22 June 19671
[Note: The questions of the members of the Working Group are briefly indicated in italics. The members were: Ibrahima Boye, Procureur-general, Senegal, Chairman; Felix Ermacora, Professor of Public Law, University of Vienna, Austria; Branimir Jankovic, Rector of the University of Nis, Yugoslavia; Luis Marchand Stens, Professor of International Law, Peru; and Waldo Waldron-Ramsey, Barrister, representing Tanzania.]
I was born on 12 June 1934. I am a politician.
It is with some pleasure that I will give evidence to this Working Group, in the sincere hope that the evidence I give will assist in alleviating the present conditions existing in South Africa at the moment. I will start by telling you of my experiences in 1963, when I was arrested and detained for a period of over four months.
I was arrested on 17 April 1963, at 4 a.m., at home. There was a large contingent of police - at least twenty to twenty-five of them - who raided my house with sten guns and various other arms and ammunition. They raided my house, searched the place thoroughly, and after about an hour, I was taken away to the Johannesburg police station.
Upon arrival at the police station I met one other colleague of mine who had similarly been arrested at home an hour before I was. He told me that three young Indian youths had been arrested that morning on a charge of sabotage. He also informed me that all three of them had been very, very badly beaten up. One of them had been shot through the left shoulder; the other was beaten to such an extent that he was beyond recognition, and the third person was beaten up and his right arm broken.
I was then locked up in a cell alone until 4 p.m. At 4 p.m., we were taken out of our respective cells, put into a car, and taken to the Johannesburg railway station. We were put in a little room about ten feet by ten feet, which appeared to be a changing room for the Special Branch, and were warned not to converse with one another.
At approximately 6.45, the person I mentioned (with the broken arm) by the name of Reggie Vandeyar, who incidentally had not been given any treatment up to that time, was called and taken away. He returned again after ten minutes. I was then called and taken into a large hall or room with three tables. Approximately twenty-five policemen were seated around. I was asked to sit in front of one of the tables, facing the policemen, and they told me to give them whatever information I had on the political movement in South Africa. I refused, telling them that I had no information whatsoever to give to them. They then told me to stand up and, as soon as I got up, a Hessian bag was pulled over my head, and it was tied at my knees. I was then lifted by my feet and swung in the air like a pendulum, with my head knocking the ground every time, with every swing. While they were doing this, they removed my shoes and socks. I was then laid flat on the ground, and the policeman lit a match and threatened to burn me if I refused to give information.
I then felt them tying some string or something to my toes. I was told that they were going to pass electric shocks through my body. I was also told that they were going to start with a 25-volt current. While they were torturing me, they kept my body flat so that I couldn't move my knees up and they continuously asked me to give them whatever information I had regarding the political movement and also the military wing of the political movement in South Africa - namely, Umkonto We Sizwe, that is, the Spear of the Nation.
This they did for intervals of from three to five minutes. The shock treatment they continued on 25 volts for between three to five minutes. And then they stopped, and they increased the voltage to 50. This went on until they had got the maximum voltage of 220 volts. I had no conception of time, but it must have taken at least an hour and a half. I was then lifted up and the Hessian bag was removed from my body. I could not stand on my two feet, and when I leaned against a table I was beaten up.
When I fell to the floor, I was lifted up again and told to stand without any assistance. I forced myself to do this. They then took various instruments, like pencils and sealing wax and other items, and put them between my fingers and held my arms outstretched while two people pressed my fingers down. Thereafter they made me do various exercises, like standing on one foot, jumping, kneeling, and also a tall policeman stood in front of me with his arm outstretched and he forced me to run on the spot, forcing my knees to touch his palm.
When I was exhausted, they again asked me if I was prepared to tell them what they wanted to know. By this stage I couldn't talk, because my mouth was completely dry. When I asked for water, they refused to give me any. I was then taken by two policemen and pushed through a window with my body hanging outside and they held me by my two feet. Every now and again they would release one foot. We were on the third floor of the building. After some time they pulled me back into the room.
