hrvtrans HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS, SUBMISSIONS QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 1997-05-14 3 MARK RICHARD SPARG EC1449/97SBR https://sabctrc.saha.org.za/hearing.php?id=55489&t=&tab=hearings https://sabctrc.saha.org.za/originals/hrvtrans/kwtown/komsprg.htm MARK RICHARD SPARG (Sworn states). CHAIRPERSON I welcome you Mr Sparg and we will ask Mrs June Crichton to direct a few questions to you just to give you a chance to tell us your story. MR SPARG Thank you. MRS CRICHTON Good morning Mr Sparg. MR SPARG Morning. MRS CRICHTON I believe you are fluent in Xhosa. MR SPARG MRS CRICHTON That is fine. MR SPARG Although I do understand Xhosa to a large degree. MRS CRICHTON Right, well then we will speak in English to each other. MR SPARG Thank you. MRS CRICHTON You were a resident in Komga at, in 1993. MR SPARG No, the facts I hear when you mentioned that my case regards arson are involved in Komga in 1993. I was actually in 1993 at a place called Nochga in the Transkei. In fact at Nchoga Cash Store, which is near the famed Nochga irrigation scheme. MRS CRICHTON MR SPARG Yes. MRS CRICHTON And you alleged that this was by PAC members. Now, before you start, could you give us a bit of a picture of what the political situation was as you understood it at that time? MR SPARG Yes. In. I arrived in Nochga in 1992. Being an ex-Trankeian, and I say that, because when the Independence of Transkei or Transkei became Independent in 1976, people like us were sort of left without a home. We were actually made, or we became, how could I say, refugees in our own country. So, I went back to Nochga in 1992 with the intention of re-establishing my roots in the country of my birth. I leased the shop from a Mr Nxangele, who at the time was in detention in connection or so-called connection with a coup in the Transkei, so I had to actually go to the Court to get him to sign our Lease and I leased Nochga Cash Store and began trading in approximately August 1992. We did very well. Our turnover by that December was in the region of R200 000-00 for that month, which you know if you put a station that is 4 months old, would show you that we had lots of support and were well liked by the Community. People knew my father. People knew our heritage and we were welcomed back in the Community with open arms. MRS CRICHTON This store that you had. It was a cash store. It sold general goods to. MR SPARG General Dealer and Hardware. Similarly we revived what was, what used to be run by the old trader in the Transkei, who sort of was bought out after Independence. People were left. Traders were left in a situation where they had no security really. They were. It said that they could stay but nobody knew what, where the political scenario was going and where we would be left ten years down the line, so a lot of traders opted to leave the Transkei, which was a very sad thing. MRS CRICHTON Can you now, can you now tell us who the harassment began and what form it took ?. MR SPARG In mid 1983, I became a member of the ANC, a card carrying member of the ANC and I actually allocated, they requested me for offices on the shop premises so that they could run an election campaign from there and so build their structure in the Nochga district. Towards the end or threequarters of the way through 1993, I visited a friend of mine called Brian Wiley at Toinga and he MRS CRICHTON MR SPARG MRS CRICHTON MR SPARG MRS CRICHTON Thank you. MR SPARG MRS CRICHTON MR SPARG: Well, he actually was a Committee Member of the Toinga branch of the ANC. MRS CRICHTON So he was a Committee Member? MR SPARG Ja. MRS CRICHTON Thank you. MR SPARG Well, the Friday of that week. That was the Sunday. The following Friday I came to fetch my son in aah, he was at boarding school in Komga and my wife phoned me, well I actually phoned home to see how things were and they said that Brian had been missing since the Wednesday I think it was, the Wednesday evening. Well, his body turned up. He was dead. They found him on Friday lying in the feld around in the Toinga, I mean in the Hadutschwa district and you know, this unsettled us a little bit, because and to-day we have actually never really heard what the reasons for his death were. MRS CRICHTON What was his surname- um. MR SPARG Mr Brian Wiley. MRS CRICHTON I beg your pardon ?. MR SPARG Brian Wiley. MRS CRICHTON Wiley. Thank you. Continue. MR SPARG CHAIRPERSON Sorry, just an interruption. There is a lot of interruption that is taking place. I suppose that. We would like people to keep quiet because the noise is affecting our concentration. We have to listen clearly when a person is on stage. If people want to go out, please go out quietly, because you are disturbing our concentration. Thank you. MR SPARG May I digress a bit, a month or two before the November, we, there was a Commission in that 1983 year set up to try and fathom out what should happen to the Nochga scheme. In fact, one of your Commissioners, Mr Dumisa Ntsebeza chaired that Commission. MRS CRICHTON MR SPARG MRS CRICHTON You talk about threats being made to you. Were they verbalized to you personally ?. MR SPARG In the shop, Ja. MRS CRICHTON And so you knew the people that were making these threats. MR SPARG MRS CRICHTON Continue. MR SPARG MRS CRICHTON This is your wife and did, did you have children ?. MR SPARG Oh yes, my two, three children and a gentlemen that worked for us. So, over the weekend we contacted the scheme again to try and find out what was going on and I went back on the Monday to a meeting which the locals arranged so that we could try and clear this matter up and of course I took the weapons back that I had in my possession so that people could see exactly what the situation was. I had nothing to hide. MRS CRICHTON The people you were meeting with, who were they ?. Were they ...... or the Headmen ?. MR SPARG They were Headmen from the immediate village. I had asked for all the citizens of Nochga to come to the meeting, because those are the people we serve but very cleverly or for whatever reason that would have been the only immediate Nochga village people came and were present at that meeting. MRS CRICHTON Including the Headman ?. MR SPARG Including the Headman, Ja. MRS CRICHTON Who was who?. What was his name ?. MR SPARG MRS CRICHTON Can I just interrupt you to ask you another question ?. MR SPARG Yes. MRS CRICHTON Who was it who ran the store while you were ... MR SPARG Trevor du Plessis. MRS CRICHTON Who ? MR SPARG Trevor. MRS CRICHTON Trevor du Plessis. MR SPARG MRS CRICHTON That was after the ten days that you...? MR SPARG After the, within the ten days, my shop was looted. MRS CRICHTON No, but I mean it was after the ten days that you went to pay that, that? MR SPARG MRS CRICHTON You sought legal advice you say. MR SPARG MRS CRICHTON Thank you Mr Sparg, just take a few minutes to have some water perhaps. MR SPARG MRS CRICHTON MR SPARG MRS CRICHTON MR SPARG MRS CRICHTON CHAIRPERSON Mr Sparg, this is, this is another moving moment in the life of the Commission. In each hearing through the time that we have been holding this public MR SPARG Thank you for hearing me. CHAIRPERSON We wish you well. __________________