ADV POTGIETER
I just want to make sure that you can hear over the headphones so if you do hear you can just indicate that you can hear over the headphones, please.
MR YANTA
Yes, I can hear you.
ADV POTGIETER
I want to administer an oath to you, so I’m going to ask you to please stand to take the oath.
MATTHEW SINDILE YANTA Duly sworn states
ADV POTGIETER
Dr Ramashala will assist you in giving your evidence and I hand back to her.
DR RAMASHALA
Good morning Mr Yanta.
MR YANTA
Good morning.
DR RAMASHALA
You were arrested in June of 1986, was that?
MR YANTA
Yes.
DR RAMASHALA
Could you tell us what happened prior to that up to the point where you got arrested and describe what happened to you when you were detained, thank you.
MR YANTA
In 1986, in June, I was coming from George, coming to Maritzburg and I arrived there on a Tuesday. And I was arrested on the Wednesday at 5 o’clock in the afternoon and I was with my cousin, Nelson Bonase.
Policemen came in a hippo - and they said they wanted to ask us something so I asked them why they couldn’t ask us where we were and they said no they want us to go down. So they put us all into the hippo and we drove down to the police station and there they took out a list of names of people and - and inquired from me whether I knew these people.
Then I said no I didn’t know them because I had just come there, then one policeman said - he wanted to see me aside and he took me to a small office and he again said - asked me about the people and I told him I didn’t know these people and he left me there.
He brought two others and there were three of them. One of the policemen said I was taking time to talk and I was certainly going to tell the truth. One policeman took - kicked me here on the leg with a boot - boot and I ran towards a corner because we were in a small room and another one took me out of that corner and I was running all over the room. Two of them held my hands together and I put my legs together.
They kicked me on my legs until they were swollen but I tried to protect my face, but it did not end there because there was another one who was administering an electric shock on me. Then I stood on a trunk but they asked me to get of that trunk but I said I couldn’t. Then one of the policemen suggested that they should tie me, then I sat down in that small office.
Then I said they should kill me then, because I didn’t know what they were actually - wanted from me. Then one suggested that they should put me into a cell where I would rot. So I spent on a - a night there in the cell.
On Friday - I cannot recall the time - they took us into a very big white van and drove us to the location. And they surrounded us there at the location with - they had sjamboks - and there were trenches there - trenches and they were asking that we should dig this trenches. Then I asked them why, they were also very big stones that they were instructing that we should carry them and put them into this van.
We tried to do this so as to put them into these trenches and then - after some time - they took us back to the cell. The following week - at about 2 - on a Tuesday they took us because there were others who had been arrested. They put us into a van sending us to George, so we drove past Graaff-Reinet and in Graaff-Reinet they decided to send us to Port Elizabeth. And they sent us to St Albans prison where they locked us up and we were only released in September but I cannot quite tell on what day it was.
And even there we were ill treated, we would be sleeping then they would wake us up and they would take us to some other sections - that is what they were doing until we got released. When I was released I had a chest problem, then I went to Dr Russell who helped me and then I got this problem sorted out. I don’t become happy when ever I think of this incident, then - that’s the end of my story.
DR RAMASHALA
Thank you very much. Thank you very much Mr Yanta, I would like to ask you a few questions. You were working for the municipality at the time that you were arrested?
MR YANTA
Yes, I was working for the municipality when there was a strike and I waited for - some time and went back home.
DR RAMASHALA
And what was the nature of the work that you were doing?
MR YANTA
I was a labourer.
DR RAMASHALA
When the municipal workers went on strike what were they striking about?
MR YANTA
It is because we were getting R94.00 per fortnight.
DR RAMASHALA
Where is Nelson Bonase now?
MR YANTA
Nelson Bonase went to George in April this year.
DR RAMASHALA
At the time of your - your arrest, did you and Nelson Bonase belong to any political organization at all?
MR YANTA
Yes, I was a member of the UDF.
DR RAMASHALA
When the police show you the list of names and they wanted you to tell them something about the names, did you recognise the names of [indistinct] - some on the names of the people on the list?
MR YANTA
No, I did not know them, I just saw my name and Nelson’s name. They were there on the list… [intervention]
DR RAMASHALA: Your names were on the list also.
MR YANTA: Yes.
DR RAMASHALA
How many policemen were there when they were beating on you?
MR YANTA
There were three of them in that office - in that small office.
DR RAMASHALA
Do you remember any of their names?
MR YANTA
No, only I can say they were white policemen from Oudtshoorn.
