000244 - historicalpapers.wits.ac.za€¦ · SAMSON MAHATANE KATAKA Fi f th Applicant and THE MINISTER OF LAW AND ORDER First Respondent THE DIVISIONAL COMMISSIONER OF POLICE, WEST

000244

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF SOUTH AFRICA

(WITWATERSRAND LOCAL DIVISION)

In the matter between: % *

•

XRUGERSDORP RESIDENTS' ORGANISATION First Applican tDIKEME JOSHUA MAGOTLA Second ApplicantEETHUEL MONGWAKETSI Third ApplicantJACOB SAFATSA Fourth ApplicantSAMSON MAHATANE KATAKA Fi f th Applicant

and

THE MINISTER OF LAW AND ORDER First Respondent

THE DIVISIONAL COMMISSIONER OFPOLICE, WEST RAND Second

THE MINISTER OF DEFENCE Third Respondent

A F F I D A V I T•r ..

1/ the undersigned/

SOLOMON MASALA

cc hereby make oath and say:

I am 27 years of age and I reside at 321

000245Page 2

The facts contained herein are within my personal knowledge and are true and correct .

On the 26th January 1986/ which was a Sunday,

I was leaving my home to visit a friend. I

was accompanied at the time by one SOLOMON

MATLKASE and one JOHANNES KOPELA.

As we went past the house situated to the

back of my house at 321 Munsievilie, two SAD?

vehicles stopped, and approximately five

soldiers alichted therefrom.

They- came cowards me and one of them started

grabbing me around the neck, while they all

pressed me against a fence. The soldiers

swore at me, calling me all kinds of deroga

tory names, and after a while I was told to

go h o m e .

There was no reason whatsoever for the as-

5 ̂ u 1 1 cn it* e . I hdc never even seen these

particular soldiers at any occasion before.

000246

In support of the aforegoing I respectfully refer to the affidavits of the said SOLOMON

MATHLASE and JOHANNES KOPELA who witnessed the above assaults.

DEPONENT

I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THE DEPONENT HAS ACKNOWLEDGED

THAT HE KNOWS AND UNDERSTANDS THE CONTENTS Or THIS

AFFIDAVIT WHICH WAS SIGNED AND SWORN TO BEFORE ME AT

ON THIS DAY OF FE3RUARY 1936 THE

REGULATIONS CONTAINED IN GOVERNMENT NOTICE NO. Rl25c

OF 21S T JULY 1972 AND R164S OF 19 AUGUST 1977 HAVING

BEEN COMPLIED WITH.

COMMISSIONER OF OATHS

*

r

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF SOUTH AFRICA 0 0 0 2 4 7(WITWATERSRAND LOCAL DIVISION)

In the matter between:

KRUGERSDORP RESIDENTS' ORGANISATION First Applican tDIKEME JOSHUA MAGOTLA Second ApplicantBETHUEL MONGWAKETSI Third Appl ican tJACOB SAFATSA Fourth ApplicantSAMSON MAHATANE KATAKA Fifth Applicant

ana

THE MINISTER OF LAW AND ORDER First ResconcentTHE DIVISIONAL COMMISSI ONER OFPOLICE, WEST RAND Second RespendentTHE MINISTER OF DEFENCE Third Re spender, t

A F F I D A V I TT" n ’

1/ the undersigned, '

JOH ANNES XOPELA

do hereby make oath and say that:

1 I s.?. 29 vs.irs c f ace and I r?sid? at 217

Munsieville.

000248-

The facts contained herein are within my

personal knowledge, and are true and

correct.

I have read the. affidavit of SOLOMON MAT- LHASE, and confirm the contents thereof inso

far as they relate to me.

In particular I confirm the manner of the

assault being perpetrated on myself as de

scribed in the aforesaid affidavit.

I have also read the affidavit deposed to by SOLOMON MASALA, and confirm that insofar as

that affidavit refers to me it is true and

correct. In particular I confirm that SOLO

MON MASALA was assaulted in themanner de

scribed by him in the affidavit.

t, r »• N.

DEPONENT

CERTIFY THAT THE DEPONENT HAS ACKNOWLEDGED

KNOWS AND UNDERSTANDS THE CONTENTS OF THIS

0 0 0 2 4 9 ?ace 3

AFFIDAVIT WHICH WAS SIGNED AND SWORN TO BEFORE ME AT >-*-€; ON THIS DAY OF FEBRUARY 1986 THE

REGULATIONS CONTAINED IN GOVERNMENT NOTICE NO. R125S OF 21ST JULY 1972 AND R1648 OF 19 AUGUST 1977 HAVING •BEEN COMPLIED WITH.


