TRC Final Report

Volume 4

Chapter 9

Subsection 8

Torture of children and youth

61 Torture usually occurred at the hands of the security forces whilst children and youth were in detention. Types of abuse reported by children included food and sleep deprivation, solitary confinement, beating, kicking, enforced physical exercise, being kept naked during interrogation, suspension from poles and electric shocks. Other forms of torture included verbal insults, banging a detainee’s head against a wall or floor, use of teargas in a confined space, enforced standing in an unnatural position, beating on the ears, near suffocation and cigarette burns. These forms of torture were compounded by a lack of intellectual stimulation, false accusations, threatened violence to the detainee and his or her family, misleading information, untrue statements about betrayal by friends, pressure to sign false documents, interrogation at gun point and other violations.¹³

62 Figure 2 reveals the evidence gathered from statements made to the Commission about the extent to which young people were victims of torture. The predominant category of those who reported being tortured was, again, young men. Few children under thirteen years of age were victims of torture.

63 Mr Potwala Saboshego described his experience of torture. He was seventeen years old at the time and politically active on the East Rand. He described the circumstances of his arrest and subsequent torture by the security forces:

It was in 1986, in August. I was [returning] from school. When I arrived at home, Security Branch came and arrested me. They told me the details of my arrest. I was detained at Daveyton police station. On my arrival, they kicked me and assaulted me and they kicked me on my private parts. For the whole day, I was being kicked. Late at six o’clock, they injured my right eye.

64 Ms Evelyn Masego Thunyiswa was twenty-two years old when she and a group of her comrades decided to attend the funeral of Steve Biko in 1977. The police stopped themata train station and detained them. She described the severe torture and sexual assault to which she was subjected:

They assaulted me. The other one came to me and said, “Stand up”, and then I stood up. And he said, “Stand up! I want to see your vagina”, and they started hitting me with fists. After that, they electrocuted us. This cord was like an electric cord and then you put it on a battery and they used equipment to shock me. I can’t remember where did they apply this to my body because, when they switched it on, I felt as if my private parts were falling. I cried for quite a long time. While crying, they were sitting in front of me laughing.

Police provocation, violence and complicity

65 At the Soweto hearing, Mr Murphy Morobe, an activist in the UDF, told the Commission:

One episode I should mention is when we went to bury a person by the name of Mashabane. ... As we were marching into the cemetery, even before the coffin was put down, they [the police] opened fire on the mourners. There was no violence there. There was nothing that suggested that police should act that way. But the mourners and family had to flee and leave the coffin there. People had to fall and jump into graves to hide themselves from the barrage that came and more people were killed.¹⁴

66 This description of unprovoked violence on the part of the state is only one of many that were submitted to the Commission. In KwaZulu-Natal, evidence was presented which testified to the fact that the police stood by and watched as violence occurred, making no attempt at intervention, nor trying to reduce the intensity of the violence. People ascribed the high levels of death and injury in the province to this failure to react.

67 In the Western Cape, evidence was heard about the notorious ‘Trojan Horse’ incident during which the police shot a child of eleven years of age. Clear evidence was presented of a police plan in the ‘Trojan Horse’ incident, and the commanding officer of the police apologised for the actions of the police and their consequences.

Police intimidation at schools

68 As schools became centres of resistance, they were targeted by the security forces. Police intimidation included the occupation of schools, the arrest of students and the creation of a general climate of intimidation.

69 Ms Elizabeth Sizane Mdluli was a student in Nelspruit during the 1986 school boycotts. She told the Commission about the disruption caused at the school by the presence of the police:

During the year 1986 – it was the year where it was not possible to attend school. At school, we normally experienced the visit of the police. Even if we were just seated and we were prepared to learn. You could find us scattered outside because of the teargas which was thrown [at] us ... The police would come, and just their presence would make the school kids feel very uneasy.

70 Mr Potwalo Saboshego described the situation on the East Rand:

By the time I was a student, we experienced many problems. We were detained at our school, we were sjambokked [whipped] by the police ... We arranged marches and presented memorandums so that some of our students should be released so that [they could] write exams. Because those who were arrested were not charged, they were just detained indefinitely. That is why there was a lot of conflict in the East Rand ... When we were studying at school, you would find soldiers in your classroom. That is one of the things which we wanted to stop.