Rehana Rossouw
THE failure of some magistrates and members of
the medical profession to assist victims of
human rights abuses emerged as a theme in the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Western
Cape hearings this week.
The family of Looksmart Ngudle, a journalist
and Umkhonto weSizwe operative who died in
detention in September 1963, testified that
they did not believe a police account that he
committed suicide.
Although a district surgeon who conducted a
post mortem for the state had found no
evidence of ill-treatment or injuries on
Ngudle’s body, the TRC heard evidence that he
had been tortured. Corroborating witness,
Senator Christmas Tinto, who had been detained
at the Caledon Square police station while
Ngudle was interrogated there, said he heard
policemen celebrating one evening. “They were
saying, ‘We got Looksmart’. I don’t even think
they knew his surname.”
Tinto said he had seen security police beating
Ngudle and named two of them as Sergeant
Spyker van Wyk and a Sergeant Greeff. “I was
in a cell directly facing a flight of stairs.
The security policemen came rushing up with
him, kicking him and beating him as they
climbed the stairs.
“They pulled out his beard on half of his face
and he was bleeding heavily from his mouth. My
cell was opened and they threw him in. They
were surprised to see another person in there
and pulled him out. During that short period
Sergeant Greeff and Sergeant Van Wyk were
beating him up.”
Ngudle was transferred to Pretoria and was
visited on three occasions by a magistrate and
an interpreter. On the third visit he
complained that he had been assaulted and had
coughed up blood as a result. He died the next
day.
Isaac Rani, who had been kidnapped in the
then-Rhodesia and brought to South Africa to
face charges of leaving the country without a
passport, told the commission he had been
beaten by the police until he vomited blood.
A doctor came to see him while he was in
detention, but he did not expect the doctor to
help him as he would probably have been killed
if he did.
“I was tortured and beaten up for three days.
The doctor came and said there was nothing he
could do for me. He told me I only have a
month to live,” Rani said.
Nomakula Zweni, who testified that she had
been assaulted by police in 1960 during the
pass law protests and again in 1976 during the
student uprising, told the TRC she couldn’t go
to hospital for treatment “because we would be
identified as rioters”.
Her husband was shot in the shoulder at the
Langa anti-pass protest on March 21 1960, and
she removed the bullet herself. After she was
severely beaten in 1976, she also treated
herself. “My face was swollen, every part of
me was swollen. Nobody takes you to the
hospital because then you just get beaten
again. The best thing is just to treat
yourself in your own house,” Zweni said during
her testimony, during which she broke down in
tears several times.
Margeret Titus told the commission how her son
Johannes had been shot in the stomach by
police in 1976. He was hospitalised for a year
and had nine operations to close the gaping
hole in his stomach. Johannes lifted his shirt
during the hearing to show the concave hollow
in his stomach.
“Before Johannes was released from hospital
the police came there and said he must go to
Pollsmoor (Prison). The doctor said he was too
sick to go. After he was released we got a
subpoena for court. The magistrate said he had
already been punished, he didn’t need further
punishment.”
Titus said she was not sure what the charges
were against Johannes. He had been on his way
to buy fish and chips for his siblings when he
was shot, and she was told there was no
rioting in the street where he had been
walking. The policeman responsible had come to
her house afterwards to apologise, but she
could not remember his name.
Nomvuyo Zantsi, whose brother Sonny Boy (15)
was shot and killed by police in September
1976, said her father had attended the inquest
into his death at the Wynberg Magistrate’s
Court. “He came back and told us nobody was to
blame. The magistrate said the kids threw
stones at the police. It really affected my
father mentally. Why did they have to shoot as
much as that? Why didn’t they just arrest the
boys instead of killing them?”
Sisana Maphalane told the commission she did
not take legal action against the police when
her 15-year-old son was shot dead by police.
“They will just say the children were throwing
stones and there won’t be any case.”
Edward Juqu, whose son Fuzile was shot and
killed by police, told the TRC how rudely he
was treated by Salt River mortuary staff when
he went to look for his son there after he did
not come home one night.
Juqu had gone to three hospitals and had
searched wards before going to the mortuary.
“My son had been shot, and no one came to tell
me he was at the mortuary. When I got there
they tried to chase me away, they said I was
wasting their time. They told me to sit down.
Then I saw him lying there on his stomach. His
whole back was covered in bullet holes.” Juqu
became increasingly emotional as he told of
his search. Abruptly, he refused to say more.
“My heart is broken,” was all he would say.