hrvtrans HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION HEARINGS 1996-10-24 DURBAN https://sabctrc.saha.org.za/hearing.php?id=56213&t=&tab=hearings https://sabctrc.saha.org.za/originals/hrvtrans/hrvdurb3/meer.htm FATIMA MEER Affirms for the truth CHAIRPERSON Thank you very much. DR MEER But then there are interpretations. CHAIRPERSON Yes. DR MEER And, one cannot claim the interpretations to be part of the truth, although these interpretations are made with every conceivable integrity. CHAIRPERSON Thank you very much indeed, Dr Meer. Dr Meer, the story you will tell is the story of attempted assassination, of continued harassment over a long period of time for you and your family and friends, but you are going to tell that story in your own words, and Mr Lister, we always ask one of the panel to assist in the facilitation, and he is going to take over from me now, and I hand over to him and of course, especially to you. Thank you. MR LISTER Can you just tell us something about who you are. The work that you have done, and why you feel that you became a target for the harassment attacks that you were subjected to. And then lead us on to what happened to you for that - the period that has been mentioned. DR MEER MR LISTER Sorry, thank you. DR MEER Ja. MR LISTER DR MEER Ja. MR LISTER DR MEER Yes. MR LISTER And filling us in from time to time as to why you felt you became the subject of these attacks. DR MEER I was first banned in 1954. The events surrounding that banning should really go back to 1946/48 when the Indian people launched the passive - launched a passive resistance campaign against new laws that were passed against them. As a result of this campaign, the whole issue of racism was, for the first time, tabled before the world at UN. And this evoked, from the Government of the time particular animosity and hostility against the Indian people. And it is my reading that one of the main reasons for the violence that erupted in 1949 was linked to this, and as a matter of fact, the commission that was instituted to explore the reasons for the 1949 disturbances made note of this among other things. We women of the African National Congress and the Natal Indian Congress felt that we should get together, unite, and for the first time group - a group of Indians and Africans came together as women and we began working in the Cato Manor area, which was at the time the most blighted area in and around Durban. Though in those times it was possible to get a reason from the Government as to why you had been banned, and such a reason was asked and such a reason was obtained, and I read out the prime reason for my banning order, which was communicated to me. It was said, that I had said at a meeting that the aims of the Congress of the People will not be achieved immediately, that it will entail a hard struggle, but that we will gain our freedom eventually. I think this is worth noting, because it represents - it indicates the very low level of tolerance that the Nationalist Government had for any opposition to it. That a statement of this nature should have been given to me as the reason for my banning order. In 1954 my husband was also banned and we were given special permission to communicate with each other. My husband was, in addition as a member of the Communist Party, listed and there were certain activities that he could not engage in for the life of the Nationalist Party Government. In 1956 my husband was charged with treason with one hundred and fifty-six other people and, as a result of that he was away from home for a whole year, and I had to tend to his office. And we are grateful that there were friends in the legal fraternity who came to our assistance. I was banned again in 1976. My first banning order was for two years. The second banning order was for five years. For Rashid, the banning was particularly pernicious, because we were banned, the banning mounted to a house arrest, because we were banned and confined, in terms of the banning order, to our handkerchief-sized group area of Sydenham. Moreover, Rashid was precluded from joining any university or any institution learning whatsoever, which meant that the prospects of spending the next five years without any education appeared far too grim for him, and he escaped and went into exile. He remained in exile for fourteen years, and during that time we had very little contact with him, I mean physical, because we also had great problems in getting passports. Rashid, of course, could never return to his country until this Government had ceased to exist. Now, proceeding from 1976. In 1977, the very next year, an assassination attempt was made on me. We were at home, my husband and I, telling stories to my nieces who had been staying with me at the time, when my daughter Shanaaz sounded the alarm that our garage was on fire. This immediately got me rushing to the door. Fortunately for me, staying with us at the time was a friend, Zwelenia Ngoba, and he preceded me by seconds, or minutes, to the door. He