Human Rights Violation Hearings

CASE NO: CT/00368

VICTIM: ZO-MARIUS BOCKS

NATURE OF VIOLENCE: TORTURE BY POLICE & DETENTION

TESTIMONY BY: ZO-MARIUS BOCKS

MS BURTON

Welcome, Mr Bocks before we begin, we welcome the members of the public back again to our afternoon hearing and we particularly would welcome Father Peter Rhodes, who has joined us - very nice to have you and to have had your support in the preparations for our hearings over these past weeks.

Mr Bocks, can you - are you going to use the headsets or are you comfortable in English?

MR BOCKS

Going to speak Afrikaans or English.

MS BURTON

Denzil, are you going to ask questions in Afrikaans. Okay, right Mr Bocks, will you stand to take the oath. Thank you.

ZO-MARIUS BOCKS Duly sworn states

MS BURTON

Adv Potgieter is going to lead your evidence.

ADV POTGIETER

Thank you, Mary, good afternoon Marius - Zo-Marius. I hope you’re comfortable there.

MR BOCKS

Yes, I am - I’m happy.

ADV POTGIETER

You’re most welcome here. I know you’re from Carnarvon, is that correct?

MR BOCKS

Yes.

ADV POTGIETER

Yes, I think you have to pull the microphone closer, so we can hear you clearly.

MR BOCKS

Yes, I am from Carnarvon.

ADV POTGIETER

Tell us, what do you do?

MR BOCKS

I finished my studies last year in Business Management, I’m trying to find a work, I’m working at a very small shop as a bookkeeper - a stock controller.

ADV POTGIETER

As bookkeeper you say?

MR BOCKS

Yes.

ADV POTGIETER

Is that in Carnarvon?

MR BOCKS

Yes, that is in Carnarvon.

ADV POTGIETER

So you say you’ve done a diploma at the Peninsula Technikon.

MR BOCKS

Yes, in Business Management, yes.

ADV POTGIETER

Have you completed it?

MR BOCKS

No - no, I still owe a subject.

ADV POTGIETER

So you still have to complete?

MR BOCKS

Yes, that is correct, I still need to complete my studies.

ADV POTGIETER

What is your status, are you married or unmarried?

MR BOCKS

I’m unmarried.

ADV POTGIETER

Any dependence - any dependence?

MR BOCKS

Yes, I have a son.

ADV POTGIETER

How old is he?

MR BOCKS

7 years.

ADV POTGIETER

Your story takes us back to 1986, on 16 July ’86.

MR BOCKS

Yes, that is correct.

ADV POTGIETER

You were still at school then?

MR BOCKS

That’s correct.

ADV POTGIETER

Where were you at school?

MR BOCKS

I was at the Carnarvon Senior Secondary School.

ADV POTGIETER

What standard were you in ’86?

MR BOCKS

I was in Std 9.

ADV POTGIETER

Std 9?

MR BOCKS

That’s correct.

ADV POTGIETER

What positions did you hold at school?

MR BOCKS

I was on the Prefect Council - I was part of that Council of Prefects.

ADV POTGIETER

Oh, so it’s not quite an SRC but is it almost the same structure?

MR BOCKS

Yes, more or less the same but the status is a bit lower than SRC status.

CHAIRPERSON

[indistinct]

ADV POTGIETER

As I say they have a bit of a stigma - bit of a air about them, but is this the leading body that showed leadership in terms of students?

MR BOCKS

Yes, that’s correct.

ADV POTGIETER

Now, lets go back to that day, in ’86, the 16th of July. What happened?

MR BOCKS

It was just after a break and I was in my English lecture room with Mr Mohale. Then the Security Police arrived, Mr Du Toit and a Kriel - and a Mr Kriel - and a person that I don’t know - I think it was Sergeant Moodie - something like that. I’m not quite sure about the name but I think that is what it is.

ADV POTGIETER

So was he also a Security Police?

MR BOCKS

Yes.