They again asked me to give them the information they wanted, and when I refused again they beat me up and threw me onto the floor, kicking me and using their fists every so often. Thereafter they again made me do various funny things like running on the spot, and then the policemen threw down a six-penny piece, which is a five-cent piece, and they told me to put my thumb on to the coin and run around the coin without removing my thumb from the coin. I had to do this for about twenty-five to thirty minutes until I was grovelling on the floor and I fell flat, unable to move any further. They then lifted me up and carried me into an adjoining room, where I was allowed to sit down.
While I was sitting there, the policeman ran into the room and he grabbed a Hessian bag with some weight in it, which I presume must have been a dynamo, or something with which they could control the current. Then he went out again. Ten minutes later, I heard the screams of another person, and I realized that it was another colleague of mine by the name of Chiba, who is now serving a twenty-year term of imprisonment in Robben Island.
I had been in the torture room for at least 3 l/4 hours. And likewise with my friend, who was eventually taken out of the room at about 1.30 a.m. We were then taken back to Marshall Square police station. The next morning, we were again taken back to the Johannesburg railway station and kept in the same room where we had been the night before.
I was then taken back into the torture room where I met a top-ranking Special Branch man, whose name I do not know. He, of course, asked me to give whatever information I had and when I raised the question of the torture with him, he said that they knew nothing about it at all. I, of course, refused to tell him anything or give him any information whatsoever. He then threatened me that they would try me for sabotage or being a member of the underground movement and said that they would either give me the death sentence - he would see to it that I would get the death sentence - or life imprisonment.
On 19 April, the five of us appeared in court at the Johannesburg magistrate’s court. Our lawyers raised the question of the torture and the beating up, but the magistrate refused to have anything to do with it. He said it was beyond his jurisdiction. Three of the accused were eventually sentenced to ten years' imprisonment after our trials had been separated.
On 21 May, Chiba and I appeared again before a magistrate in the basement of the Johannesburg magistrate's court. The prosecutor withdrew the charge against us, the magistrate left, and we were immediately rearrested under the ninety-day detention law. We were not allowed out, nor were we allowed to see our families or our lawyer. We were then taken to Marshall Square, and locked up in separate cells. We were not allowed any books - no reading material, no newspapers - and we had to sit in the cell for twenty-four hours a day. The only thing we could do was pace around in the dark cell for twenty-four hours. At one stage, our families held a demonstration outside the Johannesburg Marshall Square, demanding our release. Thereafter, the food which we were allowed from home was stopped as well.
We then learned that there were a number of other detainees at the same police station, including Moosa Moolla, who will be giving evidence before this Working Group.
On 10 August 1963, Chiba was released on condition that he would not lay any charge against the police for torture. And the same night a policeman visited me and, I believe, Moolla as well, and virtually threatened us that if we did not give them the information they required, they would give us 'the works' as they called it, they would torture us again.
During my period of detention, I fell ill on a number of occasions, and when I asked for the doctor, he was sent after two days, and he just asked me what was wrong without bothering even to use a stethoscope. And he would then prescribe a liquid for me to drink. At that stage I did not know what was wrong with me.
On 12 August, Moolla and two other detainees, Harold Wolpe and Arthur Goldreich, and myself managed to escape from the Marshall Square police station. We eventually made our way to Dar es Salaam. While in Dar es Salaam, I again fell ill on a number of occasions, and on checking up, it was found that I was suffering from a form of epilepsy caused by the electric shock treatment - torture - and I am, even at this moment, suffering from epileptic attacks.
I think that is a brief résumé of my life in prison. If there are any questions that the Working Group would like to ask, I would be prepared to answer them.
The CHAIRMAN noted that the witness had said that he was a politician. Of which political group in South Africa had he been a member?
The Congress Alliance, made up of the African National Congress, the South African Indian Congress, the Coloured People’s Congress, and the South African Congress of Trade Unions.
The CHAIRMAN asked how the witness had known exactly what voltage was being administered at each stage of the electric shock torture.
When they started, they informed me that they were going to start with 25 volts, and it appeared that every time they changed the voltage they had to make the necessary adjustment on whatever equipment they had. While they were making these adjustments, they informed me that they were now increasing the voltage up to 50, 75, progressively, as the time went along. Of course, they believed that by this means they would virtually force me through fear to give them whatever information they wanted.