AMANDA CHORN2600 Sanlamaarrtrum 210 J*ooa StTM< JoftanrvwOurg 2001

Cnmmlaaionar of Oatfia &H3fflcio/Pr*CS!alng Attomay R.SA.

I

0002




KRUGERSDORP RESIDENTS' ORGANISATIONDIKEME JOSHUA MAGOTLA3ETHUEL MONGWAKETSIJACOB SAFATSASAMSON MAHATANE KATAKA

First Applicant Second Applicant Third Applicant

Fourth Applicant Fifth Applicant

and

THE MINISTER OF LAW AND ORDER

THE DIVISIONAL COMMISSIONER OF POLICE, WEST RAND

THE MINISTER OF DEFENCE

First Respondent

Second Respondent

Third Respondent

A F F I D A V I T

I, the undersigned,

SOLOMON MATLHASE

do h e r e b v make oath and say:

I am 29 years of ace end reside at ^65

Munsieville.

in

00 0 2 5 1Page 2

3

4

5

t

6

7

The facts contained herein are within my -

personal knowledge, and are to the best of ray

knowledge and belief true and correct.

On Friday evening the 31st January 1936 I was

on my way to attend a night vigil to be held

in honour of JOSEPH SHIlMMY MONO. I was ac

companied by JOHANNES KOPELA.

As we proceeded along the road on foot, two

caspirs occupied by members of the SA Defence

Force stopped, and a soldier in one of the

caspirs asked me for a cigarette.

We stoppea to respond to his request, and

whilst we were so standing four other sol

diers alighted from the same vehicle and came

up to where we were standing.

JOHANNES KOPELA ( "JOHANNES") tried to run

away when he saw these soldiers and I graiced

hold of him and told him not to leave, as I

did not think they would harm us.

The next moment one of the- said soldiers hi t

me with his fist on the right eye therecv

000252Page 3

9

1C

11

injuring it. I fell, and JOHANNES, whom I

was still holding at this stage, fell on top

of me .

As I fell I was kicked severely on the shin

of my left leg, as well as in my back, kid

neys and ribs.

In the meantime three other said soldiers

alighted from the second caspir and proceeded

to where JOHANNES was lying next to me, and I

saw him being kicked in his hips and in

various other carls of his body.

There was ac"s0 iucely no reason for the as

saults on us anc we were not given any rea

sons.

After the incident we proceeded on our way to

the night vigil.

I have read the affidavit of SOLOMON MAS.ALA,

who was assaulted in a similar manner. I

was present when the assault on him took

place, together with my friend JOHANNES. I

confirm the contents of the affidavit insofar*

as they refer to me. In particular I confirm

0002Page

the manner in which the assault took place

and that there was no apparent reason Chere- •

f o r e .

DEPONENT

I 'HERE3Y CERTIFY THAT THE DEPONENT HAS ACKNOWLEDGED

THAT EE KNOWS AND UNDERSTANDS THE CONTENTS 0? THIS

AFFIDAVIT WHICH WAS SIGNED AND SWORN TO BEFORE ME AT

ON THIS DAY OF FEBRUARY 19S6 THE

REGULATIONS CONTAINED IN GOVERNMENT NOTICE NO. R1255

OF 21ST JULY 1972 AND R1S4S OF 19 AUGUST 1977 HAVING

EEEN- COMPLIED WITH.


AMANDA CHCRN ~2 5 0 0 S a n ia m s e n tru m

2 i 0 J s c c e S tre e t J c n a n n e s a u rg 2C 01

C ^ T im s .o n o r a * C a th s

\-V \s'" •

\C002541




KRUGERSDORP RESIDENTS' ORGANISATION First Ap piicantDIKEME JOSHUA MAGOTLA 3ETHUEL MONGWAKETSI JACOB SAFATSA SAMSON MAKATANE KATAKA

Second Third

Fo ur th Fi f th

Ap piicant Ap piicant Ap piicant Ap piican t

and

THE DIVISIONAL COMMISSIONER OF

First r

POLICE, WEST RAND Second Respondent

THE MINISTER OF DEFENCE Third Respondent

A F F I D A V I T

Zk ■I, the undersigned,

ERNEST SIXOS-

do hereby make oath and state that:

1 I am an adult male and "'I reside at 9^0

Mabalane Street, Munsieville.

000255Page 2

The facts herein contained are both true and

correct and are within my personal know

ledge.

