CASE NO: CT/04114
VICTIM: SHADRACK KWAZA
NATURE OF VIOLENCE: ASSAULT, HARASSMENT
SHOOTING BY POLICE
TESTIMONY FROM: MINAH BABA KWAZA [mother]
MR POTGIETER: Ms Kwaza? Good afternoon Ms Kwaza. Are you well?
MS KWAZA: Yes I am well. How are you?
MR POTGIETER: Well, thank you. You have had quite a long wait, thank you for your patience. I would like you to take the oath first before you give your evidence so I am going to ask you to stand please.
MINAH BABA KWAZA Duly sworn states
MR POTGIETER: Thank you. Please sit. Doctor Wendy Orr will assist you in telling your story. I hand over to her.
MS ORR: [Indistinct] ... want to repeat the Chairperson's welcome. Thank you for sitting here through what has been a long day. It is not easy coming towards the end of a day when we have heard many very painful and difficult stories and I hope the audience will give you as much attention as they have the other people who have given evidence today. You are going to tell us about the death of your son, Shadrack who was shot by the police in 1987. Can you tell us about the circumstances surrounding Shadrack's death. --- I was at home on that evening. I was in bed already. I was suffering from an ulcer and between 8 and 9 o'clock that evening I heard somebody crying. It came from the bottom of Brown Street. It was my daughter who was crying. They apparently had been to the Shimani Hall where there had been a disco and she told me that they were leaving the hall, following Shadrack and there was a policeman Lowie and other policemen who also followed Shadrack and then there was an open space between the two cafes and while Shadrack was walking in between these two cafes, he started running and my daughter followed them because she wanted to see what they were going to do to Shadrack. When they arrived in the square they shot at this house where Shadrack had jumped over the fence. There were about 17, they made 17 holes in the fence before they actually shot him. She then turned into Brown Street to come home and I heard my daughter's voice. I heard she was crying. It was Sisser's voice and it woke me up because I was already asleep. It was very cold, it was July, June/July. When Sisser came to me, I heard her saying, mother they shot Shadrack dead. I jumped up, pulled on my clothes and whilst I was dressing, my friends who lived in the square, arrived at our house, the one is now deceased, the other one is still alive. They came to ask me to get up and just at that point a police van arrived at my home and they told me to come and identify my child. They said that they had killed my child. I can't give you the name of the policeman though. Now these two old women pleaded with me to go down and whilst we were on our way, there was a lot of unrest and movement in the location that night and when we arrived at the scene where my son had been shot, at that particular house, another woman asked me, will you be able to actually see this, so I said I'll go a little bit closer and I then saw that it was my son, and the one white policeman asked me, is this your child, and I said yes it is. I approached and I saw that my child was lying on the ground shot dead and there were lots of white policemen around his sprawled body. One of these policemen was called Lowie and they all stood around the corpse, carrying guns. Now my child was lying in a pool of water. I don't know why or how it happened but he was lying in a pool of water and it was a freezing night and that is the story of Shadrack.
You said that since 1985 the police had been trying to arrest Shadrack. Was this because he was politically active or the member of a political group? --- I actually can't tell you whether he belonged to a political party or organisation because, you know, we weren't always part of the children's activities. We didn't always see what they were doing. I can just tell you that they came to tell me that my son had been killed but I don't know whether he was politically involved.
[Indistinct] ... looking for him for a long time by the time he was shot. --- Yes they had been looking for him for a long time and they would always arrive at my house. At that stage I had a small baby, about 6 or 7 months old and they would come to my house and they would beat me, they were white and black policemen and they would come and beat us. If they couldn't find Shadrack then they would take it out on us and beat us. Even now I still have scars from where they beat me, the white policemen, and then I told my employers about these beatings. It's difficult for me to walk today because of the beatings I endured and they beat my daughter as well. They would arrive at our house at all hours and beat us because they couldn't find Shadrack. Shadrack was very scared of the police and he would always run away from them.
How old was Shadrack when he was shot? --- He was about 21 years old.
I just have one further question. Was there any enquiry or inquest or Court case after his death? --- There was no Court case, nothing. No inquest, the case just stopped right there, I never heard anything more about the case. I just prepared for the funeral all by myself because I don't have a husband, I had to do it all by myself.
So as our Chairperson has said in the previous cases, our investigative team has visited the Upington police station to look for the relevant documents and have been informed that all the records for the period 1985 to 1993 have been destroyed, but we will be following this up. I would like to hand back to the Chairperson now.
MR POTGIETER: Thank you Wendy. Glenda Wildschut?
MS WILDSCHUT: Ms Kwaza, my question is just around the death certificate. Do you have a death certificate at all? --- I did receive a death certificate but because he was already a grown-up boy and fathered a child his girlfriend asked for the death certificate so that she could provide for the child.
Do you know what was stated on the death certificate? --- It stated that he had been shot through the head. He had a head wound.
So the police stated on the death certificate that he had been wounded in the head, been shot in the head? --- Yes.
Ms Kwaza, the police who used to come to your house and who then assaulted yourself and your family. Could you give us their names, were they Security Branch people or not? --- I can't actually tell you because I wasn't that familiar with the white policemen but they were Ngungoed, I can't really remember their names.
What reason did they give for the fact that they were looking for Shadrack?
--- No, they never told me. I always asked them why are you looking for Shadrack and they never gave me any answer. They just kept telling me, you will still wear black clothes, you will go in mourning for your son.
Did you consult any lawyers about this case? --- No.
And you didn't lay a charge with the police? --- No.
And were you ever given any further information about this case, whether any further investigations were being conducted? --- No, nothing whatsoever.
You were never summons to go to Court? --- No.
MR POTGIETER: Thank you very much Ms Kwaza. As Doctor Orr has said, we have not yet been able to get hold of the documents, we were told the same story namely that the documents had been destroyed but we are investigating the matter further. This is obviously a case which needs further investigation so that we can find out what exactly happened. It's simply impossible for somebody to be shot dead and for no further action to be taken. We cannot accept this, something must have happened and if nothing happened, then the Commission must take the necessary steps to ensure that something is done. So we are going to look at the matter further, see what we can find out and if we make any progress we'll let you know. Thank you very much for coming to tell us your story today. Thank you for your trouble and all the best for the future.
