Human Rights Violation Hearings — Grahamstown — 1997-04-07

NTSIKELELO EDWARD MENTOOR: We were on our way to Comrade Matthew's funeral.  Our car broke on our way there and the police were on the road.  We were delayed on our way to Cradock.  We decided to go back home.  In the morning, after the funeral, I saw a Hippo in front of my house.  There were soldiers in that Hippo.  They wanted me, they took me to the Hippo.  I was on my way to work at that time.  They took me to the soldier's truck.  There were people from Adelaide, others were bleeding their nose.  The soldiers were all over them.  They were lying down.  We were taken to the Bedford Police Station.  We stayed there for three days.  We were then transferred to St Albans in Port Elizabeth.  We were not asked anything in St Albans Prison.
 In August I was taken together with other Comrades from Adelaide by a combi.  We were taken next to the sea and the police said that we were going to go to the sea and swim with the fish.  We were taken to the top floor in St Albans and they separated us.  I was together with Louis.  Louis took other Comrades from Adelaide to another room.  While I was still waiting there one black policeman from PE, Port Elizabeth came.  He was a short guy.  When I was explaining to the Comrades in Port Elizabeth they said it might be Vaku.  I was taken to a toilet.  There was a black drum filled with black water.  They told me to take off my clothes.  I asked them for what?  They demanded that I take off my clothes.  They told me to sit down, they poured this water over me.  This was very painful to me.  They told me to take, to wear my clothes and they took me upstairs to the room I was in.  
 When I arrived there I met Sam Gcali.  After a while two policemen from Port Elizabeth came in.  They said that is this the man who does not want to co-operate.  They would kick me, they would strangle me, take my, they would take my hair and they would tell me to swallow my hair.  This happened for a long time. They wanted to know my relationship with Matthew Goniwe and others.  I told them that I just heard about Matthew Goniwe.  I saw him in 
Adelaide in one funeral.  We were taken back to St Albans.  I was not feeling well.  I could not even eat.  On the following day I asked them to take me to the doctor.  The doctor weighed me and he told me that I lost weight, I lost five kilograms.  The doctor asked me what was happening.  I explained to him that I was being assaulted and tortured in prison.  That may be the reason for my losing weight.  
 In November 1985 we were released.  In May 1986 cars like a Nissan Skyline, combis and trucks, soldier's trucks came.  I was at work at that time.  I was working as a cashier at Bedford Hotel.  Aubrey van Jaarsveld came.  He said that he was going to, was picking me up, because I was wanted there.  I was taken to the barracks where the police were.  When I arrived there, there were white men there.  They were huge white men.  I did not know them, because they were not from Bedford.  They asked me Comrade Matthew, my relationship with him.  I told them that I knew Comrade Matthew, because he use to come to our area.  At the time he was already dead.  I told them that I also read about him in the newspapers.  One of them beat me and my nose was bleeding.  They gave me water to wash my face up.  
 Constable Maswili came.  They gave him a list.  They told him to write down what was written in the list to another paper.  They told us to go with them.  I asked them, where are you taking me?  They said I must not ask questions.  I was taken to this Nissan Skyline.  Police, two policemen were with me in this car.  One of them had a gun.  I am not sure whether it was a R4 or R5.  They pointed me with the guns in my back.  One Skyline was in front of us and others were at the back.  We went to an area, a building where jobs were created for people.  Maswili was told to 
point out the people who were written in the list.  The people would be taken to the vans.  The police were talking to each other through their radios.  They were communicating with the police in other cars.  They would say that Ntsikelelo is working with us today.  Comrades would be taken by these police to the cars.  They took us to the police station.  The police argued with each other.  Some were saying I must be released.

ADV SANDI: Excuse me, Mr Mentoor.  In other words, you say that they were trying to say to people that you were there informer, you were working to them, together with them?

NTSIKELELO EDWARD MENTOOR: Yes, because they knew that I was a member of the community organisation.

ADV SANDI: They wanted to create a gap between you and the people in the organisation.

NTSIKELELO EDWARD MENTOOR: They said that I was going to be burnt or my house was going to be burnt that night.

ADV SANDI: When they were creating this gap between you and the community, was this a normal thing at that time?

NTSIKELELO EDWARD MENTOOR: All the organisations in Bedford were under UDF.  They were speaking one language, they were united.

ADV SANDI: In your statement you said that they were trying to portray you as a collaborator with them.  What happened?

NTSIKELELO EDWARD MENTOOR: The community was divided into two.  Some of them were on my side, because they said that I am not capable of identifying people.  Others were against me.  They were accusing me of identifying other Comrades.  They would come to my father at work telling him to take his clothes and his furniture out of the house, because there might be something that will happen in that house.

ADV SANDI: Let us now concentrate on what happened to your
body and what happened to you physically due to this torture.

NTSIKELELO EDWARD MENTOOR: What happened to me is that I lost my memory.  I also suffer from diabetes.  My dignity in the community was also effected.

ADV SANDI: Did you receive any medical treatment?

NTSIKELELO EDWARD MENTOOR: When I was in prison I was taken to a treatment in Livingstone.

ADV SANDI: And the time you went to Albany Council of Churches, what happened, what were you doing there.

NTSIKELELO EDWARD MENTOOR: We were taken to a counselling there.  The doctors were counselling us.  They were trying to help us with our memory.

ADV SANDI: By being here today, Mr Mentoor, what is your request to the Commission?

NTSIKELELO EDWARD MENTOOR: I would like the perpetrators to go to the people, to go to Bedford and talk to the people in Bedford.  I want to regain my dignity, because they wanted the people to think that I was an informer.  I would also like the Government to build a monument for all the people who were oppressed in this country so that we can see what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is doing for us.

ADV SANDI: Thank you, Mr Mentoor.  Is that all you want to say before we go to Mrs Bakauli and Mr Bambiso?

NTSIKELELO EDWARD MENTOOR: My story is very long, Sir, because there are many things that happened to me and there are many things that I could not do, because I was taken to prison.  I did not get a chance to support and to raise my children, because from 1976, 85, 86 and 88 I was detained all the time, transferred to all the prisons in South Africa.  That is all, Sir.

ADV SANDI: Thank you, Mr Mentoor.  Let us now go to Mrs Bakauli.  Mrs Bakauli, you have heard what Mr Mentoor has already said in trying to give us a picture of what was happening in Bedford at that time.  We are not going to ask you about that, but we will ask you to tell us about what happened to you.  What year was this, was it in 1986?

NODANILE GERTRUDE BAKAULI: Yes, it was 1986.

ADV SANDI: Please tell us, briefly Mam, what happened to you on this particular day in 1986 in Bedford.