CHAIRPERSON: Mr Basopu. We welcome you Sir. Thank you for your patience. We know you are busy. Will you please take the oath?
MIKE BASOPU: (Duly sworn in, states).
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. I will hand you over now to Mrs Crichton who is going to direct a few questions to you or do you have a prepared statement? Mr Basopu, do you have a prepared statement?
MR BASOPU: No.
CHAIRPERSON: So we will just direct questions to you.
MR BASOPU: Yes, I have got points.
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. Mrs Crichton will do that.
MS CRICHTON: Thank you Mr Chairperson. Mr Basopu, good morning to you. I see that the focus of your statement here before us today deals with an incident in June in 1986 when you were in Fort Glamagin Prison. Are you hearing me?
MR BASOPU: Yes.
MS CRICHTON: Apparently and according to the statement you were arrested under the State of Emergency. Is that correct? And while you were in Fort Glamagin there was an incident that happened that you want to tell us about in terms of medical treatment. Would you tell us what happened please.
MR BASOPU: Thank you Chairperson. First of all, I would like to greet the Commissioners and I would like to salute the Truth and Reconciliation Commission by giving me this opportunity. Secondly, what I would like to say to the Commission is that as the freedom fighters we were struggling. We knew the consequences. What I am trying to say is that when we were fighting against the Whites, when we were fighting against the Boers we knew that we were going to be harassed. Thirdly, it is clear that in that process the Boers harassed us and they tortured us. That is why we have to come before the Commission to explain what happened to us.
I am not going to tell what happened at the time before we were taken to prison, because I am sure that when the Commission was in Duncan Village to hear about the Duncan Village massacre those details were explained, but I am going to talk about what happened to me and the treatment I received in prison. There are a lot of people who were treated this way, but some of us think that because we were engaged in the struggle we were supposed to be treated the way we did.
On the 12th of June 1986 when we were arrested in Duncan Village, normally people would be arrested by the security officers, but what was happening was that the police were together with the soldiers. They would take you out of the house, arrest you and hand over to the soldiers. It was difficult to try and fight against the soldiers. Because we were arrested under the State of Emergency of 1986 it was difficult for the security officers to keep us in the police cells. They took us to prison to Fort Glamagin Prison. The leadership of the organisation was kept in the police stations. They were not taken to prison. We would eat porridge and black tea every day. We said that we do not see a reason for them to give us this food, because we did not kill anyone. We were pressuring them to give us proper food. For that reason they then took us to prison.
In prison what was important to us was that we have to continue with our struggle. We saw this as the opportunity to teach our own people about our struggle. When we were in prison we were teaching others about the struggle and what was to be done. There was an integration in terms of this regulation. We would find that a prison warder, prison warders would treat us badly although they were just supposed to look after the prisoners. They knew our names in prison. They were not policemen. They had nothing to do with us. They were not supposed to know our names. I am giving this picture that these prison warders were trying to treat us badly so that if we were released from prison we would not be able to continue with our struggle.
We went to a hunger strike. We were engaged in a hunger strike. Some of us were not strong enough and they became ill. That is when I was also affected. I suffered from stomach aches. It would be difficult for me to eat again, I would vomit. I had pimples all over my body. In prison there would be doctors who would come and visit us. In our situation there were three doctors who were treating us. The doctor said that he is not aware of what was wrong with me, he does not know what was wrong with me. In such situations they would take us to the Frere Hospital. Most of the times it was difficult for us to interact with these doctors in a normal way, because in our understanding a doctor has to ask you questions and your background. In our situation that was not our case. As a result it was difficult for me to know what was wrong with me.
This doctor prescribed a chemical in a small bottle. It was written phordophylin and I am sure that I have mentioned this in my statement. The instructions which were given were that this chemical was very dangerous. If the medical officer was to apply this chemical, he would not use his bare hands, because the chemical was very dangerous. The person who was going to apply this chemical was in prison. He was a prison warder. He was a medical officer in prison. The instructions were given to the police of how to apply this chemical.
MS CRICHTON: Sorry Mr Basopu, I just want to ask you a question at this stage. This medication was prescribed at Frere Hospital. Was this prison warder present when the doctor advised you how it should be applied? Was he actually present with you at that time?
MR BASOPU: When you would be taken to hospital the prison warders would be left in prison. Security forces would take us to hospital. When this chemical was prescribed the prison warder was not there. It was only the security officer who was present, but he was not going to be the one to give me this chemical in prison. I do not know how this security officer related to this prison warder. In our situation, however, this man would not be able to apply the medication. I threw the small window onto me. We would have to go to a room that if it was not in prison would be referred to as a consulting room. He would take me to an office where he kept medication. This man would not use a cotton bud to apply the medicine. He would take a cloth, put the chemical on and therefore it would spread. He applied it in such a way that it would not only be applied onto my genitals and referred to as the genital ward. When you open this chemical, when you open the bottle there would be gas coming out as it had, it contained hydrochloric acid. I am just trying to show you how dangerous and explain to you how dangerous the chemical was.
