Human Rights Violation Hearings — Ermelo — 1997-05-22

MR LEWIN: Ladies and gentlemen it has been a long day but I would like to ask you all for forbearance and patience please.  We have one important further witness to hear and that is Bongni Paris Mkhize.  I ask him please to come forward.  Mr Mkhize, can you hear me through the headphones.

MR MKHIZE: Yes, I can hear you.

MR LEWIN: Thanks very much.  I'd like to welcome you here and to thank you for coming to join us.  We missed you yesterday and we're very pleased that you've caught up with us to-day.  Thank you very much for that.  Before you tell us your testimony I would ask Doctor Ally please to swear you in so that you can take the oath.

RUSSELL ALLY: Could you please stand and raise your right hand.  Do you swear that the testimony you are going to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God.

MR MKHIZE: (sworn states)

RUSSELL ALLY: Thank you.

MR LEWIN: Thank you very much and I will ask Doctor Randera please to lead you in your evidence.

DR RANDERA: Bongani, good afternoon.  Welcome.  Bongani, we are moving away completely from what happened in Wesselton and in Kwadela.  We're moving to another part of our history in a sense, the history of forced removals and you as a young man becoming caught up as a victim because of the involvement of your father.  I know you're not coming to talk about your father but I would like to make that point.  Your father, as most people in this community would know and many parts of our country was a fighter for rural people and particularly for the community of Driefontein.  I have had the pleasure of going to your community many times myself so I know where Driefontein is.  It was after the death of your father that I started becoming involved there.  Your father in fact died two months after what happened to you.  You were a young man as I said at that time.  Schooling in Swaziland, coming back to visit your family and I want you please to now take us through what happened to you February 1983 and in a sense what we're going to be learning is how what appears to be just an attack on you by police officers, turns out to be much bigger than that.  So I give you your time, please be relaxed.  There's nothing to be frightened of.  Tell us what happened to you.

MR MKHIZE: It was on the twelfth of February, on a Saturday.  I came from Swaziland and I came to visit my parents.  Just when I got off the bus, there was an Indian area as well as a Boer area and I had gone to take a bus in the Indian area and I saw an E20 or Hi-Ace in which there was a person who was calling me, using a hand gesture.  When I got there, I saw eight men and showed me some identification.  They were policemen.  They wanted to search me because I had a handbag as well as a paper bag.  They searched through and they saw my written standard seven report from St. Joseph's School.  Previously a teacher had been kidnapped from my school and he was brought to Piet Retief.  He was kidnapped from Swaziland and brought to South Africa.  They asked whether I knew that person and I told them that I knew him.  They asked me what relationship I had with him.  I told them that it was a student teacher relationship.  They asked me what subject he was teaching me and they also asked me my surname.  I told them that I was from the Mkhize family and they asked me whether I knew Soul Mkhize.  I said yes, he's my father and they said Soul Mkhize thought that he was a clever man and at that time they were taking all the contents of my bag as well as the paper bag and pouring it onto the floor of the car.  They stated getting into the car.  We drove and went to Supermac in Piet Retief and one policeman got out of the car and went to buy some liquor as well as meat.  I think they bought about forty eight cans of beer.  At that time I had been made to lie flat on the back seat of the car and one policeman went across the street and went to taxi drivers and spoke to a certain person.  There was a White man as well as a Black person.  Then he came back and we followed that E20 or High Ace which had two occupants.  It proceeded to the Piet Retief Hospital.  They asked me about three places in Swaziland, Ngwenia Park, Two Sticks as well as Fairview.  These places are quite near the Manzini town and I was staying at Ngwenia Park.  They asked me about these three areas and asked whether I knew the whereabouts of ANC members who were staying around that area.  I told them that I had no knowledge thereof.  They said I thought I was like my father who thought that he was brilliant.  They proceeded to the Piet Retief Hospital.  They parked the car near a forest and started assaulting me severely and they made me lie flat on the ground.  One of the Boers from the E20 got into the car and reversed and just when he was about to land on me, they made him stop the car and said they should give me a chance to speak the truth and to tell them information about my father's involvement in politics.  I told them that I knew nothing.  They said they didn't believe that I was a student in Swaziland, there was something else that I was doing in Swaziland besides being a student.  They assaulted me even further at that point.  They did not believe anything that I was telling them.  They took me to the Kombi and took me to a certain scrap yard and said I should undress.  There were switches on the wall.  They pressed one switch and I saw a wire protruding from the wall.  They pressed another one and I saw a hole.  They said I must put my head in that hole and my neck was held in that hole.  They started assaulting me and electrocuting me.  I was naked at that time.  They got my head out of that hole.  They took a cutting torch and said I should stand just like Jesus when he was being crucified on the cross and they switched the cutting torch on and they burnt my chest.  At the time that they were burning my chest, one White man was strangling me with my own shirt and the other one was kicking me, others were hitting me and assaulting me further whilst the other one was burning me with this cutting torch.  They took me to the Piet Retief police station.  At about three o'clock on Sunday, they release me and said I should go back home.

DR RANDERA: Bongani, tell us what happened to you after that.  Did you go to the hospital ?  What injuries were left with ?

MR MKHIZE: When I got home I got my father who was still there.  He took me the following morning, that is on Monday, to submit a statement in Piet Retief.  I never actually went to the hospital.  I was actually scorched by the burning torch but I didn't sustain any serious injuries.  I think they were just torturing me to try and get some information from me.

DR RANDERA: I see that you've lost an eye.  Was this related to what happened to you that time ?

MR MKHIZE: No, I had a marble eye at that time and the marble time came out at this stage but I had been injured in a car accident before.  I lost the marble eye after the incident.  I lost money as well as a watch in the forest where they were beating me up.

DR RANDERA: Bongani, how old were you at the time ?  You say you were a standard seven student.  How old were you ?

MR MKHIZE: I don't remember quite well but I was fairly young.  I think I was eighteen years old.  I was seventeen years old but I'm not very positive.

DR RANDERA: You said you went to the Piet Retief police station with your father.  What was the response of the police at the time ?  I understand there were a few subsequent visits as well.