Human Rights Violation Hearings — Johannesburg — 1996-04-29

GEORGE DUBE: ANC came to take me in January 29th if I remember, of January, that was 1980, 1977 I have been in this prison, on the 22nd of January I was put in this place, JOHANNESBURG HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
15 G DUBE
three years until 1980, the 29th of January when I came out, when ANC came to take us out from that place to Quibashi, to our own rehabilitation centre.
 I was arriving there because I was still not eating by that time.  I was locked up also.  I found some other 11 eleven comrades, I am sure I was the 12th one in that rehabilitation centre.  So we stayed there, woke up in the morning, I spent another two days before these other two colleagues of mine, of this hunger strike came from that - they came after two days.  They found me still, I was not eating then in that place of ours.  So when they came I saw their mouth is fat no these guys have been eating now already you see.  Okay, they said they are convinced then that they are going to be taken by - the ANC came there and told them that they are going to be released so they must eat and then everything will be over you see.  Then they agreed, they started eating.  So I had to start eating also.  Other comrades were going to eat breakfast, lunch and supper, I wasn't taking the food I was just sleeping.
 Alright we continued staying there.  In the morning we wake up, we are building this place, we are renovating this place because it was a broken compound like.  This place is somehow it was a farm, a coffee farm, so these workers were staying there I am sure, so it was bombed by Portuguese I am sure because I understand the guerillas of FNLA they occupied that place.  The Portuguese ran away some time, they killed the owner of the farm and then the Portuguese government discovered that there are guerillas staying there then they bombed that place, so that's why it's broken like this.

BONGANI FINCA: Okay George, can we come now to the ill
JOHANNESBURG HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
16 G DUBE
treatment that you received in the rehabilitation centre?

GEORGE DUBE: Yes Sir.

BONGANI FINCA: And you are actually testifying on that to this Commission so you had better be specific on the kind of ill-treatment that you received there.

GEORGE DUBE: Thank you. So alright we were working there, that was 1980.  At the end of 1980 things changed, the treatment changed because by the time we arrived there we were eating the same food as the officers, the people who were guarding us.  But now at the end of '80 they started separating us then and at the same time we were not coming near the officer, you should stand far like me and you like that if you want to say something to him or ask him for water or something.  If you come nearer you get thorough beatings that you wanted to grab a gun from the officer and run away, whatever it is.
 Because of one guy who tried to run away and he was caught, he was brought back, so everything changed, we were now being beaten around and we were working hard now.  We were told to work hard that you mustn't get tired.  The moment you slack, and you start working as a tired person you get beaten, that we didn't come to pay you, you are working here.  So it went to an extent that even if you are working very hard, sweating, you get beaten just for sweet nothing.
 So the painful part of it is that some of these security guards of ours, were young boys, younger than me, some of us were older than them, but we hear an older person crying like a small baby being beaten by young boys.

BONGANI FINCA: Am I right George to say that the violation that you are complaining about is beating or is there
JOHANNESBURG HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
17 G DUBE
something more serious than beating?

GEORGE DUBE: Ja, ja, ja.  We were doing hard labour that you work with a pick or a shovel from morning till sunset, or you chop wood from morning to sunset, as hot as it is in Luanda.  I think you know how it is, it's a hot climate there.  Then you don't have water to wash, though we had a pump here.  The water comes with a tank, it's for the officers for cooking and for washing.  We spend a month or two without washing.  We have to go to the river that's when we can wash properly, using our clothing, our uniform.
 So then we were being beaten almost every day working there.  We were always swollen, swollen eyes and swollen mouths and swollen buttocks.  We were being beaten with these sticks of coffee trees.  So it will just be your lucky day if you can spend the whole day without being beaten, that's your lucky day.
 So we were working very hard my friend in a way that I've seen slave films how they worked,  how they were treated, the way we were treated this was more than slavery.  So we were beaten in such a way that one day this colleague of mine whom I made (...indistinct) with this Coloured guy, there's a certain comrade called Eric, he just took a plank from somewhere, the plank had nails, rusted nails, we were chopping wood in our place, it was a pigsty before, that's where we chopped wood and pack it nicely then take it inside for cooking.  He picked up this plank and then he told him to touch his toes, as usual that you must touch your toes and then they beat your buttocks with sticks.  So he got this plank comrade Eric, he pierced this guy with that plank with nails, rusted nails.  That guy couldn't sit or sleep on his back.  He was sleeping on his side for almost two to 
JOHANNESBURG HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
18 G DUBE
three months there in that prison.

BONGANI FINCA: That did not happen to you?

GEORGE DUBE: No it happened to this colleague of mine I was in prison with in Luanda at that time.

BONGANI FINCA: No but George I think we should bring this to an end.  What serious human rights abuses were done to you at that period?  And could you conclude by saying what you would like the Commission to do for you in view of those abuses.