ADV POTGIETER

The Du Toit guy you referred to, is he also a Security Police?

MR BOCKS

Yes he was head - he was head.

ADV POTGIETER

So they arrived at school, did they come to you?

MR BOCKS

Yes, they came to the classroom and they were looking for me. I can gather that it was because of a meeting that I’ve chaired. It was a meeting on students that were detained before the 16th of June.

Now we wanted to plan to halt the school activities since some of our leaders have been detained without good reason. So obviously that led to them bringing to - coming - to the school and they saw me as a kind of a instigator and obviously they wanted to stop me from intervening in school affairs.

Slogans were written on our walls and, of cause, there were also a case of students setting a office alight and that all led to intimidation and resulted in the slogans on the wall. They then took me - the police - to the shooting range - the shooting range.

ADV POTGIETER

Now, where is the shooting range - in town, out of town?

MR BOCKS

About 2 km out of town.

ADV POTGIETER

Is it very silent there - is it a quiet spot?

MR BOCKS

Yes, it is a very quiet spot. Only people there, in the immediate vicinity, would know what’s happening.

ADV POTGIETER

So they took you there, in the outskirts of town. What happened there?

MR BOCKS

They took me there - they tied me to a pole.

ADV POTGIETER

With what did they tie you up?

MR BOCKS

No, they chained me, then they got hold of some bags and they’ve pulled that over my neck - they wetted the bags, pulled it over - and then they tied it close with a rope. And now I had the situation it’s a wet bag - they hit me - I yelled - they yell at me - the people mistreating me like this were Du Toit, Kriel and this Moodie guy.

This went on - this treatment went on a considerable time - and at some stage I lost my consciousness and they - but they carried on hitting me - assaulting me. At some stages I was not even experiencing it, I just had this awareness that I was hit by a baton. Then they would refresh the bag and re-pull it over my head.

ADV POTGIETER

And you are tied up all this time? Where, your hands and feet?

MR BOCKS

Yes, both hands and feet - I was tied up. In the beginning they also shot at me while my face was covered. I couldn’t see whether they were actually doing it, but I heard the shots - I - and I gathered that they were shooting at me. After regaining my consciousness I heard a dog - how the dog came there, I don’t know.

I don’t know whether they’ve planned this or what happened but I saw them planning to tie my private parts to fish line and they would - they planned to tie this line to the doorknob so that if somebody closes the door, so I would have to move forward and if I would move forward, the dog will bite me. I don’t know what went

- got into them.

They must have been crazy and this is what they’ve planned, but instead of them pulling this through, they decided not to continue with that - they, to the contrary, decided to rather tie me up again and start assaulting me again. I don’t know what made them do that. They went on for a long time again - up to five o’clock, I think, that afternoon.

So the time I came back to the cells, we received our food - usually the food were dished out about six o’clock.

ADV POTGIETER

So for the whole day you were at the shooting range?

MR BOCKS

For the whole day, from about 10 o’clock - tot - to about 5 o’clock I was at the shooting range.

ADV POTGIETER

Were you assaulted the whole time there at the shooting range?

MR BOCKS

Yes, that’s correct.

ADV POTGIETER

And you had this bag over you all the time there.

MR BOCKS

Yes, that’s true.

ADV POTGIETER

Did they question you - interrogate you?

MR BOCKS

Well, it was quite simple questions. They wanted to know about my friends, for instance this teacher that had an influence on me. They wanted to know whether he was an instigator and whether he caused all the riots at school and he - he - wanted to know about Gerald - friends like these, what influence they’ve had on us. And they wanted to have all this information regarding these people. They were detained, a lot of them. They also wanted to know what caused the fire.

ADV POTGIETER

So the interrogation was a - about the events at the school - they wanted to know more about that?

MR BOCKS

That’s right.

ADV POTGIETER

Did you refuse to answer they’re questions. What was your attitude?

MR BOCKS

I was quite arrogant, later on I could actually not even feel them hitting me, and I just decided I’m not going to leave my friends in alert. I don’t want to - want them - to be hurt. And I was actually stead fast in what I did.

