Human Rights Violation Hearings — Alexandra — 1996-10-29

OBED BAPELA: The year was 1988 and the month was December.  It was a hot day and on that day we had been released from Johannesburg Diepkloof prison known as Sun City.  It was the five of us, Mr Moses Mayegiso, Mr Richard Mdagani, Mr Paul Shabalala, Mr Mzonela Mayegiso and myself where we had been charged with high treason, sedition and subversion for activities around the six days war in Alexandra.  On the day we were jubilant, very excited and rearing to go home, a home we last saw in June 1986 when we were detained.  Getting out of prison is very exciting but we had been following events and news about Alexandra whilst in prison.  Some of our colleagues, friends and comrades were killed
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during our incarceration.  Of significance to me was the death of Comrade Jingles Magoti, a very close friend of mine who it was said got killed during the fight which started between members and supporters of Azapo, dubbed as Amazimzim and the UDF members and supporters dubbed as Amavarara or the Tetarist.  So all those things happened whilst we were in prison.  That is the post 1986 era.  The six days war era.  A single shot, it is said, killed him as he was closing the butchery where he worked at 4th Avenue and (indistinct) owned by Mr Jo Manana who himself was also in detention at that time.  We also read about the gruesome killings of some of the people that we knew whilst we were in prison.  People who were slaughtered you know for fighting for their own liberation and the case that came to mind was that of Mandla of 8th Avenue.  I don't know his surname.  Mandla was confronted by a group of youth armed heavily and was killed and beheaded.  The message was clear, don't associate with UDF or you will go the same way.  While this was happening all Alexandra leaders and activists were in prison under the state of emergency and other security laws.  There was no one left absolutely, no one to really give leadership and guidance over the community. The question that came to mind was why detain only one group of activists who belonged to the UDF structures, why leave members and supports of Azapo, why then if you did not know them, even when they were on a killing spree did the intelligence network of the police not detect and arrest them for their deeds.  The question remained unanswered. Maybe we felt concluding the violence was sponsored by the state covet or structures who saw the opportunity to wipe out the congress structures.  While in prison also we read
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from smuggled newspapers what we used to call mpugani, it is a flea in English, and because we used to smuggle and a flea can just enter anywhere, it can be in prison, it can be anywhere so that is why we said the newspapers was mpugani.  And by the visits by our families we got informed.  We regarded ourselves as lucky or maybe because we were detained because if we were outside we would be victims like Mtlamula Mabilese, Mandla and Jingles Magoti.  We wondered what was to happen to us if we got released on bail.  We also heard and were informed and read about the new state organisations that has taken over in Alexandra called the Joint Management Committee.  JMC's, which were part of the State Security Council.   In Alexandra the JMC's started to operate.  They had sub-committees such as Stratcom which was called Strategic Communication and Security Committee and others.  Among the activities they planned were the so-called (indistinct) Renewal Strategy, led by Mr Steve Bego who was appointed the chief executive officer of Alexandra after the collapse of the Alexandra Town Council under Reverend Sam Buti.  They analysed all the demands of the community of Alexandra such as poor dilapidated housing and sewerage, no untarred streets and at the time only Selbourne Street was tarred.  The electrification of the township, only phase 1 and phase 2 were electrified at that time.  Poor recreational facilities and an end to the bucket system night soil and a better life for all and an end to overcrowding.  At that time there were about 40 people in one yard and the situation has worsened now.  The JMC found grievances to be legitimate and those grievances were first highlighted by us but still continued to charge me and my colleagues with treason, subversion and sedition for
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highlighting those demands.  A strategy by JMC was developed to electrify Alexandra and instal sewerage system that ended the bucket system and that was done during the period when we were in detention and in prison.  The houses were built in the East Bank but only for affluent people.  Rooftops of Alexandra were painted to look nice, tarring of the streets of Alexandra started and the government gave about R90 million to kickstart the project.  All this took place when we were in prison.  The other strategy was to continue the violence between our organisations, the Congress movement and organisations and Azapo.  At the same time there were  weekly pamphlets distributed by the South African Defence Force which was a member of the JMC's together with SAP, the Alexandra Town Council and other structures that they were able to co-opt.  The pamphleteering and communications strategy was call WAM, which stands for Winning the Hearts and Minds of the People.  Pamphlets will ridicule the comrades as animals in the zoo or as monkeys who thought were cleverer than human beings.  The comrades were described here as monkeys and the South African government as human beings who were so concerned about the needs of the people and who were building nice houses for them.  They prided themselves as the JMC that within a year of our arrest Alexandra was peaceful so-called and that the law and order was now the norm and there was no more intimidation.  That people can go freely to work and children can go to school without fear.  The army started playing soccer and other games with the school children and the youth.  They carried food, fruits, sweets with them in the army tanks and Caspers to give to the youths and then portray a picture of how nice they were as compared to the comrades.  Youth clubs
