Human Rights Violation Hearings — Port Elizabeth — UNKNOWN

WITNESS: He was now taken by one of the young men.  His surname was Daweti.  I walked out with him.  I had his books with him.  I was now walking with his uncle and my sister.  We went to the Labour Department.  I asked them when I got there, "Where are these policemen?  Where are these giddies who are looking for my son?"  We went in.  They took him and put him in a certain room.  When I got to that room they said that I was not allowed to go in there.  I said, "I want to see these magiddies who are looking for my son."  While I was still arguing with these people they were calling the police.  The police arrived. They took my son and left with him.  
When I left the Labour Department everybody in the township wanted to find out what happened to Sizwe.  I told them that Sizwe was taken by the police.  So I went to D S Bethani and I told them that Sizwe has been taken by the police but I do not know why they took him.  Students from D S Bethani met with other students from Bongolethu and Glentana.  They all came together and went to town where Sizwe has been taken to.  Before they got to town they were stopped by the police.  These policemen were wearing these bright green clothes.  I have never seen so many police vans and hippos in my life.  At that time I was walking at the back.  I was alone.  My sister was one of the crowd who was right in front of me.  They took my sister and they brutally beat her up such that she was swollen and her whole body was full of bumps.  They met me.  When I was just going around the corner I saw this hippo coming towards me.  They were chasing a certain boy.  Only to find out that my son was in this hippo.  They beat me so much in that corner, I had to lie flat on the ground.  There were just policemen all over the place.  There were hippos and police vans all over and people were beaten up by these police, even dogs were being shot at.  After that I tried to relax.  I was given a break from the police.
(?) After Sizwe was taken by the police, when did you see him again?

WITNESS: At the time when the police were beating me up Sizwe was in this van.  He was taken to Uitenhage and was beaten up there.  When he came back from Uitenhage he said to me, "Mama, I have never seen people as big as those White men.  They put a plastic over my head and I was brutally beaten up."  When my son came back he had puss coming out of his ears.  He said he had this consistent pain in my back.  I was so afraid to take him to the doctor because even a doctor, boere from Ngqweba were boere from the farmers.  I cannot even mention the doctor who was there because the things that he used to do are unspeakable.  During the night he would be a policeman and during the day he would be a doctor.  We did not have a Black doctor so we all depended on this White doctor who was our doctor.  During that time I had to endure.  When my son was brought back I remember it was around 17h00 when he was brought back.  He said to me, "Mama I was released by students from Uitenhage.  When they went there to fetch some of the students I was part of the students who were released."  The students forced the people in the prison to release me and that is how I was released."  They escorted that car from these giddies people to my home saying that my son should be at home at 17h00.  When he came in I hugged him.  
He said to me, "Mama, where I come from it was very difficult."  I said, "Please just do not say anything.  I am just grateful for the fact that you are back."
In 1985 when there was this unrest in Uitenhage, during the time when children used to die in Uitenhage, I used to look for my son and I could not find him anywhere.  I looked for him for two weeks.  Sometimes he would sleep in the bushes.  Sometimes he would sleep in different houses because he was hiding from the police.  For a long time, when I did not find him, eventually it turned out that he was found by the police at No 8 at Ethembeni, only to find out that they were not looking for him.  They were looking for someone else.  But because the person who was looked for by the police was also hiding at the same place as my son they took him.  Instead of this young man who they were looking for, they took my son, Sizwe.  One of the detectives who was Xhosa speaking said, I am not going to say his name now, but I am going to mention his name because I know him.  I am going to mention his name because this young man told him his name.  He said to me, Thobile Bona said to me when I was just about to be released by the police he said, "Do not release this one because he is the most dangerous one."  
So they took my son.  At that time he was only wearing white shorts.  They put him into this hippo then they locked him up.  While he was still arrested, that time when there was this unrest in Uitenhage... 
Witness Fikile Kobese
[Information lost due to changing of cassettes]

WITNESS: Now I started trouble for myself.  The Special Branch people used to come to the venue where we used to rehearse the play.  When we used to go and stage this play they would be there and we had to disguise ourselves so that we could go home safely.  After that I wrote a second play because I was very angry by the fact that people died in detention.  It was titled "Cry, The Innocent Blood".  It was against the death of our people in detention that causes the Special Branch to strengthen their torture towards me.  When I registered at UNISA, because I wanted to do my BA, they confiscated all my books.  They would do that five or six times a year.  They would be kept by the Special Branch.  I would only get them back when I used a lawyer.  Then I thought that this is the very first step for the killings.  They were now trying to cripple education.  
During the many strikes of the workers again, I wrote another play which was the third one.  It was titled "The Time".  That one was showing the strikes and the anger of the workers.  
After every two weeks I would be questioned by the police.  The questioning would take from five minutes to two hours and then you could just see that they are disrupting your programme for the day.  
One of the policemen whispered something to me.  His name was Nzingu.  When I asked them, "What exactly they want from me because I will not be able to divorce myself, I cannot separate myself from myself.  What am I supposed to do?" He said, "Point number one we suspect that you are not writing your plays yourself.  Somebody else is writing it for you."  I was never a member of ASASCO.  These are the things that the police were thinking for themselves, but that was not true.  They used to think things about a person and act on them even if they were not true.  Even if I was trying to write a play I had to make two copies.  There was a copy ready to be taken by a Special Branch and another one I would keep for myself.  They found that out.  They found out that what was actually on play is not what they had in their documents.  They discovered that.  That is what would change my plays three to four times.  If there was another thing that one of the Special Branch, one of the tortures would do I would change it and I would even play it as it was.  My cast at that time were students who did Std 9 and Std 10.  I joined the Uitenhage Black Civic Organisation.
(?) What year was that?