Special Hearings — Prison Hearings — 1997-07-21

UNKNOWN: As we passed by they assaulted me, I'm referring to the police.  On arrival at the police station the police said that they were very grateful and happy because they were looking for me for quite a long time.  From there I was taken to one of the offices where I had to wait for some time until my uncle who was a policeman at Lesedi police station arrived.  He asked me what I was doing at the police station and I told him that I didn't know as the police brought me here.  I stayed there for a while.
 There was a process which the police followed, they would come in and out and take me to different offices at three rondavels.  I went into one of them and that was when they questioned me about other activists that they were looking for.  Some of them had already skipped the country and I stated that I didn't know them but they continued with a list of people whom I denied knowing.  I told them that these people were students and we were together in different organisations such as the Parent Teacher Student Association as well as other organisations within our community, other than that I did not know their whereabouts.  
 Whilst interrogating me they changed from one policeman to the other and I would have to answer questions standing, I was not allowed to sit down.  At that time I was pregnant.  As they could not get anything out of me during the interrogation they said they would make me tell the truth and they told me to take off my jacket, I did as I was told.  At that time they started assaulting me, I became lame from my waist downwards as if I had pins and needles in my body and I lost my balance and fell and messed myself.
 After that they asked me if I was prepared to tell the truth now and I said that is all I know about the people you are questioning me about.  They asked me whether I was working at the church and whether the ministers were sympathetic to the SACC or other organisations within the community, like when there are funerals would they be present and would they bury victims who had been shot or whatever the cause of death was for that person who was buried.
 It was already late at night and they took me to Sun City which is the Johannesburg Central Prison.  At Johannesburg prison they took fingerprints and I had to hand over all my particulars, my physical address and such.  They then took me to the cell.  I was locked in there alone and they came to collect me the following day. We went to Kempton Park police station.  On our arrival I was taken into a cell, thereafter we went into the office where "the twins" as we referred to them, arrived stating that I behave as if I'm innocent whereas I  know what was taking place in the locations.   One of them slapped me through my face and one stated that he would kill me if I don't tell the truth.
 They continued to ask me questions but the day before they asked me who and where Takkie Boy was, as well as my younger sister who had skipped the country.  I told them that I didn't know their whereabouts as they were just people I worked with at the organisation.  
 During the night they took me back to the prison and on arrival I did not change the clothing I had on, I was smelling like before, rather confused, sick and swollen.  After a few days I asked to consult a doctor and they told me I would not be allowed to consult a doctor but I persisted and they told me a doctor would come, however the story kept on like that, the doctor would come.  
 There were some women in the prison when this happened who decided to start a hunger strike because they couldn't understand why they were in prison or what the charge was.  The prison authorities knew that I was on a hunger strike, however I was not as I found a way to get food.
 The one day I felt weak, I lost strength and late that afternoon I started vomiting.   I still asked to see a doctor but I was told the doctor would not come.  On the third day I collapsed, that was the time I was actually having a miscarriage and I was taken to Johannesburg hospital where they found that I did have a miscarriage and my baby was in a tube.  I was there under male police guard.  They inserted tubes and I was handcuffed to the bed so that I could not escape.  During my time at the hospital it was male policemen who were guarding me.  My family never came.  There was only this sister who came to see me and the  police who guarded me on shifts.
 I cannot remember the number of days that I spent at the hospital, I presume it was about seven days.  The day I was taken back to the prison, I was wearing grey socks and a prison blanket, the one that they put on me when they took me to the hospital.  On arrival at the prison during the day, I went to the cell in which I was before I was taken to the hospital due to the miscarriage.  There were political detainees outside undergoing exercises and when I arrived they were locked in cells.  They unlocked my cell and I went in.  I found that somebody had vomited there and there was blood and urine all over the place, it was stinking which meant that the cell hadn't been cleaned since I left for the hospital.
 The following day I asked to consult the doctor.  Women who were in prison told the sister in charge that I was sick and I must consult a doctor.  I saw a doctor and he gave me perbex tablets.  After some time I discovered that these tablets were given to someone who had bladder infection, these perbex tablets.  I didn't go back to the hospital to have the stitches removed and I could not get treatment thereafter.  
 I stayed in prison for a long time.  Time and again there were hunger strikes and I had to put up with the cold and take part in the hunger strike through which they would guard you and when you became weak they would call a doctor or a policeman and tell them your problem.  I was to go back to Johannesburg hospital for a checkup, this was after there had been a hunger strike.
 What used to happen which I didn't include in this statement was that I stayed there for a long time without seeing my children, I could only see them after a year.  When I left, my youngest was about two years old and I heard from someone who was a common-law awaiting trial that my child was sick.  The day I saw my child was after I'd been on a hunger strike.
 We were not given any study material but the book I received was a Bible which I read from the first page to the last.  I stayed in the cell and looked at the walls trying to find a way to escape, that was all you could see.  That was the kind of life in prison.  You would wake up in the morning, get porridge which was half cooked, during the day you had lunch, after that you would have supper and you were locked in a double door cell.  If there was something you deemed to happen, you would have to engage in a hunger strike.
 What I want to state again is that when I left for a checkup at the Johannesburg hospital, I was transported in a van most of the times which had this section where they would have police dogs at the back of the van and I would normally be handcuffed and sit where the spare wheel was.  As the van was travelling you swayed from left to right.

MR LEWIN: Take your time Deborah.  Deborah it might help if I ask for some clarification and ask a specific question.  Could I clarify what your legal status was at the time, you mentioned being dropped at the prison by the police, who actually took your fingerprints for instance, who looked after you in prison, the prison authorities?

UNKNOWN: It was the prison authorities but I don't remember what they call them, warders I suppose?  If you went for a checkup they would call the special branch officer who arrested you and he or she would take you for the checkup.

MR LEWIN: Was it explained to you under what law you were being held?