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were established by the JMC's, religious choirs were also established and the target was the young people and they started to mushroom all over Alexandra.  The youth was organised through their clubs to camps to be indoctrinated by the army and the JMC's and the airforce was to win their hearts and minds.   The strategy worked.  All of a sudden there were clubs calling themselves Lapoloa named after one of the TV programmes but their strategy was weak for it could not stop the peoples' march to freedom, hence the nineties saw the rise of the might of our people as they gave a final blow to apartheid.  Religious choirs continue to exist today but no longer under the programme of the JMC's and their dirty games.  It was the Alexandra we read about as we left the prison, the five of us, still leaving thousands of our comrades behind under the state of emergency.  We were not coming home to Alexandra unfortunately.  One of the bail conditions was that we should not visit or enter Alexandra, not to reside there, never to set our feet in Alexandra.  We had to comply with the bail condition.  On the same December period other detainees were released to go back to Alexandra.  Amongst them was my wife Constance but they were released under severe conditions also, confined to their houses from dusk to dawn, reporting to the police station twice a day, morning and evening before six o'clock p.m. being monitored and police used to come and check them at their homes.  The five of us who were still on trial were also given similar conditions to report twice a day at the Hillbrow police station.  Being monitored not to go to Alexandra so we did not take the risk for we didn't want to lose our bail privileges.  I stayed with my lawyer from Cheadle Thompson
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and Haysom, Mr Norman Manrame and his brother Erwin from the Weekly Mail at that time at number 144 Baker Street, Bellevue East just after Yeoville.  I travelled twice a day to Hillbrow police station to enter my signature that I have not yet absconded on my bail.  I started acclimatising myself to my new temporary home and we were scattered.  Richard and Mzonela were staying with some students of Wits in Bertrams next to Ellis Park.  Moses Mayegiso the wife had organised a flat somewhere in Hillbrow High Point and Paul Tshabalala also stayed with some friends organised by our lawyer.  I was looking forward to a Christmas outside prison.  The last Christmas outside was in 1985. Constance will sometimes visit me for I could not visit her.  At least she was able to leave Alexandra but she had to be back before six o'clock to comply with her release conditions.  On this fateful night of January 6, 1989 I had said in 1988 on the statement but the correct date is January 6, 1989 I had requested Constance to go and sign and come and sleep over as it was past Christmas and new year the police may not check them and as they were doing frequently.  Besides the owner of the house had gone on a holiday and I was alone, all by myself and there was a helper living in the servants quarters at the back with her husband and their son Aubrey who was just ten years old and had come for holidays from the rurals.  The incident happened on January 6, 1989 and the case number as was reported is 39/01/89.  And it was opened at the Yeoville police station.  In the evening of the 5th January we cooked, watched TV up to very late, I think until around 12 midnight and Aubrey was in the house with us.  Constance was already expecting at that time.  As it was already late we organised for Aubrey to
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sleep in the main house and we all went to bed tired and slept.  It must have been around three in the morning on the 6th January when the incident occurred.  I was first asleep, we were fast asleep, we didn't hear anything.  According to neighbours and the parents to Aubrey there was a heavy explosion which reverberated through the quiet suburb and one of the neighbours, a white woman, heard soon after the blast the screeching of the car tyres, which indicates a car was pulling away at high speed, which may have been used by the attackers.  People apparently started to scream to extinguish the fire which has caught the house, shouting at us to wake up and open as the house was burning.  It must have taken then about five minutes shouting, even breaking the windows before a response from us.  When I woke up I heard a lot of voices screaming, shouting and calling Aubrey's name.  I think it was his mother.  At first when I heard I thought we have been attacked by the criminals but when I clearly woke up I heard the house is on fire.  I immediately responded and then that we were waking up.  I woke Connie and went to wake up Aubrey as well and the nightmare began.  I didn't know where I had put the key.  The house windows and doors were burglared with heavy steel and in the dining room wall, which had the main door leading to the street, it was filled with smoke and some items were still burning at the time.  I should think the key was at the door, the front door and wanted to reach it to open. I was choked and blinded by the smoke and each time I went to the dining room wall the flames were coming towards me and I would retreat.  It must have been during the third attempt when I said I do it or we all die here.  I forced myself with my eyes blinded by the smoke, I could
