491 Days

by Madikizela-Mandela, Winnie; Kathrada, Ahmed; Kathrada, Ahmed

  Dr Morgan: ‘Do not worry about your gross loss of weight, it is natural under the circumstances. I will however prescribe an anti-depressant for you to help you ease the tension and we shall see you again next week.’

  That was the last I saw of this nauseating couple. My informant told me an urgent meeting with Brig Aucamp, the General, members of the Security Branch and all the matrons was held with the psychiatrist immediately I left the office. All the windows and doors were closed and all the prisoners who normally work in the office were ordered off the premises. When she took the tea she was met at the door by the matron (normally she serves the tea) and she overheard the words ‘some sort of trial will have to take place urgently if we are to justify’ . . . the door was closed. She could not recognise the voice, she assumed it was one of the doctors.

  2ND OF JUNE 1970

  The gynaecologist called at the prison hospital and I underwent a very painful examination which last approximately an hour. Specimens were taken for further tests to establish the cause of fortnightly periods and anaemia. After the examination the doctor told me he was satisfied the cause was mental strain and stress. He also said he will submit his report after the completion of the tests to the Commissioner of Police.

  On the 10th of June I was discharged from the hospital and sent back to the cell. Towards the early hours of the following morning all the symptoms started all over again. I asked to see the doctor on the 12th. Brig visited me in the cell late in the afternoon with the matron. He told me the doctor would see me on Monday the 15th. On Saturday the 13th my condition grew much worse, the senior hospital orderly came to take my temperature and found that I was running a very high temperature. I was ordered back to bed which was brought to my cell. The temperature got worse, our cells have no window panes and the draft is terrible during the night.

  On Monday 15th I was re-admitted to the prison hospital. On Tuesday the 16th members of the Security Branch visited me to take fingerprints. Brig Aucamp later visited me and told me he was going to Robben Island. He granted me permission to write a note to my husband on condition I wrote nothing political, no date and no address. I wrote a very short note informing Nelson that I was not well. I also wrote that he should arrange with Brig to see our attorney to appoint the children’s guardian so that the guardian should include the children in his passport to enable them to spend holidays with my family. That the fact that they had never been home ever since I was detained might have a grave psychological effect on them in the long run. They are still too young and need the security of the family. I asked him to treat the matter as urgent. I also stated that the attorney and the guardian have to administer the Waterford43 Bursary and certain forms to this effect have to be signed urgently. Brig reminded me that I was not to mention the note to anyone as he had been stopped from permitting correspondence between us. He was doing me a special favour!

  MEDICAL REPORTS

  I would like my defence to apply for all the medical reports which have been submitted to the Commissioner of Police. After all Mr Levin was furnished with fully detailed reports each time I saw a doctor, and he had not even asked for these reports. I suggest we ask for these reports from the very first one dating back to the 12 of June 1969, the first date on which I was seen by a cardiac specialist. I am naturally concerned about the fact that there seems to be a great deal of anxiety about my present state of health on the part of Brig and the prison senior staff. The day he left for Robben Island Brig told me they were awaiting further instructions on the various specialists’ reports before I undergo further treatment.

  41. 8 kilograms.

  42. The then South African prime minister, John Vorster.

  43. Waterford Kamhlaba school in Swaziland.

  Chapter 7

  Interrogation

  I was taken to Compol Building for interrogation. I was interrogated continuously day and night . . . I started answering their questions on the fifth day. Several other people whose connection with me was just their visits to my house were reported to be detained by Major Swanepoel until such time as I would answer their questions. I was told by Swanepoel that these people would be released as soon as I gave satisfactory answers which were in fact merely confirmation of everything they knew. (FROM THE JOURNAL)

  MAY 1970

  INTERROGATION

  (a) On the 1st of May 1970 I was taken to Compol Building for interrogation. Upon arrival I was taken to Major Swanepoel’s office where he and Major Ferreira44 interrogated me. The interrogation went as follows:

  Major Swanepoel: ‘I notice you look very cross and you have lost a great deal of weight. What’s the matter? Why do you look so unhappy?’

  Acc. No. 4:45 ‘I have nothing to be happy about.’

  M.S: ‘Have you lost a lot of weight?’

  Acc. No. 4: ‘I am not in the habit of answering the obvious.’

  M.S: ‘Anyway you have been brought here for re-interrogation. We want a lot of details from you about your connections with the overseas group, especially about the correspondence you carried on with that Tanzania crowd. We have discovered that you know far more than you made us believe when we interrogated you. Now I am going to ask a lot of questions and you must answer them.’

  Acc. No. 4: ‘You kept me awake for five days and six nights to answer all your questions. In terms of the Terrorism Act you took me to court after you satisfied yourselves that I had made a satisfactory statement, otherwise you would not have stopped interrogating me. I am not answering any questions.’

  M.S: ‘That is where you are making a mistake; what we did then does not matter at all. We want new information from you and you have to answer the questions and you know we are very patient. Are you going to answer now or on the date of your choice?’

  Acc. No. 4: ‘I have told you already I am answering no questions and if you keep asking me the same thing I’m going to keep quiet that’s all. There is only one place where you and I can talk to one another – that is in court – rotten as our country’s courts are, they are my only platform even though the magistrates and the judges are your puppets. My only consolation is that I’ve got the world on my side and you are an isolated minority.’

  Major Ferreira: ‘You seem to have completely forgotten that you are a detainee and at our disposal at that. Look here, you are detained under the Terrorism Act, I’ll bring you a copy to read, perhaps you do not know that we can interrogate you as long as we wish. If you do not want to answer now we will try again next year or in 1978. Let me go and get the Act and show you what I mean. (He left the office to fetch the Act.)

