CASE NO: CT/01404 /UPI
VICTIM: JIM BONAKELE YANTA
NATURE OF VIOLENCE: SEVERELY ASSAULTED BY NP SUPPORTERS
TESTIMONY FROM: JIM BONAKELE YANTA
MR POTGIETER: Good morning Mr Yanta. Are you well?
MR YANTA: Yes I am.
MR POTGIETER: That is good to hear. You are also from Prieska. You are very welcome here. Before you testify you will have to take the oath so would you please stand to do that.
JIM BONAKELE YANTA Duly sworn states
MR POTGIETER: Thank you, you may sit. Mr Yanta you are going to tell us about something which happened on the 7th September 1993, that is quite recent. You were assaulted, you were seriously assaulted. Would you like to tell us what happened on that day. I understand that it took place at about half past six in the late afternoon. What exactly happened? --- We were coming home from work, my friend and I, Jafta van Staden and we were working in the Coloured township and we were doing sewerage works there and when we knocked off at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, we were on our way home. We lived in Ethembeni in the location and that was in the Red Block. On our way home in 20th Avenue a group of young boys approached us. They were the National Party youth supporters and they stopped us and they grabbed my friend first and they stoned my friend as well. My friend started running away and they said that they were National Party supporters and they didn't want ANC supporters in the location. They threw stones at me as well and I also tried to free myself and run away. I ran all the way to our location and I ran into a house, Nomsizi's house. The lady of the house asked what's happening and I told her that we were confronted by these young men in the street and they threw stones at us. The woman then said I must go home. I then went to the police station in Ethembeni and I laid a charge there. When I came out of the police station, well I don't know where the other youths of Ethembeni had heard that we had been assaulted. On my way home in Korda Street I saw the youth league, members of the youth league there and they said that there was one National Party supporter in Nana Nell's house and they wanted to hurt him because they had hurt us. Nana Nell said that the person hiding inside the house hadn't done anything and that the children should just leave him alone but the children didn't want to leave him alone. They kept him in the house. Then the police arrived. It was Reid and he then took this National Party supporter and took him to Bontheuwel in the van because the children wanted to hurt him because we had been hurt. I then went home and the next day I went to the doctor and that evening the National Party youth called a meeting. They wanted to have a meeting with us and with the police but they never arrived at the meeting. On the Friday the police came to my house because I had lodged a complaint and they said that I should go to Court, that the case was ready to commence and when we went to the Magistrate's Court, we found these National Party supporters there as well. I only knew two of these people. The others, well I knew them from sight hut I didn't know their names. I saw them going in and out of the prosecutor's office. When we arrived there the prosecutor called us into his office but they called us into the office one by one. When I got into his office he asked me what had happened and I told him. The prosecutor told me that when we appear in court we should just say that we don't know these other people, we only know these two people - Glen and Johannes Botha. We should say that we only knew these two people. So I said yes they are also outside here but I didn't know their names, just knew their faces. The prosecutor said well we should just deny knowledge of any of the others and we did what he told us to do and the case started and we told our story but there were some of the others outside and they came to Jafta and myself and told us that we should just drop this case and go home. We shouldn't continue with this case because we were just all human beings, but we thought we couldn't just drop the case because they never came to the meeting which they had called. We told our story in Court and then we went home but nothing much came of the case but the National Party never stopped. They always fought with our supporters and our people when they put up placards and posters and there was a lot of problems during the election period. There were fights between the National Party people and our people and some of the ANC members who lived in the location had to actually move out of the location, out of the Red Block and they had to come to live in Ethembeni because they were constantly being threatened. It was PW Simon and Atter, PW Simon and Atter, they were responsible for this. They encouraged the National Party people to hurt the ANC supporters but the police would often arrive and then they would have meetings with our people and we told the police to go and talk to this PW Simon - to go and tell them that they must leave this and they must drop what they're doing. The police always said they would but they never reported back to us what they had done and what the National Party people had said. When we fought back against the National Party people then the police would arrive and they would shoot rubber bullets at us. They would always stop us and only us. Meanwhile it wouldn't be the ANC youth league who would be the cause of the problem but it would be the National Party supporters but we would be the people to get shot. So the fighting never stopped. The police would bring National Party people into the location, into our location, just to come and hurt our people and when we defended ourselves then we got hurt and we were regarded as the cause of the problems and that is all I have to say.
Thank you Mr Yanta. What is significant in your testimony is the fact that you are referring to quite recent incidents in 1993 and I would like to ask you a couple of things just to get clarity in my own mind. Were you a member or supporter of the ANC youth league? --- Yes I was a member of the ANC youth league and I was a member of the management committee of the ANC youth league.
What was your position there? --- I was the organiser.
Was that in Prieska? --- Yes.
Now at that stage you were employed, you were working in Bontheuwel? --- Yes, Bontheuwel and Rooi Blok.
Is Rooi Blok a section of Bontheuwel? --- Yes it is the Coloured area.