The CHAIRMAN asked whether the shocks had been very severe. Had the witness felt a trembling through his body or a convulsion after each administration?
The shock waves go right through your body, and after a while you cannot really gauge whether it is stronger or weaker, because you are virtually numb at that stage. It is very, very difficult to gauge the strength.
The CHAIRMAN asked whether he had been right in understanding the witness to have said, first, that Mr. Chiba had been sentenced to twenty years of forced labour and confined to Robben Island and, later, that Mr. Chiba had been released.
Yes, he had been released three days prior to my escape, and a month later he was rearrested and charged for being a member of the underground movement.
The CHAIRMAN asked whether he had been right in understanding that the witness had been taken to the basement of the magistrate's court, released, and immediately rearrested.
The charge was withdrawn in the basement of the magistrate's court, and immediately after the charge had been withdrawn the magistrate left and the police rearrested us under the ninety-day law.
The CHAIRMAN asked the witness to describe the circumstances of his escape from the police station. Had it been easy to escape?
Well, it was. We managed to make contact with the other detainees and we worked out a whole plan of action, and of course we had managed to get some notes out of the police station to some of our colleagues outside. Unfortunately, we cannot reveal the details of the whole method of escape, because I think it would involve quite a lot of the people who are still in South Africa, and they would definitely be victimized for whatever aid they had given us in the escape.
Mr. ERMACORA asked whether the witness knew the names of the policemen who had tortured him.
Most of them were new faces, but I definitely know one policeman - a Special Branch man, as he was called. His name was Lieutenant Van Wyk.
Mr. ERMACORA asked how many policemen had been present when the witness had been tortured.
There were at least twenty policemen.
Mr. ERMACORA asked whether all twenty policemen had been present all the time.
Yes, during the whole thing.
Mr. ERMACORA asked whether all twenty policemen had participated in the torture
Well, they would sort of take turns at beating you up.
Mr. ERMACORA asked whether Mr. Chiba was still in prison.
He was sentenced to twenty years in prison.
Mr. ERMACORA asked whether he were right in understanding that at one stage Mr. Chiba had been released on the condition that he would not bring a charge against any policeman.
A day prior to his release, Chiba had been visited by a Special Branch man who had a lengthy talk with him, and the Special Branch man had told him that they were going to release him on condition that he doesn't lay any charge against the police for torture. But if he would dare to lay a charge, they threatened him that they would have him rearrested within five minutes and he would never see daylight again. Now this he managed to convey to us through various means of contact which we had established between the various detainees.
Mr. JANKOVIC said that he was convinced that the inhuman methods of torture used by the South African police were highly perfected. They were comparable, in fact, to the methods used by the nazis during the Second World War. Could the witness name any of the policemen who had tortured him, apart from Lieutenant Van Wyk?
I do not know the names of the other policemen, because most of them were new faces. But this one person, Lieutenant Van Wyk - I remember the name distinctly because he was in charge. They had one policeman in charge of each detainee, and he would visit you once or twice a week to try and get information from you. That is why I distinctly remember his name.
Mr. JANKOVIC asked how many policemen had been present when the witness had been given electric shocks.
I couldn't say, because I was on the floor with the Hessian bag on me. All I could see was just figures. You couldn't recognize faces, nor could you see very much, because of the Hessian bag. But when I was taken into the room there were at least twenty policemen, and after they had removed the bag, I could still see at least fifteen to twenty policemen when they were beating me up.
Mr. JANKOVIC asked whether reprisals were taken against the families of refugees from South Africa.
Well, in certain cases the authorities did take reprisals. They tried to get information as to the whereabouts of refugees, what they were going, and so forth, but we don't know all the details of this because there is very little contact between Dar es Salaam and the people in South Africa. After our escape, we knew for a fact that Moolla's wife was taken to the police station on numerous occasions to try and find out where Moolla was exactly. I think even Harold Wolpe's wife had been arrested and likewise Arthur Goldreich's wife.
The CHAIRMAN asked whether the witness still had any relatives in South Africa and, if so, whether any reprisals had been taken against them.
Yes, they are still there. My brother was detained, I think for a period of two and a half months. That was subsequent to our escape.
