hrvtrans HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION HEARINGS 1996-08-12 BEAUFORT WEST 1 https://sabctrc.saha.org.za/hearing.php?id=54958&t=&tab=hearings https://sabctrc.saha.org.za/originals/hrvtrans/beaufort/ct00368.htm CASE NO: CT/00368 VICTIM: ZO-MARIUS BOCKS NATURE OF VIOLENCE: TORTURE BY POLICE & DETENTION TESTIMONY BY: ZO-MARIUS BOCKS MS BURTON Welcome, Mr Bocks before we begin, we welcome the members of the public back again to our afternoon hearing and we particularly would welcome Father Peter Rhodes, who has joined us - very nice to have you and to have had your support in the preparations for our hearings over these past weeks. Mr Bocks, can you - are you going to use the headsets or are you comfortable in English? MR BOCKS Going to speak Afrikaans or English. MS BURTON Denzil, are you going to ask questions in Afrikaans. Okay, right Mr Bocks, will you stand to take the oath. Thank you. ZO-MARIUS BOCKS Duly sworn states MS BURTON Adv Potgieter is going to lead your evidence. ADV POTGIETER MR BOCKS ADV POTGIETER MR BOCKS Yes. ADV POTGIETER Yes, I think you have to pull the microphone closer, so we can hear you clearly. MR BOCKS Yes, I am from Carnarvon. ADV POTGIETER Tell us, what do you do? MR BOCKS ADV POTGIETER As bookkeeper you say? MR BOCKS Yes. ADV POTGIETER Is that in Carnarvon? MR BOCKS Yes, that is in Carnarvon. ADV POTGIETER MR BOCKS Yes, in Business Management, yes. ADV POTGIETER Have you completed it? MR BOCKS No - no, I still owe a subject. ADV POTGIETER So you still have to complete? MR BOCKS Yes, that is correct, I still need to complete my studies. ADV POTGIETER What is your status, are you married or unmarried? MR BOCKS ADV POTGIETER Any dependence - any dependence? MR BOCKS Yes, I have a son. ADV POTGIETER How old is he? MR BOCKS 7 years. ADV POTGIETER MR BOCKS Yes, that is correct. ADV POTGIETER You were still at school then? MR BOCKS ADV POTGIETER Where were you at school? MR BOCKS I was at the Carnarvon Senior Secondary School. ADV POTGIETER MR BOCKS I was in Std 9. ADV POTGIETER Std 9? MR BOCKS ADV POTGIETER What positions did you hold at school? MR BOCKS I was on the Prefect Council - I was part of that Council of Prefects. ADV POTGIETER MR BOCKS Yes, more or less the same but the status is a bit lower than SRC status. CHAIRPERSON [indistinct] ADV POTGIETER As I say they have a bit of a stigma - bit of a air about them, but is this the leading body that showed leadership in terms of students? MR BOCKS ADV POTGIETER MR BOCKS ADV POTGIETER So was he also a Security Police? MR BOCKS Yes. ADV POTGIETER The Du Toit guy you referred to, is he also a Security Police? MR BOCKS Yes he was head - he was head. ADV POTGIETER So they arrived at school, did they come to you? MR BOCKS Now we wanted to plan to halt the school activities since some of our leaders have been detained without good reason. So obviously that led to them bringing to - coming - to the school and they saw me as a kind of a instigator and obviously they wanted to stop me from intervening in school affairs. Slogans were written on our walls and, of cause, there were also a case of students setting a office alight and that all led to intimidation and resulted in the slogans on the wall. They then took me - the police - to the shooting range - the shooting range. ADV POTGIETER Now, where is the shooting range - in town, out of town? MR BOCKS About 2 km out of town. ADV POTGIETER Is it very silent there - is it a quiet spot? MR BOCKS ADV POTGIETER So they took you there, in the outskirts of town. What happened there? MR BOCKS They took me there - they tied me to a pole. ADV POTGIETER With what did they tie you up? MR BOCKS This went on - this treatment went on a considerable time - and at some stage I lost my consciousness and they - but they carried on hitting me - assaulting me. At some stages I was not even experiencing it, I just had this awareness that I was hit by a baton. Then they would refresh the bag and re-pull it over my head. ADV POTGIETER And you are tied up all this time? Where, your hands and feet? MR BOCKS - got into them. ADV POTGIETER So for the whole day you were at the shooting range? MR BOCKS ADV POTGIETER Were you assaulted the whole time there at the shooting range? MR BOCKS ADV