Human Rights Violation Hearings — Pretoria — 1996-08-14

RUSSELL ALLY: ... story for you to relate.  I wonder if I could just ask you a few questions please to help us.  I mean it is clear from your statement that your son was a political activist.  You say that he was a member of the PAC.  Is that correct?

PIET TUKA TSHOBA: Yes, it is so.

RUSSELL ALLY: Did he hold any special position in the PAC?

PIET TUKA TSHOBA: He was a Commander in the PAC.

RUSSELL ALLY: So was he also in APLA then?  Are you, was he also a member of APLA in addition to being a member of the PAC, he was also in APLA, in the Liberation Army of the PAC or do you not know that?  I am only asking.  If you do not know, that is fine.

PIET TUKA TSHOBA: No, I do not know anything about that.  All I know is that he was a PAC member.

RUSSELL ALLY: And you say in your statement that after he was released in 1991, he continued with his political activities.  Can you just tell us briefly what these political activities were?  What kind of political
PRETORIA HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
3 P T TSHOBA
activities did he continue with?

PIET TUKA TSHOBA: He was a Corporal in the PAC.

RUSSELL ALLY: Now you say that after Jan's death and after the funeral an attorney, a Mr Mavundla, promised that he would assist you.  Mavundla, sorry.  Did he prepare any case because you say he, they were empty promises.  Did it just remain at that level or has something happened since?

PIET TUKA TSHOBA: No, nothing happened thereafter.  We do not know what happened to Jan's case and that is what brought us here.  We want to know what happened to Jan because the Government photographers were there.  They took photographs, they even took the photograph of the area in which he was killed.  We also want to know who told the Commissioner we went to that Jan is no more in South Africa.  We want to know who are the people who killed him.  People just cannot come and take photographs and then thereafter not open a case or make a follow-up thereof.  After the police kicked my doors open and took my property they also refused that they did that.  We took photographs of them when they did that and that is when they agreed or they acknowledged that they did this when we showed them the photographs.
 After they paid for what they did we did not have peace at home and also after Jan's funeral we never had peace at home.  They use to harass us from time to time.  Even before Jan went to Robben Island I could not sleep at peace in my house.  After he came back they would come into my house and unplug the phone and leave with it.  When they returned it, they would return it at about four o' clock.  We stomached what they did to us and when one person would phone you and when you answered the phone, the police would hear you from the police camp.  That is if a person was 
PRETORIA HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
3 P T TSHOBA
trying to phone you.  We were surprised by that happening.  They looked for my car papers or documents.  From time to time they would come to me searching for the documents to my car.

RUSSELL ALLY: In fact, Mr Tshoba, if I could just ask you, Sir, about the car.  That is what I wanted to ask you because in your statement you say that after the funeral the police came again and they took Freda's car saying that she was not the rightful owner and the car was never returned.  Is that correct?  Was the car never returned to you?  Can I repeat that?  This is the, I think it is the Honda that you spoke about, the Honda Ballade.  You said that the police came after you had buried your son and they took the car which was Freda's car and they never returned the car.  Is that correct?  Was this, the car, has this car ever been returned?

PIET TUKA TSHOBA: Yes, they still have the car now.

RUSSELL ALLY: And, Sir, I wanted to ask you, do you have any papers to prove ownership of that car?  Have you got any documents, registration papers or anything like that which you could give to us?

PIET TUKA TSHOBA: Yes, I have the documents and the summons that were coming from where the, the summons regarding the passing of robots that happened when we were chased by the police were sent to Freda.

RUSSELL ALLY: Sir, if you could give us all of those papers because, as we have said to other people who have testified, we will try and look into all of these cases.  As you can appreciate, there are many cases and we do not want to make any promises.  The only promise we are going to make is that we will try and investigate these cases, but what will help
PRETORIA HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
3 P T TSHOBA
us is if you have any papers to show the ownership of the car.  If you could leave copies of that or if you could give us the originals we can make copies and we can then try to follow-up on this case, but I have no more questions for you Mr Tshoba.  Thanks very much for your testimony.

CHAIRPERSON: Piet.  Mr Tshoba and your daughter we thank you.  As you have already heard Mr Russell Ally saying that we will continue with your case and make investigations.  We are really going to do so and we sympathise with you and we will help you in whatever way we can.  We will be able to help you if at all we will be able to contact you at any time after we have received the photocopies of those papers we have with you.  Thank you.
PRETORIA HEARING TRC/GAUTENG