Mr. MARCHAND STENS asked the witness whether, during his detention, he had heard anything about cases of suicide, or cases in which death had resulted from the ill-treatment of prisoners.
During my period of awaiting trial, although I did not hear of any deaths, there were numerous instances where people just disappeared at night, and the next morning you would wake up and you wouldn't find the person there. That happened on a number of occasions and I know for a fact, on three or four occasions when people were taken away at night and beaten up and brought back early the next morning - that was while I was awaiting trial.
Mr. MARCHAND STENS asked the witness whether he had any evidence to suggest that prisoners were actually induced to engage in homosexual practices, as part of a system of personal degradation.
To the best of my knowledge, I do not know of anyone having been forced into this. Of course, in any prison you would find homosexualism taking place - the act taking place - but I was never subjected to that, nor do I know of anyone who was forced into this situation.
Mr. WALDRON-RAMSEY asked the witness whether his activities in South Africa had been exclusively political?
My activity in politics was not exclusive; my time was not spent exclusively in politics. I had to work, but all my spare time went into the work of the political movement in South Africa, since at least 1948.
Mr. WALDRON-RAMSEY asked the witness whether, at the time of his arrest, he had had reason to believe that he was being arrested for political reasons, rather than as an ordinary criminal.
Yes.
Mr. WALDRON-RAMSEY asked the witness whether he had felt any desire or tendency to commit suicide during the period of his detention.
During the whole period, I never thought of committing suicide. One of the reasons was because I had been in the political movement for a very, very long time and it wasn't the first time that I had been arrested, nor the first time that I had been forced to stay in prison without any reason. And the other reason was that I had always felt that to commit suicide would be an act of giving in to the police, by a person who is maybe a bit unstable. But I have always held the opinion that it would be wrong to commit suicide under any circumstances, that it would be better to go through, under any conditions, to the bitter end. It would be a defeatist attitude to commit suicide.
Mr. WALDRON-RAMSEY noted that the witness had said that, in his and other cases, the magistrates had refused to entertain motions on the question of torture. Did the witness believe that the judiciary condoned the torture of political prisoners?
In my case, after the torture and after we had appeared in court and the magistrate had refused to have anything to do with the topic raised, our lawyers raised the matter with the Attorney-General, and we were allowed to have a medical check-up by six of the top doctors in Johannesburg - three of them from our side, and three from the South African Government, from the medical section. They gave us a proper check-up, which lasted for at least half a day, and they found the marks of the place where the electrodes were tied to our toes, where the pencils and instruments were put between our fingers - all these left definite marks. People couldn't walk properly, and so forth. A report was drawn up, I believe, but nothing ever came of this. After we had completed the 'awaiting-trial' period, we were immediately put into detention, with the result that we had no contact with the lawyers whatsoever. And I believe that, although the lawyers made several attempts to raise this issue, they were never successful. I am also convinced that the South African judiciary connives completely. It is completely controlled by the South African authorities, by the Special Branch. It is virtually dictated to by the fascist police force in South Africa.
One other point is that, under the ninety-day detention law, you are entitled to a visit once a week by a magistrate, to whom you should put your complaints and whatever problems you have, and so forth. The magistrate did come once a week and we put forward our case, asking for books, reading material or certain other items like food, etc., and he would just simply make a note. He would arrive again the next week and we would ask him what had happened, and he would tell us 'Look, I can do nothing about it; I can just take down your requests - what you would like, what your complaints are - and I then hand them over to the South African Special Branch and it is up to them.' Now where in this whole issue does justice come in? What is the purpose in having a magistrate visit detainees if he is not in a position to do anything about their legitimate complaints and demands? When he goes back to the police, who in turn do nothing about it, it is just a vicious circle. This business - the question of the magistrate visiting us - is just window-dressing for the outside world.
Mr. WALDRON-RAMSEY recalled that the South African Government had asserted that the Working Group's investigations were unnecessary because South African prisons were regularly visited by magistrates and judges. Would the witness still maintain that visits to prisons by magistrates were a mere façade? During the visits, did the prisoners report cases of torture and ill-treatment?
