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Special Report Transcript Episode 58, Section 5, Time 23:22I think we were eight or nine. We were handcuffed the following morning, forced to lie on the stomach in the Land Rover and we could see we were going to a place where if they give you bread, you’ll think its cake. That’s Quatro; quatro is a number in Portuguese. We called it Quatro because we used to believe in our country we had a place like Number Four, I think this is the place. What was more surprising is that the uniform they gave was so dirty and then they told us that this is a hell of a place. You could feel… They just pointed to us, that’s your cell, you don’t look anywhere, you just go straight into that cell. If we are five in this cell or ten, if we have to stay for ten years or five years or six years, you’ll only see the face you are with within that cell for that six years. Beatings in Quatro were an everyday thing. I remember one warder by the name of Sonwabo. We went to chop the wood. So, I happen to look around for a stick because we were using a hacksaw and it was very early in the morning, round about eight o’clock. Just for looking aside he beat me from eight o’clock until twelve o’clock. I don’t have any problem with the membership of the organisation as such. I don’t have any problem with my colleagues but I have a problem with the leadership of the ANC. No one came to me, even after killing my father, no one came to me. Notes: Diliza Mthembu (Former Quatro prisoner) References select each tab to search for references Hearing Transcripts TRC Final Report TRC VictimsReporting on prisons 55 The Commission heard evidence from Harold Strachan, about whose experiences in prison the Rand Daily Mail managed to publish three articles in 1965 before he was banned and charged with perjury. The Strachan articles broke an almost fifteen-year silence about prison ... |