Human Rights Violation Hearings — Queenstown — 1996-07-22

REV XUNDU: ... to swear you in.  I am then going to ask you to stand.

UNKNOWN: (sworn states)

REV XUNDU: Over to you Mr Commissioner.

BONGANI FINCA: Dr Mapule Ramashala.

MAPULE RAMASHALA: Morning.  I'd like to ask you to go back and try and remember the circumstances of your child's death.   Take your time and tell us as much as you can remember.

UNKNOWN: Luthando Plaatjie was a student at Nonesi in standard 8.  He went to school as usual.  This was on a Monday in 1986, if I'm not mistaken the date was the 13th of March.
 And he came back on time for lunch, and that was at 11 o'clock.  He came home out of breath and you could see that he was running.
 When he came home, he said that he was in a hurry, because the teachers were in a meeting and had released them from class late, so he was very in a hurry.
 He took bread and milk from the table and just had two bites and ran out with bread still in his hand.
 I think not even 15 minutes after that, I heard a shot.  But I did not pay attention as to what it was all about, because they were busy fixing roads at that stage.
 Not long after that there was an even louder shot.  I came out, when I came out of the door Spokazi was coming in 
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by the gate, crying and she said to me, Ma Luthando, Luthando.
 I tried pacifying her thinking that she was crying because she was running and she had left him behind, but then I saw the school children coming up the road, coming running up the road, crying.
 Some had their hands on their heads, some were saying it is Tiki, it is it Tiki, Oh, my God, it is Tiki.  I did not know who this Tiki was, or because I didn't know this name.
 But they were just saying Oh, Tiki.
 But coming up my road, in stead of passing my house, they came to my house and one of them said is it Plaatjie and from the back said, yes it was Luthando.
 And others started running to this place where he got hurt.

MAPULE RAMASHALA: Can I just stop you for a minute.  Am I correct that Spokazi was three years old?

UNKNOWN: Yes, she was three years old then.  When it was said that it was Luthando Plaatjie, I was downstruck it was as if there were bells ringing in my ears and my - it just blacked out, I just blacked out and my neighbour came and helped me.  Jumped the fence and came to help me and said let us go.
 We jumped the fence, we didn't even use the gate and went there.  Before I even got there, the police, White policemen were there at U9, where he had passed by a friend's house.
 They were standing there with their guns in their hands.  And I made my way through the crowd since it was full.  I got there and he was laying on his stomach with his QUEENSTOWN HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
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head of his arms, bleeding through his ears and through his nostrils.
 That was the last time I was at my full senses.  After that I just found myself at home, I must have fainted in the interim.
 When I came to I was hysterical, I was crying, I wanted to go out of the windows to my child in the hospital.  The police had taken him to hospital themselves.
 The following day we went to look, we went to the police and there we were asked whether we knew which police had shot him and we did not know.
 We were sent to the State mortuary to look for him.  We went to look for him at the mortuary and found him there.  We were shown him.

MAPULE RAMASHALA: How old was he at the time?

UNKNOWN: He was 17 years old.

MAPULE RAMASHALA: Number 10 on your statement that you applied for a pension and you haven't heard anything.

UNKNOWN: No, I am still not receiving an income but I have submitted a request.

MAPULE RAMASHALA: And you would like the Commission to facilitate this application?

UNKNOWN: Help in which regard?  Yes, I want to be helped as far as an income is concerned, because I do not have a husband, my husband passed away last year March.

MAPULE RAMASHALA: Mrs Plaatjie, how has your life changed?

UNKNOWN: The deceased's funeral was terrible.  Made terrible by harassment from the police, we did not have any time to think straight and pay him our last respects properly, because throughout while we were waiting, the police would come in.
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 Others would guard our house, resting on their firearms.  
 And we would be told that the deceased may not even be taken to the church.  Only one person may preach and his older brother said that this was a member of the ANC organisation.
 So, it is important that the people speak whichever speaker from the ANC that is.
 In the morning when we were preparing for the funeral, they came in hippos, vans and police vans, all the way to the Apostolic Church and at the Church, there were hippos and police vehicles scattered all over the field.
 All police vehicles were scattered over the field not far from the Apostolic Church.  I was afraid thinking that we were going to be shot.
 I wasn't, I didn't have any trust any more.  When we got to the graveyard, they accompanied us and that is how the funeral was conducted.
 But, we conducted it all the same and we came back.  That evening when we went to the deceased's grave, we found that it had been painted.  And the only thing that told us that it was his grave, was the LU, it was obviously that it had been disturbed, that is how this boy's burial went.

MAPULE RAMASHALA: Mrs Plaatjie, thank you.  Chairperson, I would like to defer to you, but I would like to come back after my colleagues have asked questions.

BONGANI FINCA: Tiny Maya.

MS MAYA: Mrs Plaatjie, I would like to ask you one or two questions.  According to your knowledge, the police who shot Luthando, were they ever arrested?