CASE NO: CT/00696/UPI
VICTIM: ABEL KUTU
NATURE OF VIOLENCE: TORTURE AND INCARCERATION
TESTIMONY FROM: ABEL KUTU
MR POTGIETER: Can we get silence please. [Indistinct] ... and it becomes a bit difficult to try and out shout you the whole time so can I please get your co-operation. Please give me your co-operation and keep quiet. If you are not quiet we cannot proceed. It is very difficult to shout so that you can keep quiet. I am going to ask you to take the oath before we take your evidence so will you please stand.
ABEL KUTU Duly sworn states
MR POTGIETER: Thank you, please be seated. Glenda Wildschut will assist you in giving your evidence and I hand over to her.
MS WILDSCHUT: Mr Kutu which language do you prefer to speak in? --- Afrikaans.
Okay so you will be giving your testimony in Afrikaans. I will be speaking to you in English and you will hear the translation through the earphones. Is that okay? Are you able to hear us clearly? --- So 'n bietjie ja.
Would you come a bit closer to the microphone and if you can't hear very well you can adjust the volume on your head set. I am sure the briefer will help you. Okay. Mr Kutu you are also somebody who has been involved in the Upington 26th incident and trial. We have heard evidence from quite a few people already this morning but we would like to hear the story from your side and how the incident affected you. So will you start now please by telling us your side of the story. Thank you. --- If I may ask, could we please just observe a moment of silence, of silent prayer for our two fallen comrades, Gideon Mahlongolwane and Xiswa Duba please. Thank you. I will start with the arrest on the 13th November 1985. I was on my way to work - Oranje Co-operative. On my way to work I was stopped by a group of people and they forced me to go to a meeting. I was aware of the meeting but I hadn't planned to go to the meeting but they forced me to go and I was then forced to the soccer field of the Eleven Experience. When we arrived there, people were singing Nkosi Sikeleli Afrika and the police then intervened, they drove in Casspirs and they ordered the people to disperse within five minutes but I don't think it was possible for 3,000 people to disperse in five minutes. There was a Pastor Beady and he was praying. After Pastor Beady had said amen, the police started shooting teargas at the people on the soccer field. Now perhaps I have left out certain things in my statement but if you would allow me to add these things now, I can do that. The people dispersed, people were trying to escape and they were all piling one on top of the other. They were lying one on top of the other and there was a Neville Dye being shot, being hit by a teargas canister and I saw this on the video which was shown in Court. The canister blew that person right up in the air and he is a cripple now. I was caught on the 13th November. They arrested me at my home, Desmond Mdluli and one of his comrades came to arrest me. I don't know the other names, they were white people, I couldn't identify them at the time. They took us to Bantu Administration where there was a whole group of people and the deceased's family. They were all sitting there and some of the accused were also there and I am absolutely certain that those people saw who the accused people or the suspects were and I was caught, I was arrested whilst I was sleeping at home that afternoon, I think if I can estimate the time, when I heard the man had been killed, that was between 1 o'clock and 12 o'clock. It was a very, very hot day. It was about 42 degrees. It was the hottest day in Upington, of the year, hottest day of the year of 1985. They made me stand in the sun, I was not allowed to stand in the shade. If I tried to move into the shade then Johan Willemse prevented me from doing that. He told me, no you've been told you must not seek out the shade, you must stay where you are in the sun. I could actually feel the sun scorching my body, scorching my skin. I didn't, I wasn't wearing a shirt or a T-shirt. On the first day that I appeared in Court on the 18th November that is the state in which I appeared in Court - without a shirt. In the Court the magistrate, one Nell, he said where is this man's T-shirt and when we appeared in Court on the second occasion I got a T-shirt from one Gobandini. It was actually too small for me but that is what I wore at my second appearance in Court. After that when we arrived at the police station for the first time, a tyre, a motor car tyre was placed over my head and at the house where I was caught, they hit me with the rifle butts on various parts of my body and my body was swollen as a result of these blows. I didn't suffer any internal injuries but I did suffer some swelling. I was then taken to prison and on the 12th May 1986 that was the first time that I was released on bail. When we were released we had to report to the police station three times a day and our bail was withdrawn in 1988, April 1988 and since that time we were in custody. As the previous witnesses said, we had to sleep on these mats, we had three blankets. When it was very cold some of the blankets were actually removed and when it was really cold we had to clean out the cells and wash the walls. We suffered torture, rough torture and matters continued in this way until we were sentenced on the 2nd June 1989. That is when I was sentenced to six years' imprisonment and on the 13th September, two days after my birthday