Human Rights Violation Hearings — Winelands — 1996-10-16

MR VAN ROOYEN: No, I received no money.  After having being acquitted I asked my lawyer could we institute a civil case but all the years this lawyer tried to lay a civil charge and every time I asked him how far has this matter proceeded they said I don't have the time.  And he asked me some money and he said I am unemployed, where would I get the money to pay you.  And I think in 1975 we decided to take away all my files from him.

ADV POTGIETER: Do you still have those files in your possession?

MR VAN ROOYEN: Most of my files are in my possession now.

ADV POTGIETER: And then a last question.  You mentioned your family, are you married, how many children do you have, what are they doing?

MR VAN ROOYEN: I have 4 daughters and one son.  Presently 3 of them are working, my son still attends school.  At that time 1 daughter was at University but after I was injured I could not afford it to keep her at University any more and she had to leave.  The State gave me disability - they declared me and they assisted me.  I received a pension at that stage.

ADV POTGIETER: Do you receive it at the moment?

MR VAN ROOYEN: Not any more.

ADV POTGIETER: And then a very last question.  You say that you would like to work but at the moment you can only do piecemeal work  because you have to go to the doctor regularly.  Why do you have to go to the doctor regularly?

MR VAN ROOYEN: 3 or 4 times per month I have to go to Hospital because I have said I am a trained welder and if I work very hard I can't work the whole day through because I start to vomit.  The doctor prescribed a tablet - Pentolax - a very small like the head of a match and I have to buy 14 of those tablets cost
 R177-00 and that is the only medication which still helps today.
This - if I take one in the morning, it helps me through the day otherwise I vomit all the food I take in.  Once a month a specialist comes to Saldanha, Dr Luyt, and he says - he said I need another operation to be completely healed.  This operation will cost about R9,000-00, I said to him in that case I will have to die because I do not have that kind of money.  
 At the moment as you've said I am - do piecemeal  construction work for periods of 3 weeks or 4 weeks, but 3 to 4 times per month I have to go and see the doctor.

ADV POTGIETER: Thank you very much, this information is very important for us for our future investigations.  Mr Van Rooyen just one aspect, this policeman Stroebel he was a Constable in 1987 when he shot you and assaulted you in public and his wife was also a Police Officer?

MR VAN ROOYEN: She was also a Constable.

ADV POTGIETER: So husband and wife were both Constables in 1987?

MR VAN ROOYEN: They were both promoted - the wife is a Lieutenant at the moment and both of them are inspectors at the moment.

ADV POTGIETER: So both husband and wife have been promoted?

MR VAN ROOYEN: After this incident they were promoted to Inspectors.

ADV POTGIETER: Are they still at the police in Saldanha?

MR VAN ROOYEN: No they are in Vredenburg at the moment.  They are involved with the 
Vredenburg-Saldanha Police.

ADV POTGIETER: How do you feel about that.  They were promoted and you are sitting with all the pain?

MR VAN ROOYEN: I have friends at the moment who  have progressed in life.  They could build houses, they could buy motorcars.  I could have been at that level as well but because of all these things which had  happened to me I could not do the same things as my friends.  And this policeman Stroebel was promoted all the time, he has - he owns a big house.  I could have had that as well if it was not for this incident.  I could have given my children a better life and a better education if it were not for all these things.

MS GOBODO: Thank you  [indistinct] ask you how old were the policemen who this - Captain Stroebel how old do you think he was at the time?

MR VAN ROOYEN: Are you referring to the policeman?  At that stage when he shot me?

MS GOBODO: How old - how old do you thing he was - the policeman who shot you?

MR VAN ROOYEN: The day he shot me he was about 26 years of age - or 28 years round about there.

MS GOBODO: And how old were you at that time?

MR VAN ROOYEN: I think I was about 37 years old.

MS GOBODO: Thank you, I just want to say that we cannot begin  to fathom the impact of the injuries that were in - afflicted upon yourself.  On your person, on yourself as a man, on your self as a potential earner and to say that it is very difficult for us to understand, to know fully what it means for you to suddenly be found - find out that you cannot be gainfully employed.  But now you have  been reduced  to piece jobs - work that you can do only for 2 weeks.
 That kind of uncertainty as a result of injuries that were inflicted upon you for no apparent reason at all.  I think it - it begins to - to - to  get clear that in fact it is true that in South Africa your lives were political.  Many people say that the Truth Commission is a political thing therefore we don't want to take part in it because it is political.  Yet the lives of South Africans - of many South Africans were political, the personal was the political in South Africa all the time.
 On a day to day basis people were confronted with - being excluded from all sort of benefits in the country.  You suffered the abuse - the grouse violations in Saldanha because you were excluded from the ram of personality of humanity.  Those policemen did what they did to you partly because they were policemen but mostly because there was the race factor  as well.  Some of it - a lot  of it has got the do with racism and you experienced it and you suffered the consequences of it and the consequences reflect also in the economic situation that you find yourself in now.
So it is true that the Commission is political because our life are political.  So this is no reason to stay away from the Commission because it is political because the entire community of the country in fact white and black people lived their personal life as political lives.
 Thank you for  coming this morning and for sharing with us your pain.  We will do our best again to assist you in what ever way we can in sorting out some of the issues that you have raised in your statement,  thank you.

MR VAN ROOYEN: Thank you very much, I appreciate that you could listen  to my story.