On Sunday the 26th January 1986 at about 10

a.m. I was standing in front of the gate of

my parent's house when a police hippo came

up the street towards me and stopped next to

m e .

The driver cf the vehicle asked me to remove

the cars parked on the opposite side of the

road in front cf my parent's house.

I told the driver that I could not move the

vehicles as I did not know to whom they be

longed .

The driver then got out of the said hippo,

carrying sjambok and came up to me. He told

me that I thought that I was a white man-and

that I should talk to him nicely.

I deny that I spoke to the policeman in any

ether tone than that I normally speak ĵ o

other people, regardless of their colour or

position.

I told him that I was speaking to him nicely and apologised him if I had offended him in

any way by speaking to him disrespectfully.

Thereupon he hit me with the sjambok across

my back after which I managed to grab the

tail-end of the sjambok.

I asked him why he was hitting me to which he

replied "Kcu jou bek" and proceeded to punch

me in the face. I punched him back and he

fell to the ground.

Thereafter the other policemen who were in

the said hippo, about eight in total, climbed

out of the back of the hippo and came up to

m e .

One of them asked me "Wat doen jy kaff-er-

tjie?" I replied by asking him if he and the

other policemen had not seen what the said

driver had done to me, upon which one of the

*

000256Page 3

000257

Page 4

said policemen assaulted me by punching me

all over my body.

I managed to brea'k away and ran into my

p a r e n t 's ho u s e .

However, the policeman who had assaulted me

caught up with me inside the house and

dragged me back to the hippo and ordered me

to get inside- I climbed into the hippo and

tried to explain to a sergeant what had hap

pened but was tolc to keep cuiet. I then

jumped out of the hippo, and again tried to

run into my parents' house. Before I got to

the house, however, I was again caught by

managed to free myself from them and as I was

running towards my parents' house a teargas

cannister was thrown into the house.

After this the said policemen left me alone

and departed in the hippo.

7

some of the policemen and again punched.

DEPONENT

0 0 0 2 5 8Page 5

I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THE DEPONENT HAS ACKNOWLEDGED

THAT HE KNOWS AND UNDERSTANDS THE CONTENTS OF THIS

AFFIDAVIT WHICH WAS SIGNED -AND SWORN TO BEFORE ME AT

fa y s C t& S O C a * 0N THIS f O ' * * DAY 0F FESRUARY 1986 TKE REGULATIONS CONTAINED IN GOVERNMENT NOTICE NO. R1258

OF 21ST JULY 1972 AND R1S45 OF 19 AUGUST 1977 HAVING

BEEN COMPLIED WITH.

COMMISSIONER OF OATHSjS ' .

•V2VS

*siS1//

iij. '. aS'"$I;>

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF SOUTH AFRICA (WITWATERSRAND LOCAL DIVISION)

In Che matter between:

KRUGERSDORP RESIDENTS 1 ORGANISATIONDIKEME JOSHUA MAGOTLA3ETHUEL MONGWAKETSIJACOB SAFATSASAMSON MAHATANE KATAKA

First Applicant Second Applicant Third Applicant

Fourth Applicant Fifth Applicant

and

THE MINISTER CF

THE DIVISIONAL COMMISSIONER CF POLICE, WEST RAND Second Resccndent

* THE MINISTER OF DEFENCE Tr.irc Rescor.cer.t

AFFIDAVIT

I, the undersigned.

LAURENCE MCLATLHEGI N TLOKOA,

do herebv make oath and state that: t *5?

l I am the senior process controller at Hcec;st

2 6 C

(SA) (Pty) Limited, Chamdor, resident at 504 Motshepe Street, Kagiso 1.

The facts contained herein are within my personal knowledge, and are true and correct.

I am the Secretary of the first applicant. I

have read the founding affidavit of DIKEME

JOSHUA MfiKGOTLKA and confirm the contents

thereof as far as they relate to the forma

tion cf the first applicant, the support c:

the first applicant within the community, the

acitivities of the first aoolican t ,__ the

events leading up to the increased presence

of first the police and thereafter the police

and the Defence Force, the successful action

taken by the respective branches of the

Krucersdcrp Women's Organization in co

ordination with the respective youth con

gresses, and the -intolerant situation that

has arisen as a result of the actions of the

police and Defence Force.

I refer to paragraphs ! & / ai:~ ij.l of the

said founding affidavit. I helped the p i

page 2

L - N

10

use of the word might be misleading to persons in the white community as it has nothing to do with communism or communists.

None of us knew any of the said people from Randfontein and Dobsonville, but we allowed

them to stay as they appeared to join in with

the proceedings and the singing.