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not breathe because I was choked by smoke but I had taken a deep breath which enabled me to move until I reached the door and fortunately the flames did not catch my clothes.  I reached for the key and opened the door and gave the key to those outside to open the grille as I tried to breathe the fresh air.  Soon after the grille flung open Connie and Aubrey were fetched from inside the house by others and then others also started moving in with buckets full of water to extinguish the flames.  We were all laid on the grass ... (nothing further on tape) ... I should think it was a fire bomb which was used for it only shattered the windows and started burning.  There were no cracks on the wall.  We stayed outside until sunrise and private clothed police came, took my details and I was later taken to Yeoville police station for a statement.  That was the last time I had contact with the police and have never heard anything to date about the incident from them.  What provoked me to come and give the evidence was the evidence which was given at the Johannesburg City Council Commission in 1990 referred to Hiemstra Commission in 1990 at which a witness gave evidence to the effect that he was given a task by the Johannesburg City Council security to attack houses in Johannesburg and he was paid for that.  Housing plans of Johannesburg Democratic Action Committee members were released by the Johannesburg City Council to this group, which included the house of Norman Manrame and his brother Erwin and that is the house where I stayed. The witness was unsure whether among the houses that he attacked personally it included the Manrame's house.  Further information can be obtained from Brigadier Snowball who was investigating the matter of the CCB covet operations which were conducted from
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the Johannesburg City Council offices.  Again this year during May/June the former security policeman from the John Vorster Square, Warrant Officer Paul Erasmus, in one of his many interviews to the media has spoken about a spate of attacks which included an attack in Bellevue East house where he says they had information that there was a terrorist staying there.  What Warrant Officer Erasmus was saying is not new about the incident.  After the event in 1990 the police said they had information that the house was apparently attacked because there was a terrorist staying there.  This was police information released in 1990.  What is not clear from Warrant Officer Erasmus' statement is whether he was part of the group that attacked and which house exactly was attacked in that location of Bellevue East, Yeoville or Observatory because those township suburbs are close to each other, whether it was at 144 Baker Street.  The consequences of the bomb attack were that due to Connie's pregnancy she was shocked and was also choked by the smoke for the ten minutes after waking up. She was more frightened for she was not supposed to have been there and the police were going to find out.  I had to protect her at that time.  When I was interviewed by the media I said I was alone with Aubrey in the house, so I didn't mention her name.  But today one can say she was in the house at that time.  She became nervous, had psychological effects and was treated for shock by Dr Fazel Randera and referred to the psychologist by him for further treatment. The trial was still going on and one was concentrated on it.  In April 1989 we were all acquitted of treason, sedition and subversion and for the first time we were able to come home to Alexandra.  A son was born and although now seven years
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old he has learning deficiency but he is at a normal school and we fully suspect it was the effects his mother had suffered.  What I want to know is who did it, why they did it and also what I want to know whether I was that terrorist who was staying in that house and what I want to know from the police is when receiving information that there was a terrorist staying there why didn't they verify because they knew that I was staying there because when we left prison they wanted us to give physical addresses of where we were going to be staying as part of the bail conditions and we did provide those addresses and I was staying there. Or maybe the attack was aimed at Norman Manrame who was a human rights lawyer.  Or maybe because Norman was once active in Jodac, Johannesburg Democratic Action Committee before taking full time employment with Cheadle Thompson and Haysom as a lawyer.  Or maybe because his brother Erwin Monrame was a co-editor of the then Weekly Mail which is now Weekly and Guardian with Anton Harper. These are the questions which remain unanswered today.  And I think that is how far I can go in as far as the incident of the attack in that house is concerned.