Human Rights Violation Hearings — Umtata — 1996-06-19

MEMBER OF PANEL: Mr Chairperson, I woul dlike to call Mr Mkhangeli Matomela to the stand, please.

CHAIRPERSON: We would like to do that, because the one who is going to guide her is going to leave.
 Mr Matomela, what is your clan name, please?

MKHANGELI MATOMELA: I come from the Bele clan name.

CHAIRPERSON: Bele, I would like to welcome you.  Before I ask you to take the oath, you have been listening this morning and yesterday when we were talking about the violation of people's human rights, especially by the governments that we had here before. You will also come with your own story that we are going to listen to.  We are going to listen to it very carefully because our aim for listening to the stories is that the perpetrators, especially those people who had the power and authority, they must know that when they do things like this, they are not going to be swept under the carpet.  They will be exposed again.  They will be talked about. I am going to ask you again to please tell us your full story.  We will - if there is anything that you would like us to take very close notice of, please mention them.  I am going to ask you to take the oath now.  Please stand.

MKHANGELI MATOMELA: (Duly sworn, states).

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.  Yasmin Sooka?
UMTATA HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
2 M MATOMELA

YASMINE SOOKA: Will you put on the ear-phones or can you understand me in English?

MKHANGELI MATOMELA: I understand you.

YASMINE SOOKA: Before you begin to tell us your story, I would like you to tell us a little bit about yourself, whether you are a member of a political organisation, what were you doing at the time of this incident. Just a little bit of background about yourself.

MKHANGELI MATOMELA: Firstly, thank you very much for the opportunity that the Commission has given me.  My first involvement with the politics started when I was a student here at Unitra in 1980.  There was a strike here at the time at Unitra.  Then after that on the 8th of August 1980, then I was detained by the police.  They came at midnight.  I was detained that night. I stayed for two weeks in detention.  They took my tape-recorders and my cassettes.  The ANC speeches that I used to record from Radio Freedom at the time and some political books and other literature, all political.  They confiscated all that.
 Then after that during the time that I was still in detention, I was in solitary confinement. I was not allowed to speak to anyone.  But I was helped by some political prisoners like Mtgoniwe and others.  They really helped us a lot.  In order that we could get things like newspapers and other political matters.  
 At that time I was really involved in ANC matters.

YASMINE SOOKA: Can I ask you, were you involved in the unrest at the university and was that why you were detained?

MKHANGELI MATOMELA: Well, not directly. I was involved, because I was also involved in the smaller groups of discussions that we used to have, all political discussions, which all
UMTATA HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
3 M MATOMELA
happened here on campus.
 Now because I was a political studies student, we used to have these political discussions.  That is how I was involved.  
 After I was released from detention I got ill-treatment at work.  At the time I was working at the Post Office.  There was a certain amount that I was supposed to receive in April 1980.  At the time I was on sick leave.  We were supposed to write and report where we are supposed to be on sick leave.  So I told them that I will be in "Nxuxul" village.  I heard that I have been raided, but I was not there, I was not at home.  So the person who was at home then told them where I was.
 At the time I was earning R162,00.  My whole salary was deducted, I was only left with R51,00 but I refused to take it.  So I didn't get the rest of the money until today.

YASMINE SOOKA: (Speaker's mike not on) ... the important things about your story, is the torture that you were subjected to while you were being detained.  Can you go back to that part, please, and tell us very slowly about the ways in which you were tortured.

MKHANGELI MATOMELA: I am not going to go back, I am going to go forward because I was detained again. I was not tortured in 1980, I was only asked questions.
 So in 1981 the same month that I was detained last year, the previous year, it was in August again.  Then I was detained again.  Now this time I was sent to Norwood. From thereon, the same day I was taken to Butterworth and taken to the security police offices.  There were lots of policemen there from the Transkei police service. They asked me questions about my political involvements.  They asked me UMTATA HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
4 M MATOMELA
about the political literature that I had and other guerillas.  If I would give them an answer that wouldn't satisfy them, they would start torturing me. They would punch me, kick me and burn me with the stumps of cigarettes.  That used to happen for hours. But I would only get a short breaks.   
 Then around eleven at night, I was taken to a bigger police station.  That's where I stayed for two weeks.  Now in the Idutywa(?) police station, the conditions were terrible.  The windows of the cell were broken, it was very cold and at that time it was August, so you can imagine.  I had no water to drink. I had no water to wash.  For the whole two weeks I never washed.  There was one toilet that I could flush.  If you wanted to drink, you would have to flush the toilet and then drink that water.  That's the kind of condition that I stayed under.
 Now what helped me the most when I was in Idutywa police station was Peter King's condition, who was from Ndabakuzi. He was an elderly man, he was around 56 years old. He was severely beaten by the police.  Such that I thought nothing had been done to me compared to him.  You could see black scars.  You could see that there were blotches of cigarette stumps.  For the whole week, the whole night, he was in pain and nobody was taking him to hospital. They didn't want the doctors to see him in that condition.  Especially because his whole body was swollen.  
 Now I was taken at the end of the second week by the police, the Transkeian police.  They took me to Butterworth.  When I got to Butterworth, I found two White policemen and another Black one.  Apparently they were from East London. They tried to call my name and they were pronouncing it 
UMTATA HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
5 M MATOMELA
wrongly, my person name Mkhangeli. But I don't remember who was the head of the police at the time.  I can't remember his name.  Then I was handcuffed. I was taken by this Black policeman and I was put with him at the back of the van. So we were taken to East London.
 That night they didn't do anything to me.  Now the following morning I was taken to Cambridge.  In the offices of the security police.  The first thing they did was to give me a paper to write anything that I know about politics.  So I did.  One of the White men looked at it and simply tore it up and threw it into the dust-bin and they started beating me again. They kicked me, they punched me, they slapped my face. At the time I was sitting on a table.  They put me right on the floor. I was still handcuffed.  They brought a sack, a plastic sack with water, which was mentioned before.  I was also put into this sack by my head. I tried to struggle.  After some time they would say to me tell us, tell us more.  If they are not satisfied with your answer they will put you back again, put more water in the sack.  This went on for - there would just be short breaks.  During those breaks you would be beaten up, you would be punched, you would be kicked.  They would leave me here and go and have some lunch.  When they came back after lunch, this used to happen in the Cambridge offices.

YASMINE SOOKA: (Speaker's mike not on).