Human Rights Violation Hearings — East London — 1996-04-15

NOHLE MOHAPE: We got married in 1973. I met him, at that time he was a very difficult person, he was having problems. EAST LONDON  HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
5 MOHAPE
After some time our house was attacked by police every time in and out seeking for him.  They also wanted me in the process because he was a person who could reach out to people and even at home he was a person who could be reached easily. He was being sought by the police, what for, nobody knew.  My mum was also involved here and he knew exactly how to reply to the police. 
 Even before we got married, they would even go to my home, my house,  to search for him. He was in those difficult times.
 Now on his way to the workshop, he said to me, "I am not going to leave you, let's go together, because we are busy here getting our country in order". Now, well be in East London, we'll be in Cape and we'll be in Durban, because he was a member of the South African Student Organisation at Turfloop.  In 1972 there was a big strike at Turfloop and then he was removed, that time they were busy mobilising their community. During that time Steve Biko was also banned and then he came back to Tqonre, they were people working together. At times they would hold meetings, Steve would be there, Bunny would be there. I was still young, they would say to us, "We want to conceptonise you, you have to know exactly who you are, where your origin is, you should be very proud of your origin".  They would even make noise, telling us to stop imitating whites, we are busy smearing our faces with creams, because we want to be like whites, we're busy stretching our hair because we want it to be long. "You are beautiful as you are.  We recognise you as you are, don't try to imitate other cultures so that you become beautiful, it's not important to us, you are a human being".
EAST LONDON  HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
6 MOHAPE
In 1974 we had our first daughter. While I was pregnant her father was detained.  Even when giving birth to the child, the father was not there, he was at a conference. He told me that he would be in the meeting. I was very expectant at the time.  His friend took me to the hospital and he came back after some time and by that time we had a baby daughter.
 In 1973 and '76, he had been a very loving father and committed husband, but that time was very short because in 1976 he died. Then we parted.

MS MAYA: We see you before the Truth Commission this morning Mrs Nohle, can you please tell us why you are here, just before we start with our proceedings.

NOHLE MOHAPE: As I've already mentioned I was never happy in the 20 years about the matter of Mapetla, but now, even now, I'm sure that he was never killed in any other way. After hearing about the TRC I told myself, I want to come and give evidence about the hurt that I felt. I want to tell the Commission so that they can assist me in finding out what happened to him because he never killed himself.

MS MAYA: You talked of detention.  There were many.  You said he was in and out of jail.  Can you please tell us in these detention, do you have anything that you understand about them?  Did he ever say anything to you about such detention? What kind of detention were they?

NOHLE MOHAPE: One thing that he did, he was prepared for his life, because every time he would say, "The time is short that we have together, because every time you see what is happening in this country of ours, you have seen how the police have been after me.  If anything happens you have to know exactly that I'm always with you, even if I'm not close to you, you must know.  Even if the police arrived telling
EAST LONDON  HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
7 MOHAPE
me that they want to arrest me, you must know the right. A person must identify himself, that he's a policeman.  You must know, every time the first thing to do is identification. Such things are very good for preparation and if he wants to search, he must produce a search warrant, because everyone would just come into my house and say I want to search, so you must be strong, you must never show the police, especially the Boers that you are weak.  They shouldn't see you crying because what they want every time, they want to see a person crying. They want to see that this pain that is inflicted on a person really has an effect.  Every time show them your strong face."
    Now those detention arrived, but every time they would come into my house they would know that I am not emotional, how I would feel.

MS MAYA: Now let's start with your first detention, when were you first detained?

NOHLE MOHAPE: He was taken into detention in 1976, that was his first time and it was a very long time.  After that he went back to the university, he did social work and he passed. And he was arrested in 1974 and he stayed a long time, I think it was a war in Frelimo, that was the period when he was also detained.  He stayed close to 8 months in prison.  Nobody knew his whereabouts, where he is in jail.

MS MAYA: Was it all those 8 months?