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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.
Page 3
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.
COMMISSIONER OF OATHS
AMANDA CHORN2600 Sanlamaarrtrum 210 J*ooa StTM< JoftanrvwOurg 2001
Cnmmlaaionar of Oatfia &H3fflcio/Pr*CS!alng Attomay R.SA.
I
0002
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF SOUTH AFRICA
(WITWATERSRAND LOCAL DIVISION)
In the matter between:
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.
COMMISSIONER OF OATHS
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
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF SOUTH AFRICA
(WITWATERSRAND LOCAL DIVISION)
In the matter between:
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
Page
5
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
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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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