hrvtrans HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION HEARINGS 1996-08-13 BEAUFORT WEST 2 https://sabctrc.saha.org.za/hearing.php?id=54966&t=&tab=hearings https://sabctrc.saha.org.za/originals/hrvtrans/beaufort/ct00580.htm CASE NO: CT/00580 VICTIM: JOHANNES BONAS NATURE OF VIOLENCE: SHOT & BEATEN TESTIMONY BY: JOHANNES BONAS DR RAMASHALA Good morning Mr Bonas, can you hear me? MR BONAS Can I - I can hear you. DR RAMASHALA Can you stand please to take the oath. JOHANNES NQABENI BONAS Duly sworn states DR RAMASHALA Chairperson, Adv Potgieter, will facilitate testimony. ADV POTGIETER Thank you very much Dr Ramashala. Good morning Mr Bonas. MR BONAS Good morning. ADV POTGIETER Are you fine? MR BONAS I am fine. ADV POTGIETER You are from Richmond, is that true? Can you just move a little bit forward so that you can speak into the microphone and then we can all hear you very nicely. You live in Richmond, is that correct? MR BONAS Yes, that is correct. ADV POTGIETER Do you have a family as well? UNKNOWN I am just going to ask the interpreter to repeat that. MR BONAS Yes, I have children. ADV POTGIETER Two children? MR BONAS I have two children, a boy and a girl. One is thirteen years of age and one is two years old. ADV POTGIETER MR BONAS Yes, like that. ADV POTGIETER MR BONAS ADV POTGIETER Now you came back from Cape Town to - to Richmond? MR BONAS ADV POTGIETER To Richmond, what happened there? MR BONAS Yes, I can explain. In 1986 when I got to Richmond, I - there was a boycott, workers boycott, and people were holding a meeting there so I went there with my luggage. Whilst we were standing outside in a group, policemen came driving in a hippo. And we alerted those inside, the policemen came and did not say anything, they just chased and dispersed us throwing tear gas. And then he told Archie Du Plessis that I was there and then they took me to him. Then he asked me about GP Kalolo - what was his position there in the location and about another principal called Mntanbu. He asked them and I said I did not know these people because I had just come and they asked where I came from. I did not tell them that I was coming from Cape Town, I said I was coming from the Transkei and they asked where about, then I told them I was coming from [indistinct] and they said I was telling a lie I knew these people and they took me and they locked me in. I was there for fourteen days, one week in the police station and one week there in the jail. After a while comrades came to pay bail for R1,000-00 and I went home. Two days there after Jipie Kalolo took me and [indistinct] with another doctor - to another doctor who examined and helped me and then I went back home. ADV POTGIETER MR BONAS Yes, I had just arrived but I ask people there what was happening and they said they were on strike because of the money they were getting. So I felt I should get into the meeting and listen to what was happening because there at home people are unemployed and those who are working they are getting a little bit of money - about R30.00 per week - so I also had a interest in what was happening. ADV POTGIETER But basically all that you did was to - was to listen, to try and find out what was going on, you did nothing else, in fact you did nothing wrong, not so? MR BONAS ADV POTGIETER When the police came on the scene, everybody just basically ran away, including yourself. MR BONAS What happened, we called on the people inside when we saw the police, so that they should not be locked inside the room. ADV POTGIETER And then the police arrest a number of people, with - together with you? MR BONAS The first people to be arrested was me and another girl and she was dismissed there at the police station. ADV POTGIETER You say that you got shot as you were trying to get away, on which part of your body were you - were you struck? MR BONAS If you want me to show it to you, I can show it to you. I have a mark here that is the shape of a the hoof of a horse. ADV POTGIETER MR BONAS ADV POTGIETER MR BONAS I have got wounds from what the police did for me from - to me the kicking that they did to me. In Mossel Bay - when I was working - I saw doctors there but they referred me to my doctor INTERPRETER ADV POTGIETER Mr Bonas, could you just move a bit closer, kom net n bietjie vorentoe and then you speak into the mike. On the injuries - can you just get the mic back on, okay. You spoke about two wounds that you got, was it to your head? MR BONAS ADV POTGIETER At the back? MR BONAS Yes. ADV POTGIETER Okay, the - was the cut an open wound? MR BONAS These wounds are troubling me because the one here I - I still feel there is something wrong with it - with it , as if there is some bones sticking out - the one on the head. ADV POTGIETER Assaulted when they - when you got the wound on your head that you told us about, was that wound bleeding? MR BONAS I have two wounds, they were both bleeding except the one here at the back - it did not bleed. ADV POTGIETER When the police were assaulting you as you said after they arrested you, were you bleeding at that stage, when they were hitting you in the van and - that whole incident? MR BONAS Yes, the van in which I - they - they had put me in had some blood which was cleaned by the other convicts. ADV POTGIETER [indistinct] police station, did you speak to the station commander, the policeman in charge? MR BONAS He was the cause of all this because even those in Middelburg and Oudtshoorn had been invited by him. ADV POTGIETER What was his name? MR BONAS His name is Jonk. ADV POTGIETER Was there still blood on you - on you face? MR BONAS Yes, he could see me how I was at the time. ADV POTGIETER They then said that you must be locked up in a cell? MR BONAS ADV POTGIETER [indistinct] this Mr Jonk MR BONAS Yes, I asked him twice and then a third time he agreed that I should be taken to a doctor. ADV POTGIETER If I understand you correctly, you were not taken immediately, you spent a number of hours in the cell before you were taken to the doctor? MR BONAS ADV POTGIETER If I also understood your evidence correctly they in fact instructed the doctor what to do, the police? MR BONAS ADV POTGIETER They told the doctor what to do and what - what did the doctor actually do? Did he - did he examine you, what - what did he actually do, this doctor, Dr Basson you said I think, ja Dr Basson what did he do? MR BONAS They gave instruction that the doctor should not examine me but just to give me an injection and only pain tablets. He wanted to examine me but the police refused that he should do it. Even now they ...[intervention] ADV POTGIETER [indistinct] do or did he do as the police said? MR BONAS As I said earlier, Dr Basson wanted to examine me but the instruction from the police was that he should not, so he did not examine me. This was a doctor coming form DA. ADV POTGIETER You were locked up and you say that you were charged - what - what was the charge that was brought against you? MR BONAS The charge was of public violence. ADV POTGIETER [indistinct] specifically? MR BONAS They said I fighted with the policeman and I said no I did not fight with any policeman. ADV POTGIETER And you were found not guilty by the - by the Court after some time? MR BONAS No, I was not found guilty. ADV POTGIETER You were working in Cape Town at the time when you were arrested. What happened to your - to your job? MR BONAS I had gone to Richmond because my - my parent had died long ago and there was a young child who had died at home. So I used to - there was a young child left at home. INTERPRETER ADV POTGIETER MR BONAS ADV POTGIETER [indistinct] did you lose that job as result of the arrest and those bail conditions that you had to report to the police station and all those things? MR BONAS ADV POTGIETER [indistinct] then. MR BONAS I went to Mossel Bay to look for work and I was employed but because of ill health and I was visiting doctors frequently I had to come back to be under the treatment of Dr Basson. He is therefore who decided that I should not continue with work because of my condition. ADV POTGIETER [indistinct] was it the injuries that you sustained? MR BONAS There is another reason, I used to work here in Fort Beaufort - in Beaufort West and I got injured on the hand. So combining this injury together with those injuries I sustained from the policemen, the doctor decided that I should stop working. ADV POTGIETER DR RAMASHALA Thank you, any other questions, Ms Seroke? MS SEROKE Now you say in that meeting which was in a church when the police came, the people dispersed. How did they come out, did they come out rushing out? MR BONAS Yes, they came out running out. They did not fight with the police, some of them went out through windows and there was a tear gas that was sprayed. MS SEROKE You again say in your statement after they had beaten you and shot you and they took you to Jonk, who was a Station Commander, and again you found a Magistrate together with Jonk. Now can you still recall the name of this Magistrate? MR BONAS I had written it down but now I cannot recall his name. MS SEROKE Was this Magistrate - did you tell this Magistrate how they had shot you. MR BONAS He used to move with the policemen and he use - not to keep in his office, thank you. MS SEROKE Mr Bonas, I just want to be quite clear you went to the doctor when the police took you to the doctor and the Mr Kalolo helped you to find another doctor. Which of those doctors was Dr Basson? MR BONAS When I was released, Kalolo took me in his car and took me to DR a certain - to a certain doctor in DR a Moslem doctor, I have forgotten his name. MS SEROKE A certain Dr Basson was the doctor that the police took you there? MR BONAS MS SEROKE Mr Kalolo was a leader in Richmond at the time, was he? MR BONAS Yes, he was a leader but we could not say that because he to was in danger because the policemen wanted to shoot him too. MS SEROKE So you were protecting him and you were not giving his name? MR BONAS I was forced to protect him. MS SEROKE And then afterwards he helped you with a lawyer and a doctor? MR BONAS Yes, because he ordered his doctor - his lawyer from Graaff-Reinet and brought it to the Police Station. MS SEROKE MR BONAS Yes, he died. MS SEROKE MR BONAS