is a tall man, I am a short woman, as is obvious, and he was shot twice on the shoulder, and when I got to the door, he was already lying there bleeding and he said to me, "Please go away, they are calling your name, and they are swearing at you". Had I been the first to open the door, I would have been shot in the head, and I would not have been here today to tell the story. A few days later, I think it was about eleven days later, but the year had changed since the event at our house had happened in - at the end of December 1976. On January 9th, my friend and colleague, who was also banned at the time, he was shot dead in his home, and from the description of the car that had left our house, and that one observer had seen at the house of Dr Rick Turner, it appeared - it appeared to have been the same car. But this is as much as we can say on that score. Subsequent to this assassination attempt, there were two arson attempts on our home. In 1985, I myself identified that as the period when the Nationalist Government began its death dance. In despair it tried to do whatever it could to change the situation in its favour. The Government excesses which took the form of rent hikes, a rise in the cost of transport. These were amenities that were monopolized by local governments. I think that Inkatha sincerely believed at the time that it would still work the system to its own end, but it is, again, my opinion that it did not transpire in this way. In 1985 it is significant to note that the - an intelligent source reported by the Sunday Times on 14.7.85 said there is a revolutionary assault going on out there. We have no instant counter-revolutionary force. The Government was therefore planning to develop an instant counter-revolutionary force and it found this counter-revolutionary force in Inkatha. It is not an interpretation that I ask people to accept, but it is an interpretation that I do offer. In that situation we must also note that the press played a very important part. Suddenly the police withdrew. And it was - I was part of the platform group, and it was at that meeting that the very first, what I consider to be mobilized attack by the system, by the government, using people against each other, using black people against each other, occurred. I did not realize the full scope of the violence which had been inflicted at that meeting. I went back to my car and I found a man lying there next to my car. I thought he was probably still alive. I asked some people to help me put him into my car. I rushed with him to the hospital. I might say that when I had come to Umlazi to that meeting, the whole place was calm, but when I was leaving a few hours later, the whole township had become inflamed. There were people all over and people were stopping cars and there was pandemonium. Any case, I reached the hospital. The hospital would not allow me to offload what I thought was my patient. A nurse came and said to me that the man was dead and I now had to find the mortuary and take him to the mortuary. So I remember that night, when on an empty street I tried to find a mortuary to deliver the dead man who was now lying in my car. That was the beginning of the killings that swept our province and remained with us for almost a decade or more. MR LISTER Dr Meer, sorry, I am reluctant to interrupt. Could I, could I just gently remind you that we are really here to focus on ... [intervention] DR MEER Mine. MR LISTER Things which affected your life. DR MEER Yes, well it all leads up ... [intervention] MR LISTER DR MEER You see, the point is that it is in that situation I suffered, or our family suffered the second arson attack. MR LISTER DR MEER I recall somebody having said that eight people had died during that particular massacre. MR LISTER Because we had evidence here a couple of months ago from one of the people who was with you on that day, Mr Gaza - and he explained in some detail the mayhem which took place in the cinema which was attacked by, by scores of people with DR MEER Yes. MR LISTER Traditional weapons etcetera. Sorry, ...[intervention] DR MEER Yes, well ... [intervention] MR LISTER Could you go on. DR MEER To my mind I must say that my interpretation is that those people who actually attacked and did the killing were instigated were machinated, were orchestrated by the pernicious system of apartheid to do so, and therefore I do not dwell on that too much. But the point, the reason why I have taken the trouble to paint the scene, is because it is in the midst of this that we suffered a second arson attack. During this time I found myself very fully involved in trying to assist people who were under threat, and I want to highlight the fact that the police literally withdrew. I would go to the police and they would point blank say to me that these people who complained that they were going to be attacked, that they deserved the attacks that were being made on them, and the police came to no rescue. I want to recount that at Phoenix, the Ghandi settlement, the police