Human Rights Violation Hearings — Bloemfontein — UNKNOWN

MR DLAMINI: Thank you. You may now proceed and tell us what happened onthis - in 1986 when your brother had to suffer the tortures and the injuries.--- He was arrested in 1986. I don't remember the month, whether it was Aprilor May, because he wasn't staying with me. The person who was staying with himcame to tell us that he had been arrested and taken by the police in Ladybrand,but even the Bophutatswana Police were involved. Then he said I should go andsee where he stays. I went there. The ceilings were torn apart and put downbecause he was suspected that he had kept guns in the ceilings. When this boycame to tell us that he had been arrested I went there to see. I discoveredthat the ceilings were torn down. He told me that the manner in which they hadassaulted him he doubted whether he was living or not. I went to look for himat the Bophutatswana Police quarters. They told me that they didn't know anything,they were not the ones who arrested him. We kept on searching for him without any success. We went to different prisons without anysuccess. One policeman told me, but he said we shouldn't tell anybody what hewas about to tell us because he would lose his job. We went to Ladybrand withthe policeman's wife. When we got to Ladybrand I asked as to whether there wasany person. The policemen there denied and told us that he was not there. Idon't remember the name of the policeman I spoke to. We waited there. They phoneda white policeman to come. When he got there he asked me what I was lookingfor there. I told him I was looking for my brother, the police in Bophutatswanahad told us that he is in Ladybrand. But the policemen in Bophutatswana hadnot told us that, I just believed that if I said it he would actually help me.He told me that he had no knowledge of such a person. After a moment he saidI should produce my identity document, and my brother's wife should take outher identity document. He asked us whether we were the ones who sent him tobe a communist. We denied, and we said we were just looking for him becauseit was three months now since he disappeared. As he was still holding my identitydocument he told me that he knows me very well. He said it in Afrikaans, andhe said, "I know you. I know where you are staying, you black." He said he couldarrest me. I asked him why would he arrest me. He told me that I was harbouringcommunists in my house. I told him that, "You are accusing me, and yet my brotheris not here. How can you accuse me if you say the person you - you didn't arrestthe person?" I said to him he can arrest me if he wanted. We argued until hethrew us with our identity documents and told us to leave the place. When wewere going out there was a policeman who was sitting at the securitygate. He looked more like a coloured. He told me that my brother is there inLadybrand, but he is not supposed to talk because he was going to lose his job.He told me that he had been severely assaulted and they won't show him to me.We went back home. I kept on pestering him and they kept on denying it. Sixmonths lapsed without us knowing the whereabouts of my brother. I kept on pesteringthe Bophutatswana Police to tell me where my brother was, and they denied knowinghis whereabouts. They told me they would not help me look for my brother, Imust do it on my own, because they were not the ones who arrested him. One daywe saw him coming. He had signs that indicated that he had been assaulted. Hehad scars. We asked him where he had been. He told me that he had always beenthere, and he had always been assaulted, and he further indicated that the policemenhad told him that we were looking for him. He was always taken regularly atnight to Kroonstad. They said he should reveal the whereabouts of other communistsfrom the ANC. They took him to Lesotho. He said at times along these travelsthey would assault him along the way to Kroonstad. At times they would takepliers, a pair of pliers, and they would squeeze his private parts, his penis,that he should speak the truth. He should also say if we as a family are involvedin this. On the first day that he arrived he started having fits. He was emittingsome white substance from - through his mouth, and he collapsed. We thoughtmaybe he was excited, he was relieved that he had arrived finally at home. Werealised that he had been mentally affected. He kept on having these attacks.The doctor said that there was a clot in his brain. He was taken for treatmentfor fits. He even had high blood pressure until he suffered a stroke. As I amspeaking now he can't do anything, he's a human cabbage. He can't speak properly.I had asked the hospital if I could not take him so that you can see him, butdue to his conditions I could not bring him with. His mother is 80 years oldthis year. She is staying with his children. She is a pensioner. She is goingthrough a lot of hardships.

MR DLAMINI: Does your brother get any disability grant?

WITNESS: No.

MR DLAMINI: Has the application been lodged with the Department of Welfare?--- I went to apply for pension on his behalf, but he is still in hospital.They had given him a date for the 24th to come, because they said they wantedto take his fingerprints. So he is still in hospital so we are not able to doanything.

MR DLAMINI: (Inaudible) ... if they could assist by getting all the detailsfrom him in hospital, so that whilst he is in hospital the processing of theapplication is in place as well.

WITNESS: No, we haven't been to the social workers.

MR DLAMINI: I would recommend that you go to the offices of the socialworkers. If there are any problems please let us know so that we can see whetherwe could assist you in expediting the application for a disability grant. Andanother question that I would like to ask. When he was still able to recollect,to remember everything that happened, did he mention any names of the peoplewho were torturing him?

WITNESS: He only spoke now when he was very ill, when I wasasking him as to who the policemen were. He only told us about one person. Hesaid the name of the person is Janki Thulwa. He said he was a policeman in Ladybrand.

MR DLAMINI: And the police officer who was arguing with you when you werelooking for your brother, can you remember his name?

WITNESS: I don't remember hisname, but I can identify him if I can see him.

MR DLAMINI: How old is your brother now?

WITNESS: He is 36 years old.

MR DLAMINI: (Inaudible) ... you might not have the answer, but it strikesme that your brother is the third or fourth case of somebody who was workingfor Thaba Nchu Sun and was detained, tortured by the police. Is it a coincidence,or were Thaba Nchu Sun employees targeted as far as you know?

WITNESS: I should thinkso, because at that time he was working at Thaba Nchu Sun.

MR DLAMINI: (Inaudible) ... suspect that the Security Forces were targetingat Thaba Nchu employees?

WITNESS: Yes, I suspect so, because I met that policemanin Thaba Nchu Sun. After I had gone there to look for my brother I saw the policemanI argued with at Thaba Nchu Sun.

MR DLAMINI: Thank you very much, Mrs Bosch, for the concern you have showntowards your brother, and also helping us in the manner you have done, whichis very clear about what happened, and also the action you took to try and helpyour brother from the time he was detained. We have also noted your requestfor assistance with medical expenses, as well as the support of the children.I am sure the Chairman will refer to that when he summarises the case. May Inow hand over to the Chairman.

MR LAX: Mrs Bosch, there's just one or two aspects that you might be able to help us clarify. In your statement youspoke about your brother, Bafane, being returned or dropped off some two weeksafter you had been to Ladybrand Police Station, and in your evidence today you'vetold us that there were six months that elapsed after that time. Can you justclarify that for us please?