA: I tried to lay charges against the police at Makwassie police station.  It was a time of oppression and Black people were so scared of the boers.  I took an initiative to go to the police station. On my arrival nobody attended to me.  They chased me away, they said I should go to the other police station to try my luck there. I couldn't go to any other police station then.

YASMINE SOOKA: Thank you.  Dr Randera wants to ask you one more question.

DR RANDERA: Reginald, I just want to go back to something you said right at the beginning. You said that the policeman who came to arrest you was Piet Scheepers, and that he was a colleague of your father.  Is that right?

THABANG REGINALD MOPELOA: That's correct.

DR RANDERA: Was your father a policeman himself?

THABANG REGINALD MOPELOA: That's correct, he was a policeman.

DR RANDERA: And also, Piet Scheepers was involved in your assault and torture.  Was that at Makwassie and at Stilfontein?

THABANG REGINALD MOPELOA: It was at Makwassie where he severely assaulted me. He came to Stilfontein to assault me further. I don't know was he not satisfied with the torture he applied to me while we were at Makwassie?

DR RANDERA: Now this gentleman, is he still a member of the police force?  Do you know?

THABANG REGINALD MOPELOA: I know him very well, and over the past few
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days I have seen him. He is working now somewhere in a shop. I think he resigned from the police service.