MS CRICHTON: Mr Basopu, I just want to tell you that I know about phordophylin and I know what a dangerous chemical it is and that is why I am going to be asking you some questions about it. When you had this applied by this prison warder who had not instructions, correct instructions from the army officer that accompanied you to the hospital did you ask to see the doctor who visited the hospital to say that you were concerned?
MR BASOPU: Unfortunately, to go to a doctor to a, you had to go through a prison warder. We were supposed to have access to doctors in terms of the regulation. I requested that I see Dr Morrow who had sent me there. However, to see the doctor from Frere Hospital was impossible. This man refused. He said I must take this treatment or I must go back to my cell. Two or three days elapsed, I realised that I did not only have genital warts. I reported the matter. I said that I wanted to see a doctor. Eventually I was taken to a doctor. I could not even walk by then. They had organised a wheelchair for me, because my genitals were totally injured.
The doctor said it is the chemical that was hurting me so much. He bandaged me. It was like I had just been circumcised. I had to be take to Frere Hospital, not because I had been previously ill, but because the chemical had hurt me so much. I was on a wheelchair. The discussion between the policeman and the doctors led to a conclusion that I should not be admitted to the hospital, I must go back to the cell, because the week-end was approaching and it was going to be busy in the hospital. They were going to give me a treatment to take back to the cell.
MS CRICHTON: Are you finished as far as that particular part of your testimony is concerned?
MR BASOPU: I want to know, when you are hurt and when you are injured in that matter you want to get all the information as to what is happening. I was not able to get such information. They gave me just normal treatment for any sore, but I was aware that the damage was much more serious than that. Under normal circumstances I would have gone to a specialist. Before I talk about my request I would like to say that the circumstances I was under and many people were subjected to was very painful. However, we must remember that even if you were released from detention under such circumstances you would not give up, you would continue with the struggle for liberation. I think a lot of other people did that as well, because eventually we are here today because of our sacrifices in the past. It was painful.
Requests to the Commission. First of all I think the Commission has done a great, good work already, because so much has been exposed that would not have otherwise been exposed. Our understanding of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is that there be reconciliation so that we can reach democracy as a country reconciled. I think the first step that should be taken I would like to know why this man behaved in such a way when he had been given the responsibility to look after people and their health. Why did he act like an animal? Secondly, when you are giving medication there are steps put before you. How many times you should take the treatment a day and so forth. Did that gentleman get such instructions? What were his intentions? Why did he treat myself and others in such a manner?
We suspect that the prison warders and the others were given specific instructions from some source that we were the core of the leadership organisation and we should be treated in the way that he treated us. I am positive that it is, it was not only myself, but other Comrades as well. Secondly, I think the relationship between doctors and security forces at the time should be investigated, because our understanding of a doctor, there are certain ethical issues that you should follow, that you have no choice about, serving the society, not liaising and be in cahoots with the police. I would like to find out what this doctor is doing, how he is behaving presently. We are in power now. We would like a democratic country.
MS CRICHTON: Mr Basopu, I am going to interrupt you because of the time. We have in front of us all of your requests. We have heard your requests about the need for investigation and, particularly, your request about doctors and their complicity with security forces and police and that, in fact, is going to be a matter of a medical hearing that the TRC will be having. I see there is one other thing that I would just like to mention here that you have listed as being a request and that is that streets, streets in the community townships be named after those who have fallen and I would just like to commend you for that particular request. Is there anything very specific you want to say that will not take a lot of time now or are you completing, have you completed your testimony?
MR BASOPU: Thank you. I have another important issue around the health issue. I do not know how badly the treatment I got affected me. If the Commission could help me with such a medical investigation. I would like to know the full damage that was caused by this chemical so that I know where I stand with my health.
MS CRICHTON: Thank you very much Mr Basopu. I am going to hand you back to the Chairperson and my colleagues. Thank you Mr Chairperson.
CHAIRPERSON: Mr Basopu, thank you for coming before the Commission. You have done a very courageous thing to come and trust to us with a, an experience that is very personal to you. An experience that talks of the centre of your being as a man and you have come and opened up to us so that we can begin to get a glimpse of the atrocities that have been committed to people. I must say that it is a very courageous act and I thank you for that kind of courage. I remember you, as I said during the break, as a trade union who was very active in our region and as a person who, I do not know whether you are a believer, but you should be thanking God, because it is a miracle that people like you survived and are here today. We pay tribute to you, now that we have a chance to do so, for the leadership that you showed during that period and that leadership that stood the test of time, because those were very, very difficult moments.
We have heard your requests to us to try and investigate this. We will try our level best. If we succeed it will be good, but if we fail you will know that it, because it is such a complex thing and, indeed, it could be that your life has been ruined completely in the course of the struggle. We salute you.
