Human Rights Violation Hearings — Tembisa — 1996-11-26

ZODWA MOFOKENG MLHABENE: Ja it's from '81, we were being detained all the time from 1981.  I can't even count how many times were we detained, but it was many times.  But what I am talking now, this incident when they came in cars that was in 1987 when my husband was visiting from Baragwanath Hospital, it was in 1987.  They came in and they swore at us.  I was trying to tidy up and to pack up my bags as usual.  They said you don't need to pack up anything we just want to see you.  Another White man came in, I don't remember his name clearly but he was in charge of Borman and his group.  He said he was from Soweto.  He said that you are going to work with me hand-in-hand.  He wanted to know were you running away all this time I said no, I was not running away I was
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on "fed-up" leave.  After having said that to me I felt helpless, I just gathered my things and I was thinking of my children that I left back there in the bush.  He said don't pack up anything I am not going anywhere with you.  He left me behind and the following morning I went to see the children.  When I got there I realised that the last born was not well, and I brought the children back because I was no longer banned, but they never managed to further their schooling.  
 David left, David Mofokeng left.  In the morning I got a telephone call to say that David Mofokeng was released from Baragwanath and he came straight home.  
TAPE ENDS
 And a chairperson of zone 3 in the street committees.  These policemen when they came they said your husband is giving problems at work and in the Township as well.  We must put him somewhere safe and I wondered where is that. I wanted to know where is that?  They said that is the police station.  They came again whilst we were sleeping and my younger daughter responded and said that my parents are not at home.  She was just being courageous but we were there, but they turned away and left.
 Thereafter my husband was expelled from work because of his political activities, but there were a lot of letters that they sent to him regarding his expulsion, and he was out of work and he was detained again.  They took him and I thought they will never bring him back again but they didn't keep him for a long time.  That was towards November.  I think they released him in October.  When he got home, because he was not working at that time we stayed with him for about two weeks.  He was attending FAWU meetings.
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 And on the 3rd of November, it was early in the morning and he said we must go and visit Tembi, and we did go and visit Tembi, who is my sister who stays in Hammanskraal, and we did that. It around about ten past nine when we left for Hammanskraal.  When we got to my sister's house in Hammanskraal we had some mechanical problems with the car.  My sister took the car to a mechanic and we stayed there until four o'clock in the afternoon.  We left for home at about four o'clock.  He suggested that we must go via Warmbaths and we did that.  We drove around in Warmbaths and we bought some refreshments and we sat under a tree, and he suggested that I must do the driving because he was feeling tired.  I did the driving while he slept.  I drove until we got here at home at quarter to six and I just prepared a light supper because he said that he was hurrying to a meeting.  
 After having had supper it was towards seven o'clock when he decided to leave and I asked somebody to go and buy myself some cool drink but he said to me don't worry I will bring some cool drink from Olifantsfontein, I won't stay long, I am just going to get some report-back.  I gave him the empty bottle and he drove off with the car.  
 I don't know what happened, where he had gone to, but around about 9:20 I saw two boys arriving. I saw the car coming in and I told my grandfather that how can David come back with my cool drink at this time.  But when I saw the car I saw two people. He was not in the car.  Then I was shocked.  These young men came in and they wanted to know who Zodwa is.  I wanted to know why are you asking?  They said we are being sent here by David.  I wanted to know what is he saying.  They told me that they found him being 
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arrested by policemen in Olifantsfontein.  The policemen wanted to take the car as well but he was fighting with them and he said that arrest him alone and not his car.  And when he saw us he asked us to bring the car here at 497.  And he said that when you phone you must call as far as Pretoria. 
 Then I started making a few calls.  I tried many police stations and even the Tembisa Police Station in Kempton Park but I never found him.  That was on the 3rd.  On the 4th I phoned my sister at Hammanskraal who arrived on the 4th in the morning or the afternoon, I don't remember clearly.  I tried phoning the whole day on the 4th but I never found him anywhere.  When my sister arrived she suggested that we should try calling the hospitals as well, but we did try but we never found him.
