Amnesty Hearings — Johannesburg — 1998-08-04

MRS KLUKAS: Okay.  Having lived through ten years of thinking that nobody had come forward as to who had planted the bomb that killed my husband, I was shattered to hear that two people had applied for amnesty.  I cannot tell you what it did to me.  We were never kept informed by the last Government, in fact we received no help at all.  I am opposing the amnesty.  To you two people who have applied for amnesty I am sure none of you remember of that day.  The bomb blast did not happen at a military base or a police station, it was at a recreational event, a rugby stadium where innocent people were watching a rugby match.  I understand you were coming from - coming away - that how the blacks had been treated in the township and it was despicable and I can understand you wanting to get to the whites, but again - why a sports stadium?
	To me it's as if it happened yesterday.  That day will never be forgotten.  My husband, my children's father, went to watch a rugby match and never returned home.  We were at home, heard via the television that there had been a bomb at Ellis Park Stadium.  We worried when it got to about 7 p.m. and my husband was not home yet.  By 8 o'clock we started to panic.  I will never forget how I felt.  By then they had broadcast the numbers that you could contact the various hospitals to locate missing family members who had been present at the rugby.  We contacted all our family who came around and helped us phone hospitals trying to locate my husband.  My son who at that time was eighteen years old and my brother-in-law drove to Ellis Park Stadium to see if they could see his car.  We got no information from the police and one nursing sister at one of the hospitals suggested that my husband had gone drinking with friends.  Knowing my husband, I knew if that was the case he would have contacted me to tell me his movements.  	
	By midnight we managed to contact a high-ranking police officer who then told us that two people had been killed.  We waited for further information.  At about 3 a.m. the police phoned and asked someone to come down to identify my husband's watch which I did as my daughter had won it and given it to him.  They then asked if we would come to the mortuary.  I'm not going to go into details regarding identifying him as you can imagine how I felt by then.  I still don't know how we got through it.  
	My brother-in-law went in, he could not identify him.  At first they did not want me to go in.  They asked if there were any identifying marks on him that we could remember.  I remember that as a child he cut off his toe and the doctors had sewn it back half way down his foot.  I then went in as I had children at home waiting and I had to go home with the news for them.  He was unrecognisable - he had been murdered. 
	I would like you to know what sort of a person he was.  Firstly he was involved in no political party.  He did not have an enemy in the world.  He had a wonderful sense of humour, loved sport, worked hard all his life and he was not one of the fortunate ones born with a silver spoon in their mouths.  He was sent to boarding school at the age of eight as there was no English school in the area in which his family lived.  He only went home once a year by train as it was too far to go home for all the holidays.  Once he completed his school he moved to Johannesburg and tried to study while earning money working in a bar at night to pay for his expenses.  He was staying at the Y.M.C.A.  Eventually he gave that up and started working, starting at the bottom and working his way up the ladder by hard work and dedication.  We got married in 1963 and have two children.  His whole life was his family.  To me it has been a loss that I've never been able to get over.  The loneliness, the sadness, I can never try to tell anyone how hard it's been.  
	The effect this had on my children and myself, nobody will ever know.  It broke us.  I cannot and will not forgive you.  You murdered my husband and my children's father.  I believe at the end of the day you will have to answer to God.  For myself, I have a God who has never left my side.  I am grateful to have such strong faith so that I can sort this out with my God when it's finally over. 
	Reasons for setting the bomb at a civilian target are mindless.  Rugby is an international sport.  Two people died.  My husband was a true South African who treated all equally.  He had a keen sense of social responsibility and had friends across the colour spectrum.  He was at that time assisting financially to educate a Black minister through the Baptist Ministry.  In short, the bombing of Ellis Park resulted in the death of a person who could have contributed much to the developing of South Africa if he had been allowed to live.  How can such an unselective act of violence be condoned and how can any perpetrator of such a deed be commended or even hold a position in Public Service?
	In conclusion, I'm not a bitter person and I thank the Commission for allowing me to state my case.  Perhaps this is a message to the world.  To those who plan to target civilian victims - to target civilian venues, to maim and kill, just think of the innocent families and victims who have had to suffer consequences.  Such an act can never further the liberation of South Africa. 
	I look to my right and I see truth, full stop.  We have not heard the truth and may the truth be on your conscience.  Today I want to state that this book is going to be closed.  I don't want to talk about it again and I want to try and get on with my life.

ADV PRIOR: Mrs Klukas, is it correct that you have two other statements, one prepared by your daughter who was unable to attend today, who is presently in Zimbabwe and she requested that you present that statement to the Committee and who is the other one?

MRS KLUKAS: My son.

ADV PRIOR: And one from your son who is also unable to attend today.  They're very short statements Mr Chairman and with your leave I ask that she read them out onto the record?  I have copies.  Will you refer to Joanne May Staples first then later to Mr Kenneth Klukas, your son?