came, and there was a rising situation of racial tension between Indians and Africans and I asked the Casspirs loaded with the military to intervene and they remained pyramid-like stationed in their Casper and never bothered to get off to assist at all. I want to state, that later in the day, I returned to the settlement with some food for people who were marooned on that settlement and seeing the place - the situation having worsened, I went to the police and said, please accompany me and they refused to accompany me. I want to state that at the end of the day I returned again to Phoenix and saw the main house being set on fire and I phoned the fire brigade and I was told by the fire brigade that they had specific instructions not to go out there an help in any way. I feel, I may be taking more time than I should and not getting on to what happened to me personally, but I - after all said and done - what happened personally to individuals was totally wrapped up with what was going on in the country at large, and therefore we need to focus on this. I want to quote here from a statement I had read at the time in the papers, where a representative of the public relations, police public relations in Pretoria, Colonel Jaap Venter had said that the police had instructions to keep a low profile to avoid accusations of instigation. That, I would say was the last of the attacks that we ourselves suffered during those times. I would merely like to add that both racism and tribalism were used to divide people and neighbours from each other. I we cannot - if we do not understand the full scope of the perniciousness, the sort of diabolic planning that went into the massacres that continued in the Natal region from 1985 onwards, we will never really - we will never really see the full scope and the full cruelty of the system of apartheid. To my mind, it is a system which succeeded Nazism and which had within it all the elements of Nazism. If you are to ask me what do I expect from this Truth Commission, my own feeling is that the true perpetrators, the true organisers, the true architects of apartheid will probably remain beyond the reach of this Truth Commission, ensconced as many of these personalities are in the structures of our new Government in all its structures. In the judiciary, in the - in Parliament itself, in the bureaucracy, and so on and so forth, and that we will be left dealing with those who ... end of Tape 1 Side A ... [Indistinct] I think that this Commission has to look into the role of the press and the role of the judiciary during those times. I have been asked to contain myself to events relating to me, and therefore I will not go into that here. Thank you. MR LISTER Before you finish off, do you like to tell us something very briefly about how these events affected you and your - your, not you, but your family. You had children during these times, how, how what sort of effect did this have upon you as a family and on your children? DR MEER Well my children were infants. Rashid was only three months old when my husband was arrested for treason. His absence from home affected the children fairly profoundly. It had an effect on our family life, but I must say that people in my position who are articulate, who had the comfort and support of friends, who knew exactly why we were opposing the government. We were far better placed to cope with the - with these sorts of persecutions. We knew that they would come. And therefore in a sense, both psychologically and materially, we were prepared for these onslaughts. I mean just add that we also had - I, I was brought to trial twice for having breached by banning order. Each time I had pro deo, or free legal assistance and of the best of kinds from friends. MR LISTER Dr Meer, thank you ... [intervention] DR MEER I, I just want to point out that the whole tragedy of this period and the whole persecution of this period was heaviest on people who did not have the kind of support we had. Who lost lives, who lost homes, and who lost educational opportunities, even of a very elementary type and who, up to now, as a result remain maimed and incapable of entering into the mainstream of our society. MR LISTER CHAIRPERSON Thank you, Mr Lister. Thank you, Dr Meer. Dr Mbojo do you have any further questions? DR MBOJO Just, just a question about the, for our records. When Ms Meer was saying she said that she was first banned in - when she said it now - she said that she was first banned in 1954 whereas in the statement she says 1952. DR MEER That is incorrect. I was first banned in 1954. DR MBOJO So 1952 is incorrect? DR MEER Ja, I would like that to be corrected. DR MBOJO Thank you - thank you, sir. UNKNOWN COMMISSIONER Dr Meer, can I on behalf of the Commission thank you for coming. I think its of enormous assistance to the Commission to have people come and to paint a picture of what those days were really like. And you and so many others have taken us back and reminded us that the price of freedom was very high. DR MEER Thank you.