CASE NO: CT/04113
VICTIM: BEULIN ISAAKS
NATURE OF VIOLENCE: SHOT AND KILLED BY POLICE
TESTIMONY FROM: ANNA SAM [grandmother]
ELIZABETH ISAACS [mother]
MR POTGIETER: Mary Burton, she will be joining the panel tomorrow. Welcome Mary, thank you for coming. Good afternoon Ms Sam.
MS SAM: Good afternoon.
MR POTGIETER: Thank you very much. Before I listen to your evidence, you have to take the oath. Will you please stand.
ANNA MABIA SAM Duly sworn states
MR POTGIETER: Is this Elizabeth Isaacs? I am going to let you also take the oath, so it will be easier to listen to both evidences. Will you please stand.
ELIZABETH FLORA ISAACS: Duly sworn states
MR POTGIETER: Glenda Wildschut will lead both of you to give your evidence. She will take over now.
MS WILDSCHUT: Good afternoon Ms Sam. Good afternoon Ms Isaacs. We will start with you Ms Sam. Is that in order? Can you hear me? --- Yes I can hear you.
I will ask you in English and you will hear the voice in your ear. [Indistinct] ... you will be telling us your story about your granddaughter, Beulin Isaaks. Yes. You will be telling us about Beulin who was shot by the police in Paballelo on Monday the 11th November 1985. Is that correct? Okay. Will you go ahead and tell us what happened and what you know from your side what had happened. Later on we will go on to ask Beulin's mommy to talk. --- On that afternoon I sent her, after I came from work we were sitting in front of the door and I sent her to go and buy some milk. It was...
MR POTGIETER: Just one moment please. Order and silence please! Thank you very much. --- That specific evening I sent her to buy some milk because I wanted to make some porridge. When she left, me and my other daughters were sitting on the stoep and she had left already and we were sitting talking. Later on I heard, it was later that evening my son said and we were wondering why this child did not come back because it was late already and I thought it was around about 9/10 o'clock that evening. I cannot remember precisely but it was around about and we heard some shooting. We heard one shot actually and I told Joan, somebody is shooting and Beulin has not returned home. My one daughter said, I am going to bed now because she was not coming back. Me and my youngest daughter were still waiting up for her. While we were standing there, during that time a Kombi came down the road without any headlamps and it drove down the street, down William Singel street. They came from up top and, the second house from me they put on their lights and I saw that these people were wearing blue uniforms but we could not see well because both lights were off. We could not see whether it was black people or white people. They left then. A short while afterwards we heard various gunshots, one after the other and I said there was a shooting somewhere, let us go to bed but Beulin still had not returned. I work during the day so the next morning when I got up I did not feel very comfortable and happy but I thought I had to go to work, so I left for work by foot. I went to work but I wanted to walk and I did not want to go. I was very hesitant to leave for work. Having arrived at work, my employer said that I was not feel very well and she said good morning and I went on with my household duties and I had some ironing to do but I asked her to leave the ironing because I wanted to go home. Before I could ask her she came to me and then I said, madam and baas and I said madam I am not going to go on with this ironing, I would really like to go home because something had happened there, and she said, Anna I saw in your face this morning when you came in that something was wrong. You may go home. I went home and having arrived there I saw a lot of people sitting on the front stoep but I kept my pose and when I came there, my next door neighbour said, Anna do not get excited, be strong. We first took the people to the hospital to see whether Beulin was not in the hospital and she said no, she was not in hospital, she was in the charge office. The next day we went to the charge office but in the meanwhile no police had come to our house to inform us about anything. The next day my one cousin accompanied me and another person to the police charge office because we want to look for her body. When we came to the police station they said we could go inside and we went to that one room. We went to a small little place where we waited. Later on we said we want to see the body. When we came there they showed us, they did not want to let us go in, we had to look through a glass. When we looked through this window pane, we, I saw right in front of her forehead, because she was covered, I saw right in her forehead there was a wound because I could not say what it was but when I said open because I want to see her body and they said no, they were not allowed to do that. Now I do not feel very happy about this because they never informed us that she had died and they never said, they never even said there is your dog, she is dead.
MS WILDSCHUT: According to the statement you made, Beulin was 15 years of age. You also felt that she could not run away if a shooting had occurred. --- She could not run away because she was pregnant. It was near the baby's birth and why didn't they grabbed her from behind because she was not strong and she was not able to run away. She was pregnant and it was time to give birth.
