Human Rights Violation Hearings — Durban — 1996-05-08

DR BORAINE: I suppose that - I mean I don't know if the then president of the ANC actually made that apology on behalf of his party that you referred to, and I suppose that people inside the country were banned or weren't allowed to be members, but have you been in touch with any of the ANC leadership since they have returned, and since the banning has been lifted so they could act as a normal party?

WITNESS:   I did make - take up the issue with certain people and nothing had happened, and I feel more disgusted at that. Ja, I am sure that we are sympathetic to the fact that not only has this tragedy visited you, but there seems to have been so little compassion.  Terence, you have been brought up by your uncle.  As he indicates you are almost bigger than he is now, and you are very lucky that you had someone to take the place of your parents, although no one can do that entirely.  Do you want to say anything more about how you feel, or how the Commission may be of some help to you as an orphan?   ---   I'd like the Commission to like name a memorial service, or like a hall or something, after my parents.

DR BORAINE: Anything else?

WITNESS:   And probably the funds that you should give it to the needy people like - what's it, Stompie Siphe's mother, who needs it.

DR BORAINE: We certainly are going to try to do that, and in the Act under which we fall there is what we call the President's Fund, which, as the hearings develop, we will advise the President on a policy, and then money would have to be voted by Parliament to try and see in terms of memorials, or scholarships, or pensions, or any small way in which to try to relieve - and I am very grateful that you point to other people's needs rather than your own, because you could quite easily have done that.  Can I ask you one last question, Terence?  You're a young man of 18 now.  You were six years old then.  How do you feel now about the situation in the country as a young man with a future ahead of you?  If you don't want to answer that, that's fine, it's not a problem.

WITNESS:   There is a lot of violence going on in this country at the moment, and I'd like it to stop.  As you see in parts, on Saturday I think, in town, there was lots of bloodshed, guys getting killed.  We don't want that, we want to live in a peaceful world.

DR BORAINE: Thank you very much.  Do you want to add anything at all?

WITNESS:   (Incomplete - end of Side A, Tape 8)  ... he'll think about it and come back to me.  He came back to me, he says, "Okay, we forgive them."  And I felt proud that he thinks in that fashion, and not like a - like we were brought up in a system with revulsion and revenge and that.

DR BORAINE: Thank you, I find that very encouraging.  Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very, very much.  We are very deeply moved by your testimony, Terence, and especially your concern for other people, and your desire, which is one that is shared by many, that violence could end and that we should be able to live in a society that is peaceful and prosperous, and has a place under the sun for everybody.  But thank you very much, and God bless you.

DR BORAINE: Mr Haffajee, welcome.

YUSUF HAFFAJEE: Thank you.

DR BORAINE: We're very pleased to see you, and are grateful to you for coming to the Commission to share something of your own personal loss and pain.  Now, you also have someone with you, and perhaps you could tell us who that is.

YUSUF HAFFAJEE: That's my son, my youngest son, Bilala.

DR BORAINE: Well now, let me welcome him very warmly.  Can I ask whether you are going to give testimony, or whether both of you are?

YUSUF HAFFAJEE: I'll be doing it.

DR BORAINE: You will.  Thank you very much.  Well, let me say how marvellous it is to have somebody next to you, and it's not an easy time and, as we've said before, to have a family member is very, very important for all of the witnesses.  In a moment I am going to ask my colleague to lead you as you give your evidence, and yours of course goes back a long way to 1977, and you are going to tell us about the death of your brother, Dr H M Haffajee.

YUSUF HAFFAJEE: Yes.

DR BORAINE: Before you do that you know that I have to ask you to take the oath, so will you please stand.

YUSUF HAFFAJEE: (Sworn, States)

DR BORAINE: Thank you very much indeed.  Again thank you very much for coming.  We look forward to hearing your story, despite its sadness and its tragedy, and in order to assist you I am going to call upon my colleague, Mr Lax.

MR LAX: Greetings, Yusuf, and greetings to your family as well.

WITNESS:   Thank you.

MR LAX: And please pass on my regards to your parents, to your mum.

WITNESS:   I'll do that.

MR LAX: It's ironic that you and I are going through this process together, I on behalf of the Commission, as we are neighbours almost from the same city, and we do know one another quite well.

WITNESS:   Yes.

CHAIRPERSON: Can you speak into the microphone?  I think you are - you are too cultured.

MR LAX: I will try and project.   It will be helpful for us, before we start to tell your brother's story, and the horrible facts of what happened to him, if you could, just by way of introduction, give us a brief outline of your family and how your brother fitted in, what sort of a person he was, and so on.

WITNESS:   Certainly.  I am Yusuf Mohammed Haffajee, the eldest brother of Dr Hoosen Mia Haffajee, who was killed in Security Police detention on the 3rd of August 1977.  I have a brother in Pietermaritzburg who is a teacher, and I have a sister living in Johannesburg, and at the moment my mother lives with my sister.  My father passed away 10 years ago today.  Hoosen was born on the 6th of November 1950.  He attended the St Paul Primary School, Mariann School, and matriculated in 1965 at the Woodlands Secondary School.  Thereafter he left for India and commenced his studies, and in 1975 he qualified as a dentist.  While he was in India he represented his university for hockey, and I was told that he was the first foreigner to be elected the president of the Students Representative Council.  Before returning home he hitch hiked to London to visit an aunt and friends there, flew back to India, packed his trunks and came back home.  After a little bit of effort he managed to get a job at the King George Hospital in Durban.

MR LAX: Now, I know you have prepared a statement, and it's a fairly lengthy one, and if I could ask if you could try and be reasonably brief if possible, rather than take a long time.  We still have quite a number of witnesses to do.  But I don't wish to curtail you in any way.

WITNESS:   Certainly.  On the morning of the 3rd of August 1977 four white policemen came to our place and ... (intervention)

MR LAX: If I could just ask you to please just bring the microphone a little closer to you.  They seem to be having a problem.