Special Hearings — Women's Hearings — 1997-07-29

MS MOKONYANE: Thank you very much Commissioner.  My name is Nomvula Mokonyane, I live in Krugersdorp, I am currently a member of the Executive Council of the Gauteng Provincial Government, I am responsible for agriculture, conservation and environment, I am a leader of the South African Communist Party here in Gauteng, I am the Provincial Treasurer thereof, I am also the leader of the ANC in the Westrand of which I am the Chairperson thereof, I am a member of the ANC Women's League.  I do participate in other community based organisations as well as non-Governmental organisations that serve the interests, more in particular, of women as well as children and it is my commitment that has, actually, put me to where I am.  It is not out of any educational qualifications that I am now in this particular portfolio, but it is because of the struggles, the sacrifices that many other women have made that this responsibility has been bestowed upon me.
 The reason why we felt that we have to come and make this submission is precisely to inform the world about the experiences not only of the wives, not only of the daughters, but of women who, in their own right, were involved in the liberation of this country.  The Federation of Transvaal Women was an affiliate of the United Democratic Front.  It came into being during a period where there was a lull in terms of progressive organisations.  After the ANC, the South African Communist Party, the South African Congress of Trade Unions were banned and they were forced into exile, a vacuum emerged and through that we saw the emergence of the civic associations, the student's organisations such as COSAS and, as well, the emergence of women's organisations such as the Federation of Transvaal Women which then became an affiliate of the United Democratic Front.  
 FEDTRAW, as it was popularly known, was an organisation that had a vision that was shared by the majority of those who wanted to see a non-racial, non-sexist democratic dispensation in South Africa.  Not only through its objectives, but also through its leadership FEDTRAW was able to develop and groom women cadres who were able to take leadership.  Not only in the women's organisations, but in the students congress, in the civic associations we saw leaders that emerged such as Amanda Gwade, leaders such as Jessie Duwarte, leaders such as the late Comrade Verose Adams, leaders such as Bethel Xoha, who is currently the Chairperson of the ANC Women's League in Gauteng, and leaders such as myself emerged through the programmes and the activities of the Federation of Transvaal Women.  
 As I have indicted, FEDTRAW was committed to the programmes, as it was always alleged by the past regime, those of the African National Congress and many of us without confirmation, without us acknowledging and without us having been directly recruited were then, through our engagement in the politics of the Federation of Transvaal Women, victimised by the passed system.  Amongst some of those people who made the submission, people like Sis Joyce Sikhakhane, some of us saw role models, because we saw them as people who were able to question the system and people who were able to resist even the means of breaking the backbone of those who wanted to champion the political objectives of the then Mass Democratic Movement.
 However, when the enemy realised that women have realised that time has come for them to take leadership, the enemy realised that they cannot actually leave that unchallenged.  Many of us were subjected to detention with trial.  Some of us are here in the public gallery.  People who belonged to the religious family, Nanz, were subjected to detention without trial.  Some of them such as sister Raphael actually fell ill whilst they were victims of the State of Emergency in 1986.  They fell ill and when they realised that time has come for her to pass away, they released her only a few months after she has actually been ill for months in detention and within a few weeks of her release, she did pass away.
 Some of us were put into detention 11 days after our marriages.  People like myself.  Two months being pregnant, taken into solitary confinement with no visitor, with no contact with your loved one and being taken into detention together with the one that you have decided to tie a knot with and before you could even plan a future and decide what then after your marriage and having known exactly why you have actually been identified.  As I have indicated that we felt that we had a duty to take leadership responsibility.  We managed to defeat the means of the enemy.  Those of actually making sure that they destroy our psychology, they destroy our physical being and, as I have indicated, you had people who were detained with their loved ones, because of their involvement in the Federation of Transvaal Women, you had people who were detained whilst being pregnant and some of them had miscarriages right in detention.  
 Our Comrades, such as Deborah Marakala, who was kept in detention for more than two years, who lost her pregnancy whilst in detention.  Comrades such as Koni Khosi, who is also here today, who spent more than two years in detention without trial, having no visitors, being put under solitary confinement and not expected to communicate nor see any leader representative of her choice, nor a doctor of her own choice.  People like myself who were then pregnant whilst in detention, who were subjected to humiliation not only by prison warders, but even those who were there serving the interest of the system, such as the district surgeons, who were tasked with a duty of ensuring that they contribute towards termination of your pregnancy.  Disputing the fact that you are pregnant when in actual fact you have planned your own pregnancy, you knew that you were pregnant, you got detained knowing that you were pregnant, but they district surgeon, in collaboration with the security forces as well as the prison warders, would insist that, no, your fallopian tube is blocked and they had to make sure that they unblock them so that then you can begin to have menstruations and if you begin to resist that then torture will take its own course.  You will be subjected to electrical shock, you will be subjected to solitary confinement without a meal and all that you would only be served with is a jug full of salted water.  