we were taken to Kimberley prison. I don't know what it is like at the moment but then it was extremely dirty. We then appeared in Court again, the Supreme Court, a Mr van Rensburg who was then the prosecutor, he dealt with the bail application and he said, this man said that I should be very grateful that I am not the 15th one. There was a Colin person during that trial, there was an Advocate Viljoen. These were the people involved in the trial. John White was another one, John Whitehead, I am not quite sure of the name, he was also an advocate and they acted on our behalf and applications were made. Eliza Machongo, Enoch, Nompodua, Evelyn de Bruin, Gideon Mahlongolwane, but those three had their bail refused but our bail was granted and on the 24th October 89 we were released from Kimberley and since then I was never in prison again. I lost my job, I couldn't even support my parents anymore as I had been doing before. I can't do that because I am unemployed. In 92 I did find a job but then lost my job because they said they could not work with a communist. The other thing is, that I actually want to refer to what the Reverend Beukes said : ... campaigning for the release of the Upington 14, I would like to say to Mrs Sethwala, the family of Jetta, please forgive us that we allowed you to suffer in silence and miss all the media attention. We were all victims. Forgive us the times that we drove past your house showing journalists and foreign people where Jetta stayed and telling them our stories and not inviting them to make some time to listen to your pain. What I would like to say is I am not prepared to ask the deceased's mother for forgiveness because I never killed the deceased. I was never at his house. What I am trying to say is that Judge Basson convicted us wrongly and I feel that Judge Basson and the previous government were very, very unjust. Thank you.
Thank you Mr Kutu for your testimony. Can I just ask you, how old were you when this incident took place? --- I was 24.
Whilst you were in prison awaiting trial, were you tortured in any way? As I understand your statement, you were also tortured after the trial. --- No, not after the trial.
During the trial? --- We were not tortured but it was before the trial, after we had been arrested by the police we were tortured. That is when they put this tyre over my head and made me twirl around this 2c piece on the floor and whilst I did that they, the police would kick me and that is what they would do. They also hit me with rifle butts.
Why did they torture you? Did they want you to make a statement about the death of Jetta? --- They wanted me to confess. They wanted me to agree to the fact that I had been involved in the deceased's death but I had sworn to speak the truth and nothing but the truth and I was not involved in the deceased's death in any way. I have nothing to add. I also want to say that I don't nurture any feelings of hatred or revenge. One of the deceased's sisters, well we're still friends and we were friends at the time of the trial - 1985/1986 we remained friends, we still are friends. One of his brothers - Moses, with him too I have remained friends. I would just like to add, yesterday after we went from the workshop here, when I arrived home there had been some kind of a quarrel or dispute about the deceased's death and it involved the deceased's mother's sister that had a quarrel with my uncle because my uncle had been asked by somebody else what exactly what was happening at the Civic and then the answer was given, well it relates to the Truth Commission and people got a bit excited and so on but we are not actually cross with one another, we all live in the same square. We all stay very close together in the same square but we don't hate each other. It is just that when she gets upset then she starts becoming a bit insulting and she says she is not the mother of a murderer and that is a bit awkward for me but I don't hate her.
You also mentioned your mother. You said that... --- No, what I am saying is the deceased's mother's sister said that she is not the mother of a murderer. In other words, my mother is the child of a murderer. That is actually how it all fits together.
Thank you Mr Kutu, I will hand you over now to the Chairperson, I have no further questions.
MR POTGIETER: Thank you Glenda. Wendy? Thank you Mr Kutu. Thank you for coming and for telling us your story. We have taken note of what you have said. We have taken a special note of the fact that you said that you hadn't done anything wrong towards the deceased and you don't feel therefore that you owe any specific gesture of apology towards the deceased's family but you immediately add that you're also not bitter towards the family and that in fact, you are on friendly terms with the brother and sister of the deceased and that is proof of the fact that you never perpetrated any act against the deceased. We thank you for your evidence, we thank you for your contribution. We thank you for the perspective which you have contributed to this case and relating your particular experiences. We have taken note of it. The matter is now before the Commission and we will do some further investigation into the case but thank you very much for your story. It is very important that the community participates and joins and shares in your experience because the idea is that we must learn from the past to build something positive for the future. Thank you very much.