ADV POTGIETER

So because of your attitude, you were actually assaulted even more - that resulted in that?

MR BOCKS

That’s correct - yes that’s correct.

ADV POTGIETER

So later on they took you to the cells in Carnarvon and tell us what happened then.

MR BOCKS

When we - got - got - came to the cells, I met some other friends there. Wesley, for instance, was one of the people that gave me information. Eshelle Andrias was also detained at the same time that I was captured. They took him in a blue Ford car, I was taken in a bakkie. Now these friends were there - they were left alone and they only wanted information from them, but they look me, instead, and I was kept in a cell. About a month in - in the cell in Carnarvon and then I was transferred to Williston.

ADV POTGIETER

So you were kept for about a month in the cells -in the Police cells - in Carnarvon?

MR BOCKS

Yes.

ADV POTGIETER

Did they interrogate you even further.

MR BOCKS

No.

ADV POTGIETER

So you were just locked up?

MR BOCKS

Yes, I was just locked up.

ADV POTGIETER

Did they tell you what they did - to you - that you were detained? Did they give you reasons?

MR BOCKS

Du Toit came there each weekend and then they would tell us something about a Fourteen-Days-Detention Law and I was later on transferred to Rooihel at Williston and it was - we were always kept for a period of fourteen days and they notified us - with regard to that.

ADV POTGIETER

So you say from Carnarvon you were transferred to Williston. How long did they detain you there?

MR BOCKS

Also for a month.

ADV POTGIETER

And from Williston, where were you transferred then?

MR BOCKS

I was transferred to George.

ADV POTGIETER

How was you - long was you detained there?

MR BOCKS

Also a month.

ADV POTGIETER

And when were you released?

MR BOCKS

It must have been towards the end of October - I can’t remember the exact date. I know the exams have been completed and the schools have reopened when we have returned.

ADV POTGIETER

So you were detained from 16 July 1986 and released at the end of October ’86.

MR BOCKS

Yes.

ADV POTGIETER

And after the events at the shooting range, were you ever interrogated again?

MR BOCKS

No, not again.

ADV POTGIETER

So, they’ve just locked you up?

MR BOCKS

Yes, they just locked me up.

ADV POTGIETER

And they left you there?

MR BOCKS

Yes.

ADV POTGIETER

Were you all - were you convicted on anything?

MR BOCKS

No.

ADV POTGIETER

Did they ever give you a reason for your detention?

MR BOCKS

No, no reason. I was assaulted and locked up and they treated me the way they saw fit.

ADV POTGIETER

And as far as you are concerned, why were you locked up? What did you do wrong?

MR BOCKS

I think it was part of intimidation. I think it’s because they saw me as a intimidator, trying to close the school, because we demanded that the students, that were released, be - that’s been detained be released before we went on with the school. And I think it’s because of that.

ADV POTGIETER

How old were you then?

MR BOCKS

18.

ADV POTGIETER

What is the impact of this incident on you?

MR BOCKS

To be honest, I’ve entered the course for Business Management but I have really problems studying. It might be all the hitting on my head - I don’t want to make excuses - I wasn’t that bright at school but the point is now I really battle to concentrate. I find it very difficult - I really battled last year - I struggled.

I prepare myself, I study but some days I just give the impression that I might be lazy, because I just don’t have a focus. It’s although I go blank and I can’t remember anything. Last year I’ve had a operation to my knee. I’m a [indistinct] , there I asked the doctors to try and establish whether I’ve lie - low or high blood pressure because I wanted to determine the reason for all this. I’m usually very dizzy when I get up, you know.

ADV POTGIETER

Now, before the incident how was your health?

MR BOCKS

I was at the doctor once before in my life - when my tonsils were removed. So I’m - I’m - very healthy actually.

ADV POTGIETER

You’ve given us evidence that they treated you with this bag - this wet bag over your face. Do you have any effects of that - what happens if you close yourself with a blanket, for instance?

