HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

SUBMISSIONS - QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

DATE: 26-06-1996 NAME: SYBIL ROBIN STOLS

MR BORAINE: Chairperson, for one reason or another we've had to change the order a little bit, so I hope the witnesses aren't becoming confused, everybody will be heard, but we are just trying to accommodate different people's needs.

The final witness before tea if that is in order with you sir, is Sybil Robin Stols, and I would call her to come to the witness stand now please.

REVD TUTU: Please, please, please.

MR BORAINE: Good afternoon Mrs Stols. We are very pleased to see you.

MRS STOLS: Thank you.

MR BORAINE: And you are most welcome.

MRS STOLS: Thank you very much.

MR BORAINE: I hope you will try to relax a little bit, take a deep breath, that's better.

MRS STOLS: I'll try.

MR BORAINE: I know it is hard, and I know that you've had a very long wait like everybody today and I am not going to delay you very long before I hand you over to one of my colleagues, but I would like to ask you to take the oath.

Just before I do that, we know that you have a very tragic story about the death, the killing of your husband. We are very sympathetic and we are appreciative of your pain.

PORT ELIZABETH HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE

2 SR STOLS

Would you please stand do take the oath.

SYBIL ROBIN STOLS: (sworn states)

MR BORAINE: Thank you, please be seated. The Reverend Bongani Finca, Commissioner, will take care of you now as he listens to your story, thank you.

REV FINCA: Thank you very much Chairperson. Good afternoon Mrs Stols.

MRS STOLS: Good afternoon.

REV FINCA: Are you feeling relaxed?

MRS STOLS: Yes, thank you.

REV FINCA: Good. You have travelled a long way from Grahamstown to come and give your story here today. And we are very grateful that you have done so.

MRS STOLS: Thank you.

REV FINCA: You have told me that you are quite nervous today and you have asked me to lead you. You have asked me to take you through your statement and ask you to confirm what you already have here before us.

You are Sybil Robin Stols and you are here to talk about your partner, Thys Stols?

MRS STOLS: That's correct, yes.

REV FINCA: Your partner disappeared on the 3rd of July 1987, is that correct?

MRS STOLS: That's correct, yes.

REV FINCA: He left your house - did he say where he was going to?

MRS STOLS: He said he was going to Walmer Gardens, Walmer Gardens.

REV FINCA: Walmer Gardens?

MRS STOLS: Yes.

REV FINCA: Do you know what he was going to do at Walmer PORT ELIZABETH HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE

3 SR STOLS

Gardens?

MRS STOLS: Well, they normally played pool and they have a drink amongst friends.

REV FINCA: And on the 4th of July 1987 you were called by the police and they told you that his body had been found.

MRS STOLS: That's correct yes.

REV FINCA: Where did they find his body?

MRS STOLS: In Soweto.

REV FINCA: That is Soweto in Port Elizabeth, not Soweto in Johannesburg?

MRS STOLS: No, in Port Elizabeth.

REV FINCA: You then drove to Louis Le Grange police station and you were asked to identify the body of your partner.

MRS STOLS: That's correct yes.

REV FINCA: How was the body when you found it?

MRS STOLS: The body was so burnt up and it was so bad, I don't think anybody could identify it, so I just prayed and then I went into the mortuary and I said I just wanted to see his feet and by looking at the feet, I identified him in that manner, that way. That's the only way I could.

REV FINCA: Mrs Stols do you have an idea why your husband was killed in this way?

MRS STOLS: I don't know, I have no idea, not at all. No I can't understand that.

REV FINCA: Was he in any way involved in the political conflict that was prevailing at the time?

MRS STOLS: No, not at all, no.

REV FINCA: What was his work?

MRS STOLS: Mechanic, he was a diesel mechanic.

REV FINCA: He was a car mechanic? Mrs Stols, you say that

PORT ELIZABETH HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE

4 SR STOLS

the police informed you that the murder was political?

MRS STOLS: Yes.

REV FINCA: Do you know why they are saying the murder was political?

MRS STOLS: I really don't know.

REV FINCA: Eight men were involved in the murder they said?