 Not only were those who knew why they were detained being victims of the State of Emergency and solitary confinement.  Young girls at the age of 12 coming from Kagiso, coming from Alexandria, were victims of detention without trial, but not only were they victims of detention without trial, but they were also victims of abuse, victims of rape during interrogation, victims of unwanted pregnancies from the security forces who were taking them in and out of detention.  Not only were they only, but even prominent leaders today who occupy senior leadership positions in Government, were subjected to torture where you had to strip naked, where you had your menstruations without any pad, where you had to stand in front of very conservative Afrikaner males without a single cloth over your body and your menstruations dripping and you being expected to tell nothing else, but the truth.  
 It was so unfortunate that in that particular situation women were also encouraged to be perpetrators of those atrocities and it is also unfortunate that during these past two days hardly a single perpetrator, a female perpetrator has been able to come and give testimony to some of the practices that they have done.  It is so unfortunate that today those women perpetrators are still victims of male domination, of patriarchy due to the fact that they have to protect their own integrity, they have to protect themselves from their own working environment and, precisely because of that, they are not able to come and testify here about what they were expected to be doing and the unfortunate thing, the contradictions always emerged where Black perpetrators were also subjected to humilation in front of us and in some instances who had to come to their own rescue.  And it was so unfortunate, because in many instances, again, women found themselves as victims of political differences amongst their male counterparts
 Some of our own young women have been permanently destroyed, because of being labelled as spies, because of being labelled as agents.  Not because they were genuinely agents, but because a particular cause was being championed by those who were in the leadership and through that they found themselves being targeted as agents.  We have had those experiences with the Alexandria Seven Days War where women, who were in the forefront of that war in Alexandria, were ultimately marginalised and some of them given labels as agent provocateurs when in actual fact they played a very crucial intervention role in making sure that peace prevails in Alexandria.
 I want to subject myself to those unsung heroines of our liberation movement who none of them, through the archives of our history, might be forgotten.  Those young girls who managed to come into the ranks of the United Democratic Front then and become members of the Youth Congress, members of the Federation of Transvaal Women, members of the Progressive Trade Unions and led the process to where we are here today, but when responsibilities arise and when opportunities arise, none of them is being remembered.  It is so unfortunate that in this particular situation women still feel vulnerable.  It is pathetic that here today we do not have many of those women who were victims of the forced removals. 
 Not being here with us today people such as Beauty Mkhize who were victims of the forced removals in Driefontein and who became a sore eye in the community, because of the role that her husband played, Comrade Saul Mkhize, against the forced removals who then also became the target of the enemy.  It is unfortunate that here today, also, we do not have people such as Ntete Montwedi from Kagiso, who lost the wife and four kids because of the violence that had actually befallen our community then.  It is very important that we should understand that there are men out there who had also been exposed to humiliation due to the fact that their own wives, their own partners, their own friends were in the leadership of this liberation movement, who today they have to be the mothers and fathers of their own kids.  Today they have to start a new like.  People like Alli Maziya who lost his entire family, because of his own political involvement.  
 Again, it is unfortunate that when hearings like this one are made we are not able to make presentations about the realities of how the social differences, the cultural diversity has contributed towards the exploitation of women.  It is unfortunate, because that also has played a very key role in terms of the exploitation and victimisation of women.  However, as those women who were then involved within the Mass Democratic Movement under the leadership of the Federation of Transvaal Women, some of us see ourselves not only as victims, but more as the survivors.  We have survived, we have made it, because we knew that time will come when we would have a new system that would actually uphold the values that the old order really wanted to make sure that it destroys and it makes sure that some of us do not become part of the international community.  
 In my conclusion I think it is very important, my plea to the TRC as well is that, that the TRC should seek to bring together women throughout the country, women from all walks of life together so that then at the end of the day we can celebrate.  Let us celebrate our pains, let us celebrate our experiences, let us celebrate our leadership role not only as mothers, not only as wives, but as citizens of this country in our own right, but also as leaders in our own right and let us find a way whereby we can be counted and we be taken with pride, we can be taken into consideration when positions, when decisions are made in this country, because we have also played a role.  
 We do not deserve to be given favours, but we believe that women in this country also earn, they deserve to be counted amongst those who have played a role.  Not as wives, not as mothers, but as women, but as citizens of this country and as leaders as it has actually been proved through the dark days of apartheid and even now through other struggles that women are still involved in.  I thank you.