Did you work for the municipality? --- No we were working on a contract to lay pipes.
What were they busy doing actually? It was the infrastructure sewerage pipes. --- Sewerage pipes yes.
So you were busy working to try and improve the infrastructure in that area of Bontheuwel and you were then assaulted and attacked in Bontheuwel? --- Yes in Rooi Blok, in the Coloured area.
And you were assaulted by members of the National Party? --- Was members of the National Party youth. They lived in that Bontheuwel location.
And this is the Bontheuwel where you were working to improve the infrastructure. Now the youth who attacked you, were they Coloured people? --- Yes they were Coloured people.
Did they know you? --- Yes they did.
So they knew you were a member of the ANC? --- Yes they did because they would always notice us putting up posters and so forth for the election, so they knew.
Did they say anything before they attacked you? --- They just stopped us in the street and we asked them what they were looking for and they didn't give us any answer. They just said they didn't want any ANC supporters in their location and we said we don't know anything, we're just coming home from work, we don't know what's happening in the location but they just decided they were going to hurt us.
You sustained certain injuries, you went to the doctor, were you treated for your injuries? --- Yes and up to today I still have to get medical treatment because I have problems with my legs.
So your leg was injured. Did you have any other injuries? --- My arms as well, my arms were swollen.
How many people were in the group that attacked you? --- There were about 20 people, quite a few people.
At the stage that you were attacked, was there already this conflict between the ANC and the NP in Prieska? --- Well I don't know because I worked so if there had been conflict in the location I wouldn't have been aware of it. All I know is that on that particular day when they assaulted us they just said they didn't want any ANC supporters there. Then I realised there was conflict.
You said that after you were attacked a group of ANC youth supporters wanted to go and attack and hurt a National Party supporter hiding in a house there. --- Yes it was on the same day. They hurt many of our people. Some of our people landed up in Kimberley hospital and other places.
So what actually happened is that after you were attacked, the ANC youth were angry and they wanted to retaliate against the National Party supporters. --- Yes.
Was there a lot of fighting after this? --- Yes there was constant fighting.
Up until the time the election. --- Yes the fighting continued.
When did matters improve? --- It only improved after the elections, then things quietened down a bit.
And how are things now? --- Well things are not too bad, things are okay.
Who won the election? --- National Party won the election there because they were in the majority. Even Wessels when the National Party wanted to fight us he said to us that we should just leave it because these people were a majority in Ethembeni and if they wanted to, they could really hurt us. The ANC youth maintained that they weren't just fighting with anybody in Rooi Blok, they were just targeting those people who were hurting other people.
But you are saying that the fighting is a thing of the past now? --- Yes.
You refer to two people - PV Simon and Arthur, who are they? --- PW Simon, he was the leader of the National Party and he is Parliament.
Was he in Parliament, was he a minister? --- Yes.
Minister of Education? --- Yes.
And the other person, Arthur, what is his surname? --- Arthur Robson. He was also a leader in Prieska, a leader of the National Party.
What role did they play? --- As I understood it and what we learned from our parents was that there was a lot of bribery going on.
Who was bribed? --- The National Party youth people.
And you said that the police were involved in this conflict as well and as you explained it, the police brought in National Party supporters into Ethembeni. --- Yes the Ethembeni youth had to stay awake all night. Children couldn't go to school because they had to stay awake all night because the people would just come into Ethembeni and start hurting people and the police brought these people in.
So where do you think the police stood in this conflict? --- I think the police were on the side of the National Party because they were actually bringing the people into the location during the night.
Now the case which you made, you said that the prosecutor told you not to identify and name the other people involved in the attack. --- Yes.
Why do you think he did that? --- Now I wouldn't know. When we arrived at the prosecutor's office we saw that he was also talking to the National Party people in his office and then he called us and then he told us what to say. He told us not, or to say that we didn't know those people but I don't know why.
In other words the prosecutor told you not to implicate those other people in the case as well. You should only identify and name Johannes Botha and Glen Jansen, is that right? --- Yes.
What was the outcome of that case? --- Nothing came of it. On that very same day they were back in the location.
So nothing happened as a result of this case. Did you ever testify in court? --- Yes I testified and when I had given my evidence the prosecutor said we should go home.
So you don't know whether the people were convicted or punished or whether they were acquitted. You just saw them in the location again. --- Yes.
Thank you Mr Yanta. I am going to hand over to the Chairperson.
CHAIRPERSON: As I told the previous witnesses we thank you for your contribution, for the contribution which you and other young people like yourself made. It's contributions like these which helped us to establish a new dispensation in the country and perhaps you people in Prieska are now living a little bit more comfortably. There is not so much conflict anymore but one is concerned about the fact that the prosecutor seemed to try to influence the outcome of the case and took sides in the case. Thank you very much and I hope other young people will learn from your example that we must all stand together and to co-operate to make this country a better place. Thank you very much. --- Thank you.