I left at about lam. and returned early the

next morning. As I was driving from Sagiso 1

1986 I saw an unusual amount of police acti

vity, with a number of police _£5iliclej

drivine around.

l 7 I proceeded further to the deceased's house

where I was told that the said croup from

Randfontein and Dobsonville had quietly left

the proceedings early in the morning and had

thereafter caused trouble in the township by

throwing stones and generally causing unrest,

which action prompted the police action I

no ticed .

’c r

12 As the result of the urgency of this matdfr,

time has not allowed me to locate any person

L-H

Page 4

/

. . . .

who personally saw chat the people who attended the night vigil were the same people causing the unrest.*

Page 5

13 However, almost all the local residents attending the night vigil that were present

when I left the proceedings early that morn

ing were still present on my return.

15

I and other residents drove around for about

an hour between approximately cam. anc 7am.

that mornir.g trying to see if we could find

the said group from Randfontein and Dooson-

ville, without success. Mer-ally people who

attend the nignc vig i a stay tor the funeral

and we found it very strange that people

should come all the way from Cobsonville or

Randfontein to attend the night vigil and then not stay for the funeral and, in my

view, this is consistent with the reports

that I had heard that they were the ones

causing the unrest referred to above.

A little while later, when I returned from

the church at 9.15am., where I had gone to

help pcspar^ f'-ic-her ‘ c c ciis iunefil. "

that a restriction order had been placed on the funeral and served on the family at 9am.

In terms of the said restriction order, there were to be no political speeches and peoplewere only allowed to move between the church

and the graveyard by means of mechanical

transport.

As the funeral was scheduled to start a:

10am., I, SISTER 3EP.NA?." JICUES anc an ancle

of the deceased proceeded to the Sag iso po

lice station co see if they could possibly

help with the transportat'To'n"of the necessary

buses. We thought rather naively, judging by

subsequent events (in this regard I refer T2-

the later part of the founding affidavit and

the affidavit of SCNGANI DLAMIIMI, marked

”A43") that as the police wanted everything

to go smoothly and were concerned that law

and order should be maintained, that ti^ey

would assist in achieving this aim and would

the re fore help to arrange buses for the

transportation between the church and the

graveyard.

n

Pag

13 We spoke to a sergeant at the police stationand put our request to him, to which he responded that the police were not responsible for the funeral.

19 Thereafter we went to the Chamdor depot of'

Greyhound Bus Lines. The family had col

lected money for the funeral and there was

about R300,00 left over, which we took with

us in order to pay for buses we intended

crderinc from the said Greyhound Bus Lines.

2C We saw a black person apparently in charge of

tHs ceoo’t at the time who, after we had put

our request to him, phoned the manager of

Greyhound for the area, MR NES3IT who, we

were informed by the above black person told

him that Greyhound was not interested in the

unrest and would not furnish us with any

buses for purposes of the funeral. On our

return to the church I approached another

policeman who was filming proceedings with a

video camera and asked him if the police

could not help, to which he replied that his

commander had ins true ted^him not to help with

any funeral arrangements and that we had to

Z £ jG

Page 8

abide by the restriction order or face the

consequences.

Thereafter I discussed the situation with the said SISTER BERNARD and the said '^==r'and we decided that we should abide by the

restriction order at all costs as we wanted

the funeral to go off well and certainly did

not wish to invite any police action which

would disruot the funeral.

Various speakers had been arranged to accress

the funeral and as their speeches were to oe

of a oolitical nature, we had to make alter

native arrangements for the funeral service.

Accordingly the said SISTER 5ERNARD and my

self went to the St. Mary's Convent/ where

she is stationed, to fetch books and bibles

from which people could read.

The various speakers read from the bible and

preached. Various poems were also read and

the funeral service lastec until about 2pm.

At the service the pro clems arising out az the funeral restrictions were explained and

L M

we advised them that we thought it best that only the adults should go in vehicles to the graveyard and tha-t the children should go directly to the home of the deceased for the traditional washing of the hands.

Page 9

26 I went to the graveyard while the said SISTER(XI A oT X M A

BERNARD and JOS its'■*."*?*, A remained behind at

the church to see that everything went in an

orderlv fashion.

L H

Although there was a large presence of pclice

at the graveyard/ no teargas was usee and

there were no problems at the fur- • t n a a

29 Similarly to the said MAXGCT15A, I was also

detained under Section 5C cf the Internal

Security Act/ Mo. 74 of 19o2 on the i3 th

January 1936.

