hrvtrans HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION HEARINGS 1996-06-19 GEORGE 2 CT/00341 ISAAC BEZUIDENHOUT ROSELINA BEZUIDENHOUT SHOT DEAD BY POLICE ON HIS WAY HOME FROM WORK https://sabctrc.saha.org.za/hearing.php?id=55091&t=&tab=hearings https://sabctrc.saha.org.za/originals/hrvtrans/george/ct00341.htm DR RAMASHALA Ms Bezuidenhout do you wish to take the oath? MS BEZUIDENHOUT Ja. DR RAMASHALA Could you stand please. ROSELINA BEZUIDENHOUT Duly sworn states DR RAMASHALA Thank you. Chairperson you have been assigned to facilitate the evidence of Ms Roselina Bezuidenhout, thank you. MS BURTON Good afternoon Ms Bezuidenhout how are you - is this your - a member of your family who is with you? MS BEZUIDENHOUT Ja. MS BURTON Welcome - the story that you are going to tell us today is of the events on the 10th of September in 1976. MS BEZUIDENHOUT; Ja. MS BURTON When your husband was killed. MS BEZUIDENHOUT Ja. MS BURTON And we are aware of the fact that it was a time when there was a great deal of conflict in Mossel Bay and other people were killed and injured on that day too. Please tell us about what happened to your husband. MS BEZUIDENHOUT; Eventually Reverent Krotz insisted that he had to get the body, because it was a member of his congregation and eventually they did give us the body after that. I had to turn away because they were shooting at us all - they were shooting at all of us and I buried my husband, my family and myself - we buried my husband. It was a very-very hard time - these twenty years since I lost my husband, because he was our breadwinner, I had to raise my five children by myself. I have a daughter who started suffering from shock after this, she had to be treated in Worcester for the shock. And I really struggled to keep us all alive until today. MS BURTON [indistinct] Ms Bezuidenhout nearly twenty years ago and you still remember it so clearly and [indistinct] so clearly. MS BEZUIDENHOUT Ja five children. MS BURTON And your children were small, I think your eldest one....[intervention] MS BEZUIDENHOUT 10 - 8 - 7 - 6 - 4 - 2. MS BURTON Ja we can commend you for your strength in bringing them up despite of all of those difficulties. The events around the times, the stories that we have been told were about the school pupils at that time were - in a great time of unrest and there had been burning tyres - barricades and stonings and so on. And that seems to have been what led to the situation where not only your husband but another person was killed and there were many, I think there was twenty one people injured that day. Do you - do you know whether there, then certainly there was the Cilliers Commission of Inquiry, do you know whether there was any other action taken, was anybody blamed for the deaths and the injuries? INTERPRETER Could the Commissioner perhaps rephrase again, and we can try again. MS BURTON I was asking if Ms Bezuidenhout knew if anybody had been charged and tried for the injuries and the deaths which happened that day? MS BEZUIDENHOUT When we arrived at court this is myself and my mother, they told us no you can go home the court case has been disposed of. MS BURTON Have you thought about what you would like, that the Commission might be able to do for you and your family? MS BEZUIDENHOUT I would like to ask that they compensate us, myself and my children for everything that we had to suffer up and until today. MS BURTON Anybody else in the panel want to ask. DR RAMASHALA Yes I wanted to find out if Ms Bezuidenhout is receiving any assistance at the moment, something like a pension or anything? MS BEZUIDENHOUT DR RAMASHALA [indistinct] your health? MS BEZUIDENHOUT DR RAMASHALA Are you under treatment for the diabetes? MS BEZUIDENHOUT Yes I am receiving treatment at the clinic. DR ALLY Did you ever receive anything from the State? MS BEZUIDENHOUT DR ALLY You say that the State contributed something towards their education for twelve years. MS BEZUIDENHOUT Yes. DR ALLY What reason did they give for this? MS BEZUIDENHOUT When the children turned 18 they then stopped the payments. DR ALLY But what is the reason why they gave you the money in the first place, what reason did they give? MS BEZUIDENHOUT They said it would help me to keep my children at school, I received R175-00 initially. DR ALLY Did they ever admit responsibility for what happened to your husband? MS BEZUIDENHOUT Not - not at all. DR ALLY [indistinct] MS BURTON Ms Bezuidenhout was - was your husband active in any political organisation? MS BEZUIDENHOUT MS BURTON [indistinct] think that he was just caught up in the events of the day. MS BEZUIDENHOUT Yes that is what I think. MS BURTON We would like to express our sympathy to you and your family and to assure you that we will see what can be done to assist you and to investigate you. MS BEZUIDENHOUT Yes. MS BURTON And to investigate further, we thank you very much for coming this afternoon. MS BEZUIDENHOUT Thank you. MS BURTON Thank you.