DR RAMASHALA
Mr Yanta, what do you do? Are you working today, what - are you working today?
MR YANTA
I now do part time jobs - that’s how I survive.
DR RAMASHALA
How old are your children? Boy or girl?
MR YANTA
The first is ten years old - he - she’s a girl ...[intervention]
DR RAMASHALA
And in standard?
MR YANTA
And she’s doing standard one.
DR RAMASHALA
And the second one?
MR YANTA
The second one is a boy.
DR RAMASHALA
How old?
MR YANTA
And seven years old.
DR RAMASHALA
And he is in standard?
MR YANTA
Doing Sub A.
DR RAMASHALA
How are you managing to raise the children just on the part time jobs?
MR YANTA
Yes, even my wife would have some part time jobs to.
DR RAMASHALA
You say your wife is working part-time also?
MR YANTA
Yes, she also works part time.
DR RAMASHALA
Mr Yanta, when I was talking to you this morning? You expressed interest about the Commission helping you with training, am I correct? You’re a trained construction worker, isn’t it?
MR YANTA
Yes.
DR RAMASHALA
And you are interested in more training so that you can get better work?
MR YANTA
Yes, I would be very much interested.
DR RAMASHALA
Is there anything else that you tell the Commission that we haven’t covered here?
MR YANTA
No, there is nothing more.
DR RAMASHALA
Mr Yanta thank you very much.
MR YANTA
I also thank you.
ADV POTGIETER
Thank you Chairperson. Mr Yanta, do you know Mr Lolwana who gave evidence first this morning, Zenzile Lolwana?
MR YANTA
Yes, I know him.
ADV POTGIETER
Were you - were you working together at George Municipality in 1986?
MR YANTA
Yes, I used to see him but we were working in different sections.
ADV POTGIETER
And what - have you got any comment on the evidence that Mr Lolwana gave. You told us that to his mind basically the people at the municipality - the labourers - were working like slaves or were expected to work like slaves and he explained to us some of the type of things that they had to do. Was - was that one of the - one of the general complaints that the workers had at the municipality?
MR YANTA
No there’s nothing more to say but I would say our strikes was - was strike was based on the little amount that we were getting and then we were all dismissed. So we went back to the hostel and they were threatening to demolish that hostel any time.
ADV POTGIETER
Why - why do you think you were arrested?
MR YANTA
When they took me they said we had a made trenches there. I did appear in court but I was found not guilty and after that I was arrested for state of emergency and I was again found not guilty.
ADV POTGIETER
The first arrest in June 1986, was that for having dug trenches in the - in the township or was it - under the emergency. What did they tell you?
MR YANTA
That first time they arrested me for digging trenches and they took us to the Magistrates Court and we were found not guilty and from the court they again arrested me, saying that they were arresting me under the state of emergency. Because it was after that case of the digging of trenches.
ADV POTGIETER
So - so what they did as soon as the Magistrate found you not guilty, and you were supposed to have gone home, they immediately arrested you again and said well now we’re arresting you under the state of emergency?
MR YANTA
Yes, it was like that.
ADV POTGIETER
And - and it was then they kept you for a number of months in detention?
MR YANTA
Yes, that’s true.
ADV POTGIETER
And were you charged again during that second period of detention.
MR YANTA
No, they did not charge me.
ADV POTGIETER
They just kept you there locked up and eventually just released you without even charging you for anything?
MR YANTA
Yes, it’s like that.
ADV POTGIETER
How do you feel about that?
MR YANTA
When I recall this as even now as I’m sitting - when I talk about it, I feel like a person who’s still under arrest.
MS BURTON
Mr Yanta, I’m sorry I’m looking at the wrong piece of paper. I wanted to ask you when you returned to Murraysburg, you mentioned that you found that the people were on strike for the houses. Is that the same - same action that Ms Hugo was telling us about?
MR YANTA
I’ve haven’t made mention of anything like that.
MS BURTON
So when you came back to Murraysburg it was - you didn’t - it was not anything that you were doing in Murraysburg that you think that made you be arrested?
MR YANTA
What I think is there was nothing that had led to my arrest. I was arrested for nothing.
MS BURTON
Thank you very much Mr Yanta, we can see that you still are angry at what happened to you and not satisfied and you we are - we are pleased that you have come to tell us about it, so that it can be heard in public and so that people can understand what conditions were like at that time. Thank you very much for coming to talk to us this morning.
MR YANTA
I also thank you.
