TESTIMONY_GIVER:
In1990 I was doing standard nine. I was just a supporter of the ANC, but I hadan organisation at my heart which is the South African Communist Party. Nowwhat happened in that year, in 1990, we were a group of youths, and then weformed a gospel group. It happened that one evening while we were still at thepractice - I think you must be aware that every group has a constitution. Wewere both girls and boys singing in this choir. And then every time we wouldmeet our parents to brief them about the activities of this gospel group, andthe parents would give us advices so that we cannot just be misled. While wewere still at Retsamagile School(?) we saw police coming in. There were twoguys who used to pester with girls every day. One day at 5 o'clock from thepractice these two guys were waiting at the gate, and they had knives with them,and they had another sort of weapon in their hand. And they said, "We want agirl." We told them we are not going to allow any member from our group to goout with boys because we have to escort them until they are home, and then theycan leave their homes on their own. They attacked us, these two gentlemen, butbecause we outnumbered them they tried to run away. We chased them and we managedto get one of them, and this one was involved in - he was supporting this othergentleman who wanted a girl. We didn't have any dangerous weapons, we were bare-handed.We grabbed him and then he - our aim was to take him to our parents, becausehe also stayed in our area, so we wanted the parents to ask him why did he supporthis friend. We caught him at a place between Section C and Section W. Now, whilewe were passing a place called Simpowani - it was past seven to six, and thenwe heard a Hippo coming behind. And we did not run because we knew we were innocentbecause we only had this person in our company, we wanted to take him to theparents so that the parents can talk to him. The police arrived and they stopped.When they got out of their car they were pointing their guns at us. They askedwhat happened. We explained everything to them. They insulted us. They said,"You Comrades, you've decided to take our jobs now. We are going to show you,"and they threw us into the Hippo. We were so many, but we could all fit intothe Hippo. On our way we were trying to explain to them what happened, but theyassaulted us. They let us put our hands on the chair, and they took an emptybottle of cool drink and they started hitting us on the fingers. They had bottlesof beer in the Hippo and they were drinking. They took us to Section H. Thepolicemen on duty would take turns hitting us. We drove with them until we wentto the police station at Botshabelo C Section. The Hippo stopped. They couldn'tlet us out of the Hippo as normal people. They escorted us and they took theirguns and they hit us with the back of their guns. They took us into the policestation, and we thought that they would take us to the cells. No, they didn'ttake us to the cells, but they took us to a room called Room 13 ... (incomplete- end of Side B, Tape 8) ... to assault us. While standing against a wall theywould pull us. They continually assaulted us, tramping on our bodies, and theywere insulting us, telling us that our mothers are bitches and they will onlyfeel where they are asleep that we are in trouble. They took something and theystarted assaulting us with that. When we tried to stop they would use their heels to trample your hands, and I felt that it wasso heavy on me. They would let us stand up, and took our penis from behind andthey would hit us with something, and we couldn't identify. You can imagineyourself, you don't see this person assaulting you. I was clever enough to takea look at them, and at one stage they decided to take a look at us, and twoof the policemen were assaulting us. It was a violent area, and they have beenevicted from their houses, and I told them, I said, "Please, can you pleasetake me home because I am not feeling well." It was to 12 in the evening, andI said to them, "Take me home so that I can take my medication." I continuallyasked them, but they refused. But one of their surgeons came and said, "Takethis gentleman home so that he can take his medication." They first took roundsin the township, and while doing that they were continually beating me, andthey didn't want to listen to anything I was trying to tell them. It was atnight and I couldn't identify the section. We drove past Simpowani again untilwe reached our section. You know, I wanted to run away. I said to myself, "Shouldthey make mistake I am going to run away," but one of them said, "If you cantry to run away we are going to shoot you." We had a dog at home, and I flutedso that my dog could realise it was me, and I got into the house, I took mytablets. They escorted me, but I could manage to write down a note. And I saidto them, "Gentlemen, there is a key that my sister puts here," and I knew thatmy sister wakes up very early in the morning, and I took the key that I hadwith me, I put it on top of the note and I left it there. When I arrived atthe police station my friends were so badly assaulted. I remember one old man who was inour company. He wasn't actually our group member, but they hit him until heurinated on himself. Some of our officials from the choir were not arrested,and they managed to go home to report to our parents that we had been arrested.They went to the school to fetch my father. He went together with them to thepolice station, and we were told that we would write statements. My hand wasso swollen, and I said to them, "Look what you have done to me." They said,"We don't take care." We opened a case at the police station at Botshabelo,but we don't know what happened to those charges we laid.