 On the 5th in the morning we kept on phoning.  It was round about 11 o'clock or just after 10 o'clock, we phoned Olifantsfontein.  I don't remember how many times we called from the 3rd, we called Olifantsfontein again and we asked them to give us some more numbers, Verwoerdburg numbers, they did.  We tried to find out if there were any other police stations.  We phoned again and that's when we got a response, the voice saying that "Is it you David's wife?". I said yes.  They said please come here we want to see you.  I told my sister and we went to Olifantsfontein immediately.
 At Verwoerdburg we went into the police station and we found a White lady standing over the counter and a young policeman standing next to her, and I told them that I am looking for David.  They said you mustn't come and tell us about that thug, he has killed somebody.  I said I don't care even if he has killed anyone but I just want to see him.  They showed me to a certain office and we went into 
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that office, and I looked at the time it was five to 12 then.  We spoke to another White man who was just sitting there dressed in uniform.  That I think was the station commander. He wanted to know are you David's wife?  I said yes.  He said you may sit down.  He wanted to know who was accompanying me.  I told him that this is my sister.  He said David is around but he's not here at the moment, he's been taken away by Oosthuizen.  I wanted to know where did Oosthuizen take him to, he said I don't know but he said he'll call Oosthuizen.  On the phone he said David's wife is here.  But I couldn't hear the response on the other line but I heard him answering when he said that the one of the bullet.  And then I told my sister I think they have shot him, and my sister believed that as well.  
 We left.  They said we should go to Central Prison.  When we got there they are trying to find Oosthuizen, they cannot locate him and some say they don't even know him.  It was three hours that they spent looking for Oosthuizen but they never found him.  A Black policeman came and he wanted to know what are we waiting for, we have been waiting for such a long time.  We told him that we are looking for Oosthuizen.  He told us no, he doesn't know Oosthuizen but he tried to find Oosthuizen.  When we wanted to give up he decided to find out from Verwoerdburg again and then they gave him the right number.  
 He phoned again and he said we must go down to Kerk Street and we went there.  We went into a dark strange building.  It's an old dilapidated building.  It had wooden floors.  We didn't know how to go about this building.  We went down the passage and as we approached a certain door we met somebody and we told them that we are looking for 
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Oosthuizen.  They said proceed to the back and we did that.  At the back yard we found some rooms, domestic servants' rooms.  There were many doors but the one door was closed and there we found White policemen who were not dressed in uniform but we could see that they were policemen because they had firearms with them.  When we appeared they wanted to know whether I am David's wife.  I said yes. 
 As I was looking on my side I saw two to three cells, but it seems like a strange deserted place.  We were scared but we went in.  They offered us some chairs and thereafter he sat down as well playing with a pen in his hands.  He said that I am happy that you came here because I was intending to call you.  He wanted to know how old was David and I told him.  He wanted to know how old am I, and I told him as well.  He wanted to know how many children do I have and I told him it's four children.  And he said to me, how old are your children, and I said to him they are very young.  And then he said your children should David go who will support these children?  I said where would David go?  He said what if another woman takes him?  I said no if he goes away with another woman he will still support his children.  I wanted to know what was David arrested for.  He said we arrested him at ten past three or ten to three on the freeway from Pretoria.  He was stealing a van that was delivering meat.  But I didn't want to tell them that I knew that they were lying, but I didn't want to alert them but I just wanted to know what did they do with him.  They said no we just arrested him.  They said he had held the van at gunpoint.  But David doesn't have a gun, but I wasn't telling this to them.  It was an inner thought.  
 Then I wanted to know where David is.  Then he said he 
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has run away.  But when I asked him where David is he said you had a handsome man.  He didn't say that you have a handsome man.  But then I asked him when you say that I had, where is he now?  He said he has run away.  He showed me a flat wall and he said that he jumped over this wall.  I said but he's very old and he can never be able to jump this wall.  But then he said he managed.  