Perhaps we should ask whether Beulin's mother can tell us her story. Would you like to say something? Are you feeling all right? Could you sit a bit nearer to the microphone please. Can the briefer please switch off the microphone, Ms Sam's microphone. Ms Isaaks, can you please tell us your story about what happened to Beulin. --- I came from Johannesburg after my mother had phoned me. It was not the same time but we were watching TV and no names were mentioned on the TV and on the TV they said it was a woman between 22 and 23 years old and I said my child was younger than that. From that Monday evening already, I did not feel very well and on that Wednesday before the names were announced, somebody said Florie you should not be shocked but somebody phoned us and said one of your children, Beulin, had been shot. I was very, very shocked and I asked the people with whom I worked to send me home and they said no, I can only take you down for the funeral and I said no madam, I cannot wait till then, I had to go then. The train to Upington had already left and I had to take the train passing through Bloemfontein. When I arrived home I saw people sitting there, sitting around. I entered the house and asked my mother what had happened that these children were shot. Weren't they warned beforehand and my mother said no, it was peaceful and I do not know what had happened. We sat there and I asked my mother was any post-mortem held and the police never came to inform us. We did not know whether she was in hospital or what had happened to her. Another woman came there and said - this was aunt Wiesie - that Beulin was in the mortuary. We made arrangements for the funeral. We went to Eendrag. First we went to the police office, police station and asked whether we could not see the body and the police said no we were not allowed to see the body and she said, even not the mother, and they said no you could not see this body and if you do not go away we are going to lock you up, so we left. On our way home we also heard that my other daughter had also been caught by the police and they said no, she was charged with public violence - I beg your pardon - with intimidation, but we went from here to there and nobody could give us any assistance. The next day the police came there and they said yes, they bought the same coffin like Jetta's coffin and they said no, we have saved all the money to buy a good coffin. Then we left again and the next time they said, if we go from here the body was not allowed to go to the church or was not allowed to go to the house. This body has to go directly to the church and we went in the directions they gave us and they led us all the way to the church. When we came to the church they brought the body in and we wanted, we desperately wanted to see the body of my child and we hear in Paballelo, if it is a funeral the body was taken to the house and then from the house to the church and then from the church to the cemetery. In Paballelo we assist one another when there was a funeral. We just had to do what they commanded us to do and at the church I said, open the lid of this coffin, we wanted to see this body, open this coffin otherwise I am going to break it open but in the end somebody said at the back, open the lid so that she can see the body, and I also, after they had opened the lid, I saw this wound right in her forehead. I do not know whether it was a bullet wound or what. From there we went to the cemetery. Before we arrived there we were on our way to the cemetery, the police started assaulting us and I have asked please let me get out of this combi so that we can just get to the cemetery. When we came there, there were not 350 people anymore, only 10 people were left to attend the funeral and the women had to throw the soil onto the coffin because we had to do that. We had to close the grave. Afterwards we went home. When we arrived there the police also arrived. The police, all the time they were harassing us and they were assaulting the people and we did not know what to do and we did not know what was happening. If we went to the police they chased us away and that was what was happening and that is all I have to say.
Was your daughter involved with any political organisation? --- Not that I know of.
Do you know what the reason was for her shooting? --- No, I cannot say. I was very, very shocked to hear about it.
In your statement you mentioned that there was one policeman of whom everybody was frightened. Can you tell us more about this specific policeman? --- Yes, he was called the Red Major and everything he commanded, the police had to do. He was the commander, Commanding Officer at that time. He could go into your house and shoot somebody but nobody could stop him.
Do you know his surname perhaps? --- No, everybody knew him as the Red Major or the Rooimajoor.
Was there any post-mortem held? --- No, there was no post-mortem.
I have no further questions and I will hand over to the Chairman.
MR POTGIETER: Ms Isaaks, was Beulin the first child who was shot in Paballelo during that period, until Jetta's death? --- Yes, she was the first child to be shot.
Were there lawyers who represented you in this case?--- Yes, Chris Naidoo represented us, from Johannesburg.
I see in your statement that the documents pertaining to Beulin's case is still with the lawyers in Cape Town in Greenmarket Square. --- Yes, her files are there at that office in Cape Town - 54 Greenmarket Square.
Is it the Legal Resources Centre? --- William Kerfoot is the lawyer's name who is handling this case.
Thank you very much. Any questions Wendy? Ms Sam and Ms Isaacs, thank you very much for your evidence this afternoon. It is very clear that you are still suffering pain because of this incident and we can understand this but just like the previous case, it is hard enough to lose a child but it is even worse if it happens in unnatural circumstances. You do not know exactly what the circumstances were and it is even worse as in your case, you get no co-operation from the police to assist you in finding out what exactly happened so that you can come to rest and peace and can accept how everything happened. It is very difficult to accept if you do not understand what happened. We have asked our investigation team to investigate this matter and, once again, they have gone to the police station to find out where the documents of the inquest were, and in every case where somebody dies from unnatural causes, the Court has to investigate what the causes of the death were, if there were any criminal offences. So at some or other stage there should have been an inquest. Our investigation team visited the police station and they were also informed that these documents have been destroyed. This is against the command of the Minister of Justice, that no documents should be destroyed and the Commission should have access to all these documents but in any case I am bringing this under your attention that we are investigating this matter. There must be an explanation why the documents have been destroyed or where they are in any case, and if the documents were destroyed an explanation should be given. The Commission is not going to accept this case as it stands. Thank you very much for coming this afternoon. Thank you for sharing your stories with us. We know it is very difficult to talk about things like this in public but thank you very much and we will keep in contact with you. Thank you.
