Human Rights Violation Hearings — Worcester — 1996-06-26

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: When was your case?

MZIKHAYA MKHABILE: They said we won't take statements without lawyers.  We asked them about these lawyers and they said they were lawyers of the Judge.  We tried to accept what they were saying.  One of the lawyers name was Keith who was sent from Cape Town, that's what he informed us.  He was a Coloured guy and there were people around us who knew him so we took him as our lawyer so he was there for us.  
 The third one was charged, he received 12 years imprisonment and two were discharged.  We were taken to jail and we slept there.  The following morning we were given shorts to wear and we were taken to the docks.  We were handcuffed arm to arm and leg to leg and then we were severely beaten.  After we arrived in the docks we were handed over to the Robben Island police and put into a boat.  When we reached there we were severely beaten again.  When we arrived in the prison we had to take off the clothes which we were given in Paarl and we were given others.  We got tickets as well.  
 The following day we were deployed.  There were Boers by the names of Kleynhans and van der Berg who beat us severely and mercilessly.  I received this scar on top of my eye from van der Berg as well as the scar on my head.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Sorry, you spoke of a scar on top of your eye, who beat you there because it is visible?

MZIKHAYA MKHABILE: Kleynhans and van der Berg were the ones.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: And the one on top of your mouth, was that van der Berg?

MZIKHAYA MKHABILE: Yes, as there were many of them I couldn't identify them but the one who beat me severely was van der Berg.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Could you please show us the scar.

MZIKHAYA MKHABILE: The scar is visible.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Are you trying to say that these people were beating you and which object did they use?

MZIKHAYA MKHABILE: They used big knopkierries.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Can you tell us how you were tortured and assaulted while you were at Robben Island?

MZIKHAYA MKHABILE: Will you excuse me?  By the time I arrived at Robben Island we were given clothes and we were deployed around the police station.  All the new arrivals were under the command of Pieter Kleynhans.  Pieter Kleynhans was in charge of the field known as Langbou.  Under the guard of Kleynhans we took wheelbarrows with iron wheels and we had to dig until white sand appeared and then we had to plant plants there.  
 Pieter said that he wanted all the drivers to come forward, some did and he showed them the Robben Island lorries.  We took our wheelbarrows and our spades and we worked there.  We were beaten while we were working.  We came back in the late afternoon and the following day it was back to work again.  
 A group came from Pretoria who were also deployed under this same boss and we told them that this place is only for tough guys not just for the ordinary person as it's very difficult to work here.  One of the guys had blisters on his hands and I tried to help him but unfortunately I was noticed by the supervisors who were with us.  I was busy pushing the wheelbarrow and I heard them saying here he is.  
 They beat me on my head with a big knopkierrie, I fell on my mouth and when I tried to get up they beat me again, twice in the waist and my other leg felt numb.  They told me to put the wheelbarrow aside which I tried to do and they told me to come with them.  The supervisors then came along with spades.  Pieter Kleynhans handcuffed me.
 They dug a grave and with my hands behind my back they put me in this grave with only my head sticking out.  They tried to close the grave.  He took his knopkierrie and pushed it into my penis, then he urinated into my mouth and I swallowed the urine.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: Are you trying to tell us it was because you couldn't accept the urine with your nostrils?

MZIKHAYA MKHABILE: Yes, he wiped his penis on my face and closed his zip again.  I was then taken out of the grave feeling dizzy and nauseous.  They told me to push to wheelbarrow which I did.  He beat severely and mercilessly again saying that it's the law.  They said to me I can push the wheelbarrow against another one if someone else is too slow. 
 They tried to beat me in my ribs and as the time went on the paid was killing me.  As we were digging this white sand I developed wound and blisters all over my legs and my body was full of scars.  We received no treatment or medication for this.  While a person digs this white sand the stones cut you and you are left with scars which turned septic as we only washed on Saturdays.  I don't whether I can show you where my scar is.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: It's up to you if you want to show us.

MZIKHAYA MKHABILE: Here are these scars.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: So you had to sleep with your wounds and your sores that emerged as a result of this treatment?

MZIKHAYA MKHABILE: I never received treatment for any of these wounds, never.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: I ask you to explain this to the people who can't see so that they know exactly how you came by these wounds.  Please explain to me how you came by these wounds because the people who are listening here cannot actually see the wounds that you have shown me on the stage. He's showing us the wounds that he got from Robben Island when he was severely injured and the bruises that were not treated.  You may carry on.

MZIKHAYA MKHABILE: I then went on and was still being beaten by someone called van der Berg.  By this time I was completely deaf in my one ear but the other one was still managing to hear somewhat.  This other ear of mine hears a little.  
 When we came out of the gate van der Berg who was in charge at that time would take the team out with our shoes.  He beat me again on my face and I fell down but I got up again and followed the others.  All day I was not able to really understand what was going on I was simply observing as I was dazed from the beating that I'd received from this van der Berg.
 We were sentenced to not eating on a Sunday as a punishment and we were not able to shave or to wash or cut our hair or anything like that.  We didn't see any food on that Sunday.  Kleynhans and van der Berg asked me what I was looking at when I looked at those people.  They wanted me to take out a ticket and I was not able to eat, they said to me you will not eat on Sunday.
 There was a chief there by the name of Theron.  All that Sunday we didn't eat, we got thinner and thinner and thinner and weaker.  Another group arrived from East London and we wanted that group to also be part of the struggle and a strike against these conditions on the Island.  After a while we went on a hunger strike in order to protest our conditions.  This hunger strike was because we wanted the food that was actually edible as we thought that we would just leave this food that we were getting.
 We wanted Verwoerd himself come and answer two questions, are we political prisoners or are we prisoners, this is what we wanted Verwoerd to answer.  We were on hunger strike for two weeks and then the supervisor of the jail asked for a few persons to come and talk to him and we were told that the leaders that had caused these disturbances would be locked up in jail.
 We said we would be treated differently when we were not criminals, we were political prisoners so I'll stay on that point.  Things went on in that way until 1975 when I was released.

MS GOBODO-MADIKIZELA: We thank you very much.  I would like to ask you a few questions firstly, are there any people that you can remember by name of those who were arrested within Paarl?