Human Rights Violation Hearings — Worcester — 1996-06-26

CASE NO: CT/00236

VIOLATION: TORTURE/

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Good morning Mr Makhubalo, could you first take the oath?  Doctor Wendy Orr will be the facilitator.

WENDY ORR: Good morning Mr Makhubalo, we are very honoured to have one of the veterans of the struggle with us here today, thank you very much for coming.  Would you stand to take the oath please.
NYEMBEZI MAKHUBALO Duly sworn states

WENDY ORR: Thank you very much, I am now going to hand over to Ms Pumla Gobodo who is going to help you to tell your story.  It's not Pumla it's Mary Burton.

MARY BURTON: Good morning again Mr Makhubalo, I want to welcome you here today and remind the members of the public of the events of March 1960.  Are you able to hear all right on the headsets.

NYEMBEZI MAKHUBALO: Yes.

MARY BURTON: Good - in March 1960 Worcester was very active in the campaign for the burning of the passes.  At the time people outside of Worcester were not really very much aware of this, because it was not widely reported in the newspapers around the country.  But it was clear that the residents of Worcester were really angry about the Sharpeville and Langa events and they were very active in the events that were organised following the Sharpeville massacre and the burning of passes campaign which was led by Chief Lutuli.
 The black residence of Worcester not only burned their passes during the campaign but they also burnt Government establishments.  And on the 28th of March of 1960, a group of African people gathered throughout the day in Zwelethemba.  The police left Zwelethemba at lunch time and didn't return and during the rest of that day the Municipal buildings, the administrative buildings and what were then called the South African Police Native Quarters were set on fire.  The total damage was estimated at between 30 - 40 thousand pounds.  All of the churches, schools, clinic, administrative offices, African men's quarters and the homes of African policeman were burnt.  And by the 4th of April 1960 the damages incurred in Worcester, by far exceeded those that had been incurred in Cape Town.  This is an indication of how intense the action was in Worcester.
 On the 28th of May, Parliament discussed an alleged unprovoked assault by police during arrests and in police stations and there were complaints tabled in Parliament by the liberal party, alleging that beatings were carried out in people's homes, in the open and at police stations.  Some people were seriously injured and needed medical treatment.
 And its in that context that Mr Makhubalo has come to tell us of his experiences at that time.  I think when the history of South Africa is told that resistance to racial discrimination and racial separation will be a very important part of our countries history.
 Mr Makhubalo thank you for coming to tell us, we are very glad that you are here and that you remember those events so vividly.  So please tell us what happened to you in that time in 1960's.

NYEMBEZI MAKHUBALO: In the 1960's we were on the run, we were being persecuted and I was one of them, it was here in town.  We lived under a repressive regime at that time here in town.  We didn't want the racial laws that were operative at the time.  We came here to town and we went into a cafe in Worcester called Good Hope and we asked what we wanted, we said we wanted to buy some food just like the other people who were sitting there and they said to us we were not allowed to buy anything there and that we should leave.  We said nothing but we refused to go and sat down.  
 What happened then was that the police arrived, they took us out and put us in the van from there we were put in the cell.  We were taken one by one to a  different place and asked what we thought we were doing.  We said we were not trying to do anything bad, the only thing we were trying to do was to show that we were not approving of the dom pass and the other oppressive laws that operated at the time.  We were then severely persecuted and then left alone again and then it would start again.   It was very, very bad at that time in the townships.  There was burning and all sorts of things going on at that time.  
 In town we went to the police station and they said a person should not go in the one entrance they could only go into the entrance reserved for Black people but did not do that, we sat down at the table and it wasn't long before another group of policemen arrived and they took us and they shut us up once more.  At that time we were not treated at all well, we were treated extremely badly.  We were beaten and we felt that we were in such a situation that we might even die there.  We were there for days.  
 About four days afterwards we were taken to Paarl where we stayed for two of three days and then we came back once more.  We were even taken to the mountain in two police vans with dogs who were kept on chains by the police.  We were forced into the water, we were put in that water just as we were fully dressed in our clothes and we were held under the water with ropes and wire.  I'm the only one of those people who was subjected to these extreme tortures that is still in good health these days.  
 Some of the other people have died.  At that point we were then taken and we were returned here early in the afternoon at about 4 o'clock.  We were told that we would be picked up again but thing did not end there.  When we came back they were looking for us even in the places where we stayed but we made ourselves scarce.  
 One or two or three days afterwards I was here in Worcester once more and we were again under the extreme persecution of being chased from our houses.  After this they never actually caught us again but the thing that they did was this, I lost my work because we were against the passes and we were trying to change the situation which made us carry passes, the place where I worked it was clear that for this reason I would not be employed there and that my work would end.   So there I sat without a job and I also had to raise my children in this difficult situation.
 Things went on in this fashion but they never found us again, they were not able to catch us again.  All of us have been affected in our bodies because of this terribly torture that we received at their hands thus far.

MARY BURTON: Thank you Mr Makhubalo we are fortunate and we are glad that you are here to tell us the story.  You have mentioned some of the people who were with you, and as you say some of them are no longer with us.  I'd like you to tell us a little bit more about when you were - were detained and taken in the vans and taken to that place that you mentioned where there was water, were - were the people who took you, trying to drown you - tried to injure you, why did they put you in the water?

NYEMBEZI MAKHUBALO: We were almost being killed there but only through God's help we were not actually killed at that place.  We were held under water in order to oppress us, to inflict pain on us.  It was about 2 or 3 in the morning.  As soon as our heads would come up out of the water, we would be pushed down again and held down with electric wire to keep us there.  My ears were puffing and exploding in this pressure under the water.

MARY BURTON: You mention in your written statement that you still have problems with your ears as a result of that.

NYEMBEZI MAKHUBALO: I still have problems with my ears and doctors are my witnesses to this fact.  At one point they wished to operate on me but it was necessary for my ear to be dry before they could do this operation, the water was still coming out of my ears.  I went to Groote Schuur three times to consult doctors there.  Once it became clear that my ear was dry, my family did not give permission for this operation because they thought that perhaps this operation would not succeed and I would be endangered.  At this point I cannot hear with this ear.