special Prison Hearings 1997-07-21 THE FORT - JOHNNESBURG 1 MISS DEBORAH MARAKALALA https://sabctrc.saha.org.za/hearing.php?id=56357&t=&tab=hearings https://sabctrc.saha.org.za/originals/special/prison/marakala.htm DR BORAINE MISS MARAKALALA I prefer to speak in Sotho so that I can express myself well. DR BORAINE Fine, you will be speaking in Sotho. May I just say that we are delighted to see you and very grateful to you for being with us. I would ask you to stand to take the oath please. MISS DEBORAH MARAKALALA (sworn states) DR BORAINE MR LEWIN MISS MARAKALALA DR BORAINE You work as an editor? MISS MARAKALALA Yes. DR BORAINE What I would like you to do please is to take us through your experience both as you say in police cells and subsequently at Sun City Prison which is still functioning as a prison. Just take us through that in your own time and your own words, thank you very much. MISS MARAKALALA After one of the policemen who knew me confirmed that I was Deborah the one they were looking for, I admitted to being Deborah. I was then taken to Tembisa police station in the "mellow yellow" police vehicle and we were in a convoy. On arrival at Tembisa police station I found that there were policemen in a guard of honour as if a Mayor or a high ranked police official was about to arrive at the police station. MRS SEROKE Do not wait for the interpretation, please continue as people can understand and follow the interpretation. MISS MARAKALALA Whilst interrogating me they changed from one policeman to the other and I would have to answer questions standing, I was not allowed to sit down. At that time I was pregnant. As they could not get anything out of me during the interrogation they said they would make me tell the truth and they told me to take off my jacket, I did as I was told. At that time they started assaulting me, I became lame from my waist downwards as if I had pins and needles in my body and I lost my balance and fell and messed myself. After that they asked me if I was prepared to tell the truth now and I said that is all I know about the people you are questioning me about. They asked me whether I was working at the church and whether the ministers were sympathetic to the SACC or other organisations within the community, like when there are funerals would they be present and would they bury victims who had been shot or whatever the cause of death was for that person who was buried. During the night they took me back to the prison and on arrival I did not change the clothing I had on, I was smelling like before, rather confused, sick and swollen. After a few days I asked to consult a doctor and they told me I would not be allowed to consult a doctor but I persisted and they told me a doctor would come, however the story kept on like that, the doctor would come. The one day I felt weak, I lost strength and late that afternoon I started vomiting. I still asked to see a doctor but I was told the doctor would not come. On the third day I collapsed, that was the time I was actually having a miscarriage and I was taken to Johannesburg hospital where they found that I did have a miscarriage and my baby was in a tube. I was there under male police guard. They inserted tubes and I was handcuffed to the bed so that I could not escape. During my time at the hospital it was male policemen who were guarding me. My family never came. There was only this sister who came to see me and the police who guarded me on shifts. I stayed in prison for a long time. Time and again there were hunger strikes and I had to put up with the cold and take part in the hunger strike through which they would guard you and when you became weak they would call a doctor or a policeman and tell them your problem. I was to go back to Johannesburg hospital for a checkup, this was after there had been a hunger strike. We were not given any study material but the book I received was a Bible which I read from the first page to the last. I stayed in the cell and looked at the walls trying to find a way to escape, that was all you could see. That was the kind of life in prison. You would wake up in the morning, get porridge which was half cooked, during the day you had lunch, after that you would have supper and you were locked in a double door cell. If there was something you deemed to happen, you would have to engage in a hunger strike. What I want to state again is that when I left for a checkup at the Johannesburg hospital, I was transported in a van most of the times which had this section where they would have police dogs at the back of the van and I would normally be handcuffed and sit where the spare wheel was. As the van was travelling you swayed from left to right. MR LEWIN Take your time Deborah. Deborah it might help if I ask for some clarification and ask a specific question. Could I clarify what your legal status was at the time, you mentioned being dropped at the prison by the police, who actually took your fingerprints for instance, who looked after you in prison, the prison authorities? MISS MARAKALALA MR LEWIN Was it explained to you under what law you were being held? MISS MARAKALALA The first time I was told that I was under Section 15, Section 50 not 15. After fourteen days they told me that I was detained or arrested under Section 28 or 29. After five months I was told that I have been detained or arrested under Section 5. After six months was the first time I saw my mother. MR LEWIN And throughout that time you were always in detention in isolation on your own? MISS MARAKALALA MR LEWIN Deborah was anything ever referred to by the police in terms of your miscarriage. MISS MARAKALALA MR LEWIN Deborah could you, because we need to try and tie up now, could you just tell us how long were you in prison and was it always at Sun City. MISS MARAKALALA It was one year and three months. MR LEWIN And during that time you were never charged? MISS MARAKALALA No, for the first six months or rather the first two, three or four I left for the hospital and after I had been to the hospital there was this long document that they wanted me to sign because they wanted to charge me, using that document but I refused to sign. They tried all ways to get me to sign it. From the time they took me to the police station for interrogation, they wanted me sign the document but I refused. MR LEWIN MISS MARAKALALA What was told to me when I went for a checkup again was that I cannot bear children anymore because they extracted a ... tube. The one that is remaining is damaged. I did undergo treatment and part of the fee was paid by the state. After I was released I did receive treatment for this ... tube at the hospital and after the treatment was completed I could have a child. DR BORAINE MISS MARAKALALA Thank you.