 Then I told my sister that we must go.  I said to Oosthuizen I know that you have killed my husband, but at the end you will talk the truth.  We ran to the Johannesburg town centre and we went to some lawyers and we told them about this matter and that's when they investigated.  On their first call they said that the policemen said that he escaped in Mabopane.  But then they said that he escaped in Siyabuswa.  But then they said that they had left him with another policeman in the car and they were trying to go and find somebody else that they were looking for for some time but they decided to take him along, and on the way he decided to go to the toilet and they suggested that the other one must guard him while they go to look for this other person they were looking for, but they said that that was when he disappeared.  Then I became surprised that now it's Siyabuswa, it's not in Johannesburg again.
 They told me that they didn't find him guilty.  They were deciding to bring him home. That's what they are telling the lawyers.  They decided to take him to Siyabuswa to find this person and they forgot the fact that they said that he was not guilty and he's not supposed to be guarded because he's not guilty.  They even forgot the fact that they said that he held a vehicle at gunpoint.
 I went to Siyabuswa many times accompanied by many 
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people to see if we can find him.  When we got to Siyabuswa he was not in their OB.  He was not appearing on their OB.  We tried but we could not find him anywhere in Siyabuswa.  Time went on and I was even going there to Siyabuswa unaccompanied.  As I was driving there these cars were following me and you could see that they were trying to do something.  This car once before he chased me and I ran into the yard and that's when I decided that I rather use a car and not walk.  
 I went again to Siyabuswa.  I was accompanied by somebody else.  When we got there there was a lady in Siyabuswa, I think it was for the first time if I can remember clearly.  When we got there they said that this person escaped from this police station.  It's supposed to be reported here.  This girl wanted to know, are you looking for David?  She said that I know about David because Oosthuizen is my friend.  David ran away on his way to the toilet.  She said that he is appearing here, and when we opened the OB we found that his name was there, but you could see that his name was not originally on there, but all of a sudden his name was on that list.  We asked this lady, all the people here in the police station could not see this and how could you see this.  And she just said he's my friend, and she just disappeared.
 We came back again.  Immediately after his disappearance we also checked the mortuaries as well.  We went all over.  I went there again.  I was just searching, but I realised that they were following me and I was driving alone in the car.  As I went into the yard I was feeling frightened.  I just decided to open the gate abruptly and I left the car abruptly as well and went quickly inside the 
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yard and I greeted the old man inside the house.  I sat on a sofa next to the window, as I was sitting there after some time I decided to go to the bedroom.  When I decided to stand up the old man had just cracked a joke when I decided to laugh, but immediately a shot was fired. We were frightened and the old man thought that the policemen were there already.  We were all frightened.
 Thereafter I saw Borman and I told Borman that you have killed my husband and now you want to kill me.  You want to leave my children as orphans.  Even till today that bullet hole is still on my window pane.  Borman says that he knows nothing.  He doesn't even know what the policemen from Pretoria are looking for, and that was the end of it.
 After a few months a letter arrived.  They never came to look for me at home as somebody.  They never came to look for him as somebody who has escaped, but after seven months Black detectives came and they greeted us, and they just told us that they were just passing by, they wanted to know where David is.  I told them we don't know.  They said no we are just looking for him because we understand that he has disappeared.  But I was wondering now that he disappeared on the 3rd of November but you only come looking for him now, why didn't you come and look for him the same day?  Or perhaps to cross-question us as to whether we know about his whereabouts.  They told us that these White policemen know what they are doing.  They know where David is.  They realise now that they are being pressurised by the lawyers, that's why they decided to send us here after seven months.  And that was the last time I saw them.
 My last born loved her father very much and after some time she realised that there was some problems at home and 
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I think these affected her.