Human Rights Violation Hearings — Upington — 1996-10-02

CASE NO: CT/00696/

MR POTGIETER: Can we get silence please.   [Indistinct] ... and it becomes a bit difficult to try and out shout you the whole time so can I please get your co-operation.  Please give me your co-operation and keep quiet.  If you are not quiet we cannot proceed.  It is very difficult to shout so that you can keep quiet.  I am going to ask you to take the oath before we take your evidence so will you please stand.
ABEL KUTU Duly sworn states

MR POTGIETER: Thank you, please be seated.  Glenda Wildschut will assist you in giving your evidence and I hand over to her.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: Mr Kutu which language do you prefer to speak in?

WITNESS:  Afrikaans.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT:  Okay so you will be giving your testimony in Afrikaans.  I will be speaking to you in English and you will hear the translation through the earphones.  Is that okay?  Are you able to hear us clearly?

WITNESS:  So 'n bietjie ja.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT:  Would you come a bit closer to the microphone and if you can't hear very well you can adjust the volume on your head set.  I am sure the briefer will help you.  Okay.  Mr Kutu you are also somebody who has been involved in the Upington 26th incident and trial.  We have heard evidence from quite a few people already this morning but we would like to hear the story from your side and how the incident affected you.  So will you start now please by telling us your side of the story.  Thank you.

WITNESS:  If I may ask, could we please just observe a moment of silence, of silent prayer for our two fallen comrades, Gideon Mahlongolwane and Xiswa Duba please.  Thank you.  I will start with the arrest on the 13th November 1985.  I was on my way to work - Oranje Co-operative.  On my way to work I was stopped by a group of people and they forced me to go to a meeting.  I was aware of the meeting but I hadn't planned to go to the meeting but they forced me to go and I was then forced to the soccer field of the Eleven Experience.  When we arrived there, people were singing Nkosi Sikeleli Afrika and the police then intervened, they drove in Casspirs and they ordered the people to disperse within five minutes but I don't think it was possible for 3,000 people to disperse in five minutes.  There was a Pastor Beady and he was praying.  After Pastor Beady had said amen, the police started shooting teargas at the people on the soccer field.  Now perhaps I have left out certain things in my statement but if you would allow me to add these things now, I can do that.  The people dispersed, people were trying to escape and they were all piling one on top of the other.  They were lying one on top of the other and there was a Neville Dye being shot, being hit by a teargas canister and I saw this on the video which was shown in Court.  The canister blew that person right up in the air and he is a cripple now.  I was caught on the 13th November.  They arrested me at my home, Desmond Mdluli and one of his comrades came to arrest me.  I don't know the other names, they were white people, I couldn't identify them at the time.  They took us to Bantu Administration where there was a whole group of people and the deceased's family.  They were all sitting there and some of the accused were also there and I am absolutely certain that those people saw who the accused people or the suspects were and I was caught, I was arrested whilst I was sleeping at home that afternoon, I think if I can estimate the time, when I heard the man had been killed, that was between 1 o'clock and 12 o'clock.  It was a very, very hot day.  It was about 42 degrees.  It was the hottest day in Upington, of the year, hottest day of the year of 1985.  They made me stand in the sun, I was not allowed to stand in the shade.  If I tried to move into the shade then Johan Willemse prevented me from doing that.  He told me, no you've been told you must not seek out the shade, you must stay where you are in the sun.  I could actually feel the sun scorching my body, scorching my skin.  I didn't, I wasn't wearing a shirt or a T-shirt.  On the first day that I appeared in Court on the 18th November that is the state in which I appeared in Court - without a shirt.  In the Court the magistrate, one Nell, he said where is this man's T-shirt and when we appeared in Court on the second occasion I got a T-shirt from one Gobandini.  It was actually too small for me but that is what I wore at my second appearance in Court.  After that when we arrived at the police station for the first time, a tyre, a motor car tyre was placed over my head and at the house where I was caught, they hit me with the rifle butts on various parts of my body and my body was swollen as a result of these blows.  I didn't suffer any internal injuries but I did suffer some swelling.  I was then taken to prison and on the 12th May 1986 that was the first time that I was released on bail.  When we were released we had to report to the police station three times a day and our bail was withdrawn in 1988, April 1988 and since that time we were in custody.  As the previous witnesses said, we had to sleep on these mats, we had three blankets.  When it was very cold some of the blankets were actually removed and when it was really cold we had to clean out the cells and wash the walls.  We suffered torture, rough torture and matters continued in this way until we were sentenced on the 2nd June 1989.  That is when I was sentenced to six years' imprisonment and on the 13th September, two days after my birthday we were taken to Kimberley prison.  I don't know what it is like at the moment but then it was extremely dirty.  We then appeared in Court again, the Supreme Court, a Mr van Rensburg who was then the prosecutor, he dealt with the bail application and he said, this man said that I should be very grateful that I am not the 15th one.  There was a Colin person during that trial, there was an Advocate Viljoen.  These were the people involved in the trial.  John White was another one, John Whitehead, I am not quite sure of the name, he was also an advocate and they acted on our behalf and applications were made.  Eliza Machongo, Enoch, Nompodua, Evelyn de Bruin, Gideon Mahlongolwane, but those three had their bail refused but our bail was granted and on the 24th October 89 we were released from Kimberley and since then I was never in prison again.  I lost my job, I couldn't even support my parents anymore as I had been doing before.  I can't do that because I am unemployed.  In 92 I did find a job but then lost my job because they said they could not work with a communist.  The other thing is, that I actually want to refer to what the Reverend Beukes said   ... campaigning for the release of the Upington 14, I would like to say to Mrs Sethwala, the family of Jetta, please forgive us that we allowed you to suffer in silence and miss all the media attention.  We were all victims.  Forgive us the times that we drove past your house showing journalists and foreign people where Jetta stayed and telling them our stories and not inviting them to make some time to listen to your pain.  What I would like to say is I am not prepared to ask the deceased's mother for forgiveness because I never killed the deceased.  I was never at his house.  What I am trying to say is that Judge Basson convicted us wrongly and I feel that Judge Basson and the previous government were very, very unjust.  Thank you.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT:  Thank you Mr Kutu for your testimony.  Can I just ask you, how old were you when this incident took place?

WITNESS:  I was 24.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT:  Whilst you were in prison awaiting trial, were you tortured in any way?  As I understand your statement, you were also tortured after the trial.

WITNESS:  No, not after the trial.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT:  During the trial?