29 Subsequent to my release, I learnt tnat there

were quite a number of incidents of unrest in

Kagiso and I believe that these might well

have been committed in an angry response by

some radical elements in ̂ our community to ^ u r

de ten tion.

I\]

I suggested that chay use the Sc. ?s:sr' 3

Higher Primary School hall and chat thay

should approach MR J C. MZIMELA :or tr.e

nacassary permission.

32 I learnt subsequently that MR MZIMZLA had no

objection to the school hall's being used for

this purpose.

33 The meeting was called for 11 am. on Mongay

27 January 1985, and on the invitation of the

said student leaders, I went to the meeting

as an observer.

Page 10

30 I was released from detention on the morning of Sunday the 26th January 1986, and on that day a couple of student leaders approached and told me that they wanted to call a meeting of students the following day to advise

them that they were of the view that in

accordance with the decision taken at the

Crisis in Education Conference at Wits Uni

versity at the end of 1985-, children should

return to school on the 23th January 1986. L h

la 3v the time I got there, about 12 noon, the

meeting had already commenced and as the hall

L b i

2 6 ?

Page 11

was filled to capacity, I stood at one of the doors of the hall.

About 15 minutes after my arrival at the hall, I noticed two police casspir vehicles

stop outside the southern fence of the

school. At the same time, another casspir

vehicle and a landrover had stopped on the

west side of the school. BONGANI D L AMINI,

also an Executive Member of the first appli-

C / W 2L 2 1* 31 § •

About thirty policemen rushed out of the.

vehicles, armed with rifles, shotguns and

teargas guns.'

Seme of the said policemen remained outside

the school grounds while others rushed in.

The said BONGANI and I walked towards the

approaching policemen in order to ask them

what was going on.

The first policeman I saw (whom I would re

cognise but whose name I do not know) r e l i e d

2 ^ - c

Page 12

by insulting me by saying "Jy, kaffir, het niks om te se nie."

40 By this time, I noticed SISTER BERNARD NCU3E, whom I had just seen arriving on the scene, talking to other policemen.

41 I heard one of the policemen say to SISTER

BERNARD "Fok off meid".

42 One of the policemen behind the man who had

insulted me mace an action of pulling some

thing between his hands which he then threw

over our heads towards the school hall.

43 The projectile hit the wail of the building

and exploded. We later discovered the shell

of a stun grenade. The policemen then

started firing teargas into- the -hail and

breaking the windows of the hail in the pro-

c e s s .

44 i'uS eicp-osion causec cy tne stun grenace anc

the teargas escaping from the cannister that

had landed in the hall caused great confusion.

School children becar. runninc out of the hall

‘ / !

by the doors of the hall, but, on seeing this, the policemen started firing teargas at the doors where- the children were coming

o u t .

As students tried to escape they were sjam-

bokked indiscriminately.

«The aforesaid policemen who had remained

outside the school grounds then started

Su.cc cine sc scuc«r.c5 wnc .ice Cc ̂—cape from che hail and who were trying to run

away from the school grounds. While this was

all going on, policemen who had advanced to

the hail shot -two teargas cannisters into it

and one large one was thrown into it by

hand.

As a result, of policemen standing at the

exists and whipping children as they came out

therefrom, a number of school children were

trapped inside the hail.

I saw the glass of a window of the hall being

broken by one of the students so trapped

Page 13

U

/)

inside the hall, and heard other breaking of g l a s s .

As the student I had seen breaking the glasson the side of the hall on which I was stand-ing was trying to climb out of the window he

had just broken was being sjambokked, I

assumed that other children who were traooed

in the hall were trying to get out by break

ing the glass of windows on the other side of

the hall. In this way they might escace

Some of the policemen must have come to the

same conclusion as I had as I saw quite a few

of them, who had been standing on the same

side of the hall as I was on, running around

the hall, apparently in an at temp t to deal

with those children that, I learnt subse

quently, had escaped from the hall by break

ing the glass of the windows on the otSer side thereof.

Shortly afterwards I heard shots being

Page

Collection Number: AK2145 KRUGERSDORP RESIDENTS’ ORGANISATION AND 4 OTHERS v. THE MINISTER OF LAW AND ORDER AND 2 OTHERS 1986 PUBLISHER: Publisher:- Historical Papers, University of the Witwatersrand Location:- Johannesburg ©2012

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000244 - historicalpapers.wits.ac.za€¦ · SAMSON MAHATANE KATAKA Fi f th Applicant and THE MINISTER OF LAW AND ORDER First Respondent THE DIVISIONAL COMMISSIONER OF POLICE, WEST