POTGIETER And you had this bag over you all the time there. MR BOCKS ADV POTGIETER Did they question you - interrogate you? MR BOCKS ADV POTGIETER So the interrogation was a - about the events at the school - they wanted to know more about that? MR BOCKS ADV POTGIETER MR BOCKS ADV POTGIETER So because of your attitude, you were actually assaulted even more - that resulted in that? MR BOCKS ADV POTGIETER So later on they took you to the cells in Carnarvon and tell us what happened then. MR BOCKS When we - got - got - came to the cells, I met some other friends there. Wesley, for instance, was one of the people that gave me information. Eshelle Andrias was also detained at the same time that I was captured. They took him in a blue Ford car, I was taken in a bakkie. Now these friends were there - they were left alone and they only wanted information from them, but they look me, instead, and I was kept in a cell. About a month in - in the cell in Carnarvon and then I was transferred to Williston. ADV POTGIETER So you were kept for about a month in the cells -in the Police cells - in Carnarvon? MR BOCKS Yes. ADV POTGIETER Did they interrogate you even further. MR BOCKS No. ADV POTGIETER So you were just locked up? MR BOCKS Yes, I was just locked up. ADV POTGIETER Did they tell you what they did - to you - that you were detained? Did they give you reasons? MR BOCKS Du Toit came there each weekend and then they would tell us something about a Fourteen-Days-Detention Law and I was later on transferred to Rooihel at Williston and it was - we were always kept for a period of fourteen days and they notified us - with regard to that. ADV POTGIETER So you say from Carnarvon you were transferred to Williston. How long did they detain you there? MR BOCKS Also for a month. ADV POTGIETER And from Williston, where were you transferred then? MR BOCKS I was transferred to George. ADV POTGIETER How was you - long was you detained there? MR BOCKS Also a month. ADV POTGIETER And when were you released? MR BOCKS ADV POTGIETER MR BOCKS Yes. ADV POTGIETER And after the events at the shooting range, were you ever interrogated again? MR BOCKS No, not again. ADV POTGIETER MR BOCKS Yes, they just locked me up. ADV POTGIETER And they left you there? MR BOCKS Yes. ADV POTGIETER Were you all - were you convicted on anything? MR BOCKS No. ADV POTGIETER Did they ever give you a reason for your detention? MR BOCKS No, no reason. I was assaulted and locked up and they treated me the way they saw fit. ADV POTGIETER And as far as you are concerned, why were you locked up? What did you do wrong? MR BOCKS ADV POTGIETER How old were you then? MR BOCKS 18. ADV POTGIETER What is the impact of this incident on you? MR BOCKS ADV POTGIETER Now, before the incident how was your health? MR BOCKS ADV POTGIETER MR BOCKS If a duvet or a blanket - if I have to live in a - lie under it and I feel it on my neck, then I - I - feel smothered and I get very tense. So I have to lie on my stomach, for instance. ADV POTGIETER MR BOCKS ADV POTGIETER Does this all happen after the incident? MR BOCKS Yes. ADV POTGIETER MR BOCKS And the end of the day I must go back to these people, reconcile with someone. Is there not a possibility that the Commission can do something so that that people can be, at lease, removed form their positions? ADV POTGIETER All 3 Police Officers, are they still serving in Carnarvon? MR BOCKS ADV POTGIETER MR BOCKS Yes, yes. ADV POTGIETER MR BOCKS If I can make an example of - if I can make an example of Biskop. My Biskop - his a Biskop of my church, sorry, he will divide your congregation - he will - and lets say he brakes up the congregation, how can I reconcile with such a person? So that person will have to reconcile. ADV POTGIETER Did you make - did you lay a charge at any stage? MR BOCKS ADV POTGIETER Marius, we thank you. CHAIRPERSON Any questions, Dr Ramashala? DR RAMASHALA Mr Marius, you say that you suffer from dizziness? MR BOCKS Yes. DR RAMASHALA MR BOCKS Yes. DR RAMASHALA And what did the doctors say? MR BOCKS DR RAMASHALA And you still suffer dizziness today? MR BOCKS Today still and had have even a problem with my kidneys because laying on the floor, that side. DR RAMASHALA Okay, thank you. ADV POTGIETER Any other questions? CHAIRPERSON