hrvtrans HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION HEARINGS 1996-10-14 WINELANDS 1 CT/00441 SARAH VILJOEN NICOLAAS VILJOEN SHOT & KILLED https://sabctrc.saha.org.za/hearing.php?id=56136&t=&tab=hearings https://sabctrc.saha.org.za/originals/hrvtrans/wineland/ct00441.htm DR ORR Mr Viljoen can I ask you to stand to take the oath please. NICOLAAS VILJOEN Duly sworn states DR ORR I am going to speak English, would you like to use the headphones? Can you [indistinct] the headphones? Are those working? Mr Viljoen can you hear me threw the headphones, okay. MR VILJOEN On this particular day I was ill in bed with a stomach problem. I was working at the post office but that particular day I was at home. My wife had been working at the police station in Paarl for years and years. She was the main chef there and on this day of this incident they brought her home in a police vehicle and I was laying there and she served me my food. And my daughter in law then came and she came to inform my wife that my oldest son, that was her husband, had just been detained. She was so upset about that, that the two of them left immediately, not to where the police were - it was far from where the police were. The reason for that was that she wanted to find out why they had arrested him. She wanted to go to the police station. On the way there they met up with a taxi driver that was standing there and I believe that that taxi driver had been warned that he should not move around in that area, picking up commuters, but he ignored that warning. My wife and daughter in law got into the taxi and she was sitting on the left side and my daughter in law on the right hand side. And they immediately took another road and rushed of to the hospital. On their arrival at the hospital they found that his bullet was lodged in his body. And they removed the bullet and when they came back, they found that my wife was no longer seated in the taxi but that she was laying down and she was covered in blood. This matter was handed to an attorney who was in America, but it never ever went to court. It never ever became a trial, never went to trial and I had to bear the costs by myself, pay for everything and up until now nothing has happened. DR ORR [indistinct] that you have 5 children. It must have been very difficult for you to be left alone to bring those children up. How did you manage? Would you like me to ask the question again? MR VILJOEN Yes please. DR ORR Earlier this morning you told me that you and your wife had 5 children. When you were left alone with them - to bring them up - it must have been very difficult. Tell us how it effected you and how you managed. MR VILJOEN And some of my children were already married at the time and one of them is here in this hall today. DR ORR How old were the kids [indistinct] ? MR VILJOEN The eldest child was approximately 28 years old and the others were a bit younger. DR ORR MR VILJOEN The finding was that her heart and longs were shattered by the shot and that was heartbreaking for me that a human could shoot another person like that - worst that a animal. And they could see my wife getting into the taxi, still they did not care what they did. They used that weapon not to worn but to shoot to kill and that is what happened. DR ORR [indistinct] like to just read something from our investigators report. They went and retrieved various records around the inquest into your wives death and found that the Captain who was in charge that day - who actually gave the order to shoot, Captain ND Slabbert, was in fact the same Captain who was in charge of the operation on the day that Ronald Carollisen was killed. I have no further questions and will hand you back to the Chair. CHAIRPERSON Order please, any further questions, Denzil Potgieter? ADV POTGIETER Thank you Chairman. Mr Viljoen, the attorney you mentioned who is in America now, was he from Paarl? MR VILJOEN ADV POTGIETER So when you approached him to consult about the matter he worked for Faure and Faure? MR VILJOEN Yes. ADV POTGIETER What was his name? MR VILJOEN ADV POTGIETER So when you consulted with the attorney, why did you consult with the attorney. What did you say to him? MR VILJOEN ADV POTGIETER MR VILJOEN That was all I got. And out of that he withheld R400.00 and sent a cheque with the difference. ADV POTGIETER One more thing, you said that there was a - an inquest into her death and that is where they mentioned her heart and longs which were so badly damaged. What did the court say about that matter with regards to the person who had actually fired the shot? Did the court find that person guilty, did anything happen to that person? MR VILJOEN No, the case never ever went to trial - it just ended there. I was never called to court, I was merely informed that there was a cheque for a R1 000.00 and that he was withholding R400.00. And the R600.00 that I received I dished out to my children. ADV POTGIETER So nobody was found guilty or sentenced or anything? MR VILJOEN No, not at all, although she had worked for them for years, non of them had the decency to come to me and apologize and say we are sorry, you know, we did not realize that this was somebody that had worked for us. ADV POTGIETER Thank you very much. CHAIRPERSON One always hopes that when there are - it there are people who remember that they were part of this incident, that God will touch their souls because we do not want to talk about hatred and bearing grudges. We are talking about peace, forgiveness and reconciliation. And something that could touch a person and that - that person could say that I do not want to be acquitted but I would like to destroy my part or my contribution to this incident by going to apologize. Because one still has to appear before God even if we as people never realized what the hole truth is, and we say to people like these that if you want to be healed spiritually, this is not about whether you were found guilty in a court of law or not, but knowing what you have done and to please come forward and come and ask for forgiveness. To ask for forgiveness and - people will see a miracle. You will see people who are willing to forgive but we thank you for having come and we hope that God will bless you and that he will be with you. He has blessed you and he has been with you. Thank you very much. MR VILJOEN Thank you for those beautiful words because as I have said you have repeated what I am so grateful for that we read in The Bible you must be willing to forgive. If you cannot forgive the next person - although I do not know who it is - God will not forgive you either. And hence I have forgiven them because I know they cannot give that live back to me. Thank you very much. CHAIRPERSON Thank you.