Firstly, the question of magistrates and judges visiting prisoners is completely false. I do not think you will find a single prisoner who will confirm the statement that he was ever visited by a magistrate. Magistrates were allowed to visit the detainees only after the tremendous uproar that was created both inside and outside the country. And, as I said, although we drew the attention of the magistrates to various problems about conditions, about time in the open and so forth, after a while it became pointless even to raise these issues. What was the point in raising them? The magistrate came week after week. You put problems to him; he would say, 'I will raise the issue'; and the next week he comes back. You put the question to him, 'What has been done?' and he would say, 'I don't know what has been done; I have just put your case to the Special Branch, and it is up to them to do whatever they have to do.' And that is the way it ends. What authority has the magistrate got, as such? Nothing. No authority whatsoever.
Mr. WALDRON-RAMSEY asked whether the doctors whom the witness had consulted had determined that the epilepsy from which he was now suffering was a direct result of the torture to which he had been subjected in the Republic of South Africa.
While in hospital I had three very very severe attacks, which the doctors were able to observe. I stayed in the hospital for about three and a half months, and it was the doctors who came to the conclusion that the epileptic attacks were due firstly to the shock treatment, and also to the period of detention in solitary confinement which added to the shock treatment. It just made things a bit worse. That was the conclusion they came to.
Mr. WALDRON-RAMSEY asked the witness whether the lawyers who had defended him had been subjected to any persecution by the South African authorities.
My lawyer, a person by the name of Harold Wolpe, was also detained in the same police station where I was, and he was one of the persons who escaped with us. That can give you some idea of the conditions that the lawyers had to work under, and I am sure you should know by now that various lawyers have been named, as you would call it, under the Suppression of Communism Act, for participating or assisting the liberation movement, and they are, thus named communists. These lawyers are now debarred from even practising. Once your name has been placed on the list of communists, then you can be debarred from doing any type of work. You are banned from gatherings, you are banned from social functions, and now they have even gone to the extent of banning them from their profession.
Mr. WALDRON-RAMSEY asked the witless whether most political detainees had suffered the same severe treatment as he had himself.
I think my case was a rather mild one. We know of numerous cases where people have been tortured even more brutally. I know of a personal friend of mine who was tortured to such an extent that the police claim that he eventually jumped through a window and committed suicide. But we have got some information from South Africa - from his wife, as a matter of fact, by letters coming through devious routes - which told us of the tremendous torture this man underwent. His fingernails and his toenails were pulled out; his hair was pulled out; and he suffered various other tortures. When they received the body, they could see all these marks: the burning - his fingertips had been burned, and so forth. And his wife, who subsequently wanted to leave the country to go to London, has been refused a passport, and has even been refused an exit permit, which they have to grant to any political person, provided he does not come back. They are keeping his wife there in South Africa because they are scared that if she does go out, she will be able to expose the conditions and the treatment her husband had received at the hands of the police. And we are also convinced that this man, Saloojee,2 did not commit suicide; he was pushed through a window of the Special Branch building from the seventh floor.
Mr. WATDRON-RAMSEY asked the witness whether he would agree that the torture inflicted on prisoners in South Africa was reminiscent of Hitler's treatment of the Jews.
I would completely agree with the conclusion that you have drawn, namely, that the regime in South Africa and the methods which they are using are identical, if not worse than, the fascist methods used in Germany during and prior to the last world war.
Mr. WALDRON-RAMSEY asked the witness whether, on the basis of his political and personal experience in the Republic of South Africa, he would say that the South African authorities were making a concerted and systematic effort to annihilate any particular sectors of the population.
I will not make a definite comment to the effect that the South African Government wants to annihilate any of the groups, but I will say that it is the policy and the purpose and the aim to make the non-white people virtually illiterate - hewers of wood and drawers of water. And they want them to stay in that situation for the rest of their lives. Therefore they have passed various laws, like the Bantustan Act, the Group Areas Act, and the general apartheid laws whereby they are trying to push groups into reserves which are complete deserts with no means of production, and thereby force them to work at below bread-level wages.