MR BOCKS

If a duvet or a blanket - if I have to live in a - lie under it and I feel it on my neck, then I - I - feel smothered and I get very tense. So I have to lie on my stomach, for instance.

ADV POTGIETER

So if you pull the blanket up to high then you have the feeling that you’ll be uncomfortable?

MR BOCKS

Yes, that’s correct.

ADV POTGIETER

Does this all happen after the incident?

MR BOCKS

Yes.

ADV POTGIETER

How do you feel today about the incident? I mean they’ve just left you there for a few months.

MR BOCKS

I’d like to put a question to the panel [indistinct] and is it for me - is it okay from my side it’s impossible, and honestly to you, it’s impossible for me to reconcile with someone, today, who’s still in the Force, still influence people.

And the end of the day I must go back to these people, reconcile with someone. Is there not a possibility that the Commission can do something so that that people can be, at lease, removed form their positions?

ADV POTGIETER

All 3 Police Officers, are they still serving in Carnarvon?

MR BOCKS

I don’t - I’m not quite sure where Du Toit is - I think one of them is at Beaufort. The other one, Kriel - you know the Government went so far that they’ve actually - they did post him to - Carnarvon as well, again.

ADV POTGIETER

So he actually was promoted? That’s what you’re saying ?

MR BOCKS

Yes, yes.

ADV POTGIETER

Anything else that you’d like to add to your evidence? Any - anything that you’d like to add?

MR BOCKS

No, actually not - I just hope that the panel will give attention to what I’ve put to them. You know, many things happened [indistinct] in the Forces. They can influence someone else to do that - at lease please remove them from the Forces. How could I reconcile with someone at the end of the day , who’s on top of me.

If I can make an example of - if I can make an example of Biskop. My Biskop - his a Biskop of my church, sorry, he will divide your congregation - he will - and lets say he brakes up the congregation, how can I reconcile with such a person? So that person will have to reconcile.

ADV POTGIETER

Did you make - did you lay a charge at any stage?

MR BOCKS

The Deputy of the Police Station, Attie Kriel - Attie Kriel - took reports. I don’t hate him - he’s a very ordinary person today and he was paid off, apparently because of alleged crime - alleged robbery, but the statements he took from us he never took forward anyway. He is just a ordinary till man in our town today. So - so - our cases were not followed up at all.

ADV POTGIETER

Marius, we thank you.

CHAIRPERSON

Any questions, Dr Ramashala?

DR RAMASHALA

Mr Marius, you say that you suffer from dizziness?

MR BOCKS

Yes.

DR RAMASHALA

And you’ve had medical assessment done?

MR BOCKS

Yes.

DR RAMASHALA

And what did the doctors say?

MR BOCKS

No, sorry I told - I tell a lie. What happened is like - I went to the doctor at that stage, Dr Neeht. Today he is not in my home town, but what happened he only give me pills for my kidney cyst - the only way - I told him everything what happened with me, but unfortunately he’s just taking it cool because it’s his brothers who done that to me.

DR RAMASHALA

And you still suffer dizziness today?

MR BOCKS

Today still and had have even a problem with my kidneys because laying on the floor, that side.

DR RAMASHALA

Okay, thank you.

ADV POTGIETER

Any other questions?

CHAIRPERSON

Thank you, Zo-Marius. We’ve said that many of you young people made a large contribution significant to the liberation of our country. Many of you are victims and maybe if it helps you what you’ve suffered there - those years - actually have helped to bring us to this point in our history where we are a country busting a democratic system.

I don’t know whether it helps to levitate the pain you know, if you think back like this, you can say at leased that it was not in vain because we are now experiencing the fruit of you efforts. Now and then we need to remark that many of our young people have not enjoyed their youth and they had to participate in this struggle in the way - like the people like you have had to do it. But we want to thank you, we also need to say that we have to remind ourselves that a very high price was paid for our freedom and we must not waist our freedom easily. We thank you.