MRS STOLS: Yes.

REV FINCA: Were these men charged?

MRS STOLS: They were at the court, but they weren't charged, no.

REV FINCA: They were not charged?

MRS STOLS: No, they weren't.

REV FINCA: So there was no court case about this matter?

MRS STOLS: There was a court case but nobody was charged.

REV FINCA: Nobody was convicted?

MRS STOLS: No.

REV FINCA: Mrs Stols, how do you feel about the death of your partner?

MRS STOLS: I feel very sad and I feel it shouldn't have really happened, but I also feel that they shouldn't just get away because if you take a life, it is very wrong. Is that all?

REV FINCA: Is there any request that you want to make to the Commission on this matter?

MRS STOLS: I would like to see his murderers come to trial and be charged. Is that right?

REV FINCA: You don't know the eight men who were involved in this case?

MRS STOLS: No I don't know.

REV FINCA: Do you know the police station where the

PORT ELIZABETH HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE

5 SR STOLS

matter was reported?

MRS STOLS: Louis Le Grange.

REV FINCA: Okay, so we can get the information from Louis Le Grange?

MRS STOLS: Yes.

REV FINCA: Thank you very much Mrs Stols.

MRS STOLS: Okay, thank you.

REV FINCA: Chairperson, I've got no further questions.

REVD TUTU: Dr Boraine.

MR BORAINE: Thank you Chairperson. Mrs Stols, I am not going to keep you long - I know that you are very nervous today.

Was there any possibility that your husband, that the motive for the murder was theft? I mean did he have a car, was the car found, how did he, have you any idea how did he get to where he was found, was anything stolen, a watch perhaps or money, any details at all?

MRS STOLS: No, I don't think it was theft, no.

MR BORAINE: So his personal belongings were still on him?

MRS STOLS: Well, I mean ... (tape ends)

MR BORAINE: Charged, I know there is a difference between somebody being charged and somebody being found guilty. Were they actually being charged with the murder of your husband?

MRS STOLS: I don't think so, but I know they caught about eight of them. I know they were caught.

MR BORAINE: Just a last question. Did you have a lawyer at the time who could represent you at the court case?

MRS STOLS: No, not at all.

MR BORAINE: Thank you very much.

MRS STOLS: Okay, thank you.

PORT ELIZABETH HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE

6 SR STOLS

REVD TUTU: Dr Ramashala.

MS RAMASHALA: Mrs Stols, do you have any children?

MRS STOLS: Yes.

MS RAMASHALA: How old were they when their father died?

MRS STOLS: Only the one son, he was 16.

MS RAMASHALA: He was 16 then?

MRS STOLS: He was in standard 8.

MS RAMASHALA: What does he do?

MRS STOLS: Pardon?

MS RAMASHALA: What does he do now?

MRS STOLS: He is a manager.

MS RAMASHALA: Manager. You say that the death of your husband affected you. Could you describe a little more how did it affect you, particularly physically.

MRS STOLS: Physically drained. Physically drained and emotionally, very much so.

REVD TUTU: Actually you have done very well for somebody who is nervous.

MRS STOLS: Yes.

REVD TUTU: Thank you very much for coming. We want to express to you our very deepest sympathies for what happened to your family when your husband was killed in this vicious manner.

And we hope as we said to the other people who testified, speaking about their own pain, that God will strengthen you and God will embrace you with His love and compassion and that the loneliness that you must surely experience, will be (indistinct), that you will know that God is Emmanuel, God with us, present in pain, in anguish, in death, in awfulness that God does not leave you, does not leave us.

PORT ELIZABETH HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE

7

But we as a Commission will seek to come to the bottom of all of this and point out that the awfulness of our past includes atrocities of this kind which don't know colour.

And we just hope that in a way to that the pain that you have will enable you to have a solidarity with other women, other mothers, other wives who have gone through similar experiences and that that solidarity will strengthen you, will uphold you as you share in the tears and yet say we have come through that hell and now we are in this kind of country.

And pray that things of this kind will never happen again to anybody. God bless you.

MRS STOLS: Thank you very much.

--------------------