The Group Areas Act is another Act which tends to break down whatever trade and business the other communities have at the moment. Under the Act, all the middle class and the fairly well-off non-whites would be forced into the same position as the poorer non-whites - the Africans and others - and they would eventually be pushed into the reserves as well, so that there would be a constant cheap labour force. The authorities did make an attempt, not to annihilate any community, but to remove one community from South Africa completely. That was the Indian community with a total population of half a million. When the Nationalist Government came into power in 1946, it tried to induce the Indians to accept a grant of £40 and free passage back to India, provided that they wouldn't attempt to return again. This, of course, none of the Indians was prepared to do, and after this the Government passed this Group Areas Act, under which they can confine you in separate groups. You aren't allowed to trade in any particular area, you aren't allowed to work in any particular area, and so forth. I think one of the aims of the Group Areas Act is to put the Indians, and also the other communities, in such a position that they would voluntarily give in, or leave the country.
I have answered your question in the sense that the authorities have made attempts to annihilate whole communities or whole sects within the country. As I said, they haven't as yet done so. But all these laws and acts which have been passed, and the regrouping of people and placing them in strategic positions or in positions where they can be located and so forth, have a purpose behind them, as you correctly pointed out. Even in Germany this was done, and the purpose was to subjugate and to control these people. I won't say that they want the population to waste away completely, because that would be suicide for the whites themselves, but they want to keep the non-whites at a subsistence level in order to do the necessary work for the whites, because the South African industries cannot live without the labour of the black people in South Africa. So the authorities cannot completely annihilate the non-whites as such, but, by putting them into these group areas, into the various reserves and so forth, if there is any trouble, the white Government is in a position where it can annihilate whatever groups it wants to. The reserves are completely blockaded. Group areas are situated in places where there are mountains on three sides and one opening, and so forth, with the result that if there is any trouble or any uprising, they have only very limited spaces to guard, and they can virtually control, if not annihilate, the non-white people.
Mr. WALDRON-RAMSEY asked the witness what was the South African Government's attitude to international investigations of the type which the Working Group was at present conducting. Did such investigations give confidence and hope to political leaders who were trying to better the conditions of the non-white population, and did they provide encouragement to prisoners and to the non-white population in general?
With regard to the first question, I think it is a well-known fact that the South African Government has continuously refused to allow various commissions on various issues to enter South Africa to take evidence and so forth in connexion with their particular work. In connexion with the issue of South West Africa a commission was refused permission to enter the country. Various attempts have been made by Amnesty International to send in commissions to inquire into prison conditions. This has been refused, so I think it is quite clear that, the South African Government does not approve of any of the commissions whatsoever.
On the other question of what influence commissions of this nature may have on the South Africans, I think they do quite a bit to boost the morale of the people both inside and outside the prisons. That is, of course, when the people in the prisons are able to get the information. Then, I am also convinced that the findings of commissions of this nature will also encourage certain people and give some of the world Powers an idea of conditions existing in South Africa and thereby force them to take some action, which they have up to now refused to take. And I think it generally would have a tremendous amount of benefit from all aspects.
Mr. ERMACORA asked the witness what procedure had been used for bringing the question of torture before the courts.
Firstly, it was raised with the magistrate when I first appeared in court, with a view to bringing it to the notice of the authorities - the Government - the magistrates and the courts themselves - and of course, the police force, who claimed no knowledge of these things, no knowledge of the torture and the conditions which we underwent. That was the first instance.
Subsequently, after the medical check-up and so forth, we came to the conclusion that we should lay charges against the South African regime for the torture, and also claim compensation for it. Of course, then we were put in prison under the ninety-day detention act, and so was my lawyer, with the result that the whole thing fell through thereafter. We were not in a position to do anything about it subsequently.
Mr. ERMACORA asked the witness where the lawyer who had escaped with him was living at present.
He is in London at the moment.
Mr. MARCHAND STENS asked the witness to give the names of the doctors who had attended him in Dar es Salaam.
There was one doctor by the name of Dr. Parekh. He is an ordinary medical practitioner. And then, I had treatment in the Soviet Union, in Moscow, for three and a half months in 1964.
The CHAIRMAN thanked the witness for his testimony.
Footnote
Source: United Nations document E/CN.4/950.
The Group was set up by the Commission on Human Rights on 6 March 1967 to investigate the charges of torture and ill-treatment of prisoners, detainees or persons in police custody in South Africa. It heard a number of former prisoners.