  M.S: ‘You talk of platforms Winnie, I am only a policeman, I have nothing to do with platforms. I am only concerned with State Security as you know. You have made serious allegations about the country’s magistrates and you know I get as much help from them as anyone else whenever I appear before them.’ Acc. No. 4 interjected: ‘Yes they give you utter hell! I particularly noticed the hell they gave you on the Lenkoe46 case’s two-minute judgement. At least you should have electrocuted the right man.’

  He suddenly stood up and went to look through the window which is behind his desk giving me his back, both hands thrust into his trouser pockets. I could see him breathing heavily. I knew he was battling to control his temper. Just then Major Ferreira walked in and said he could only find the Afrikaans copies of the Act and wanted to know if I could read Afrikaans. I told him I speak the language of my first oppressors and that the raw and undeveloped so-called language of my second oppressors was not compulsory in the Cape where I was educated. Major Ferreira was furious with me over this and he threw the Act on the table. They both resumed their seats.

  M.F: ‘You are simply wasting your time anyway. You better know right now that you will talk whether you like it or not. No one is here to please you anyway. You are delaying your own case. You will determine when you want to go on trial. We discovered you merely confirmed what we said and you told us nothing of your own accord.’
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  Acc. No. 4: ‘Brig Aucamp told me we are detained because we violated prison regulations. I have nothing whatsoever to do with you, I expect the Commissioner of Prisons to frame charges against me in any case, not you.’

  M.F: ‘And what is Brig Aucamp in this matter? We are concerned with interrogating you and we are going to use certain methods to induce information from you since your attitude is what it is. You are going to talk against your will for that matter.’

  Acc. No. 4: ‘You can use the Phillip Golding47 method or the Caleb Mayekiso48 method, whichever you please. We can go to the torture room now, I’m ready. My defence has my instructions on my prospective inquest.’

  M.S: ‘Now that is the real Winnie Mandela talking! Do you know where we are Major Ferreira? We are back in the early 60s, that’s how wild she was. I thought she had outgrown that. We disappointed her then, we knew she was dying to be picked up for 90 days but we decided not to. And you know what is so bad? She means what she says and no one can do anything about it. Alright Winnie we shall try again, next week, next month, next year etc. Won’t you give us your nice smile before you go? (I kept quiet.) Please take her back Major, it’s Friday, perhaps Fridays are not her best days or it’s our unlucky day.’

  I stood up and M.S. again said: ‘By the way you’ll find your lunch cold in prison, what can we buy you for lunch? Don’t you also need some cosmetics, we will buy you anything just give me a list.’ (I kept quiet.) He repeated the above question thrice with no response from me. He then ordered Major Ferreira and another officer to drive me back to Central Prison. Upon our arrival Acc. No. 7 was taken.

  I have no knowledge of any additional evidence against me. I therefore assume that the case will be as before unless the charges in the new indictment date back prior to October 1967. In that event there may be new charges of recruiting for military training. There are two witnesses who gave evidence in the Rivonia49 case and the Carneson trial who would give this evidence. The charges would then have to date back to 1962–1964 when such activities took place. None of the present accused were involved in my activities then. The last batch of 64 recruits were arrested on their way out. None of them revealed my name. Most of them served prison terms and others were released. They are almost all out now.

  44. Petrus Ferreira of the security police’s ‘Sabotage Squad’.

  45. Winnie Mandela.

  46. James Lenkoe died in detention and Joel Carlson acted for his widow at the inquest. The judgment referred to could be the inquest judgment, which pronounced it to have been suicide.

  47. A British trade unionist who was tortured and forced to give evidence in the first trial in December 1969.

  48. A detainee who died in detention eighteen days after his arrest in May 1969.

  49. The Rivonia Trial for sabotage against Nelson Mandela and his comrades.

  Chapter 8

  Interrogation and Other Issues

  After Winnie Mandela’s husband was arrested on 5 August 1962, he was initially held at the prison in downtown Johannesburg known as The Fort or Number Four. While he was there he met a prisoner serving a sentence for fraud. This man, Moosa Dinath, was usually allowed to mix with him and was also occasionally allowed out of prison. He was married to a white woman named Maud Katzenellenbogen or Maud Kay. Dinath persuaded Nelson Mandela that their wives should meet. While they became friends, it later transpired that Maud was not to be trusted. She and her husband introduced Mrs Mandela to a way her husband could escape from jail.

  In 1962 when my husband was at the Johannesburg Fort I visited him regularly. In one of my visits he told me to go to a certain flat in Twist Street where I had to meet his friend’s wife, Maud Kay. He also told me about Moosa Dinath who was sharing the same cell with him, what a wonderful person he was and how well he looked after my husband. He also told me not to worry about bringing him food as there was too much food for Dinath who shared it with him.

  Before I went to the flat I received a cheque from Mrs Kay just as a gift for the children. In a covering letter to the cheque she directed me to her flat in case I wanted to visit her. I went to the flat – that is how I met Maud, we immediately became very good friends. She literally clothed me and my children.

  One day in November 1962 just after my husband was sentenced I received a telephone call from the officer who was in charge of the Fort. At this stage I had met Dinath several times in the company of my husband during my visits. The officer received me in this office, he told me Dinath wanted to see me to convey an urgent message from my husband. Dinath later came into the office. He told me in a coded language that he had worked out a scheme with the officer in charge of the prison through which my husband could be smuggled out of prison. The officer wanted a lot of money for this as he was taking a serious risk. I was told to go and think about this. I reported this matter to some officials of the ANC.

  A day after this discussion I received another telephone call from the same officer to report to his office. He told me that police had decided to transfer my husband on a Saturday that same week and that I had to act fast. My husband was later brought in. He spoke to me about the same matter in coded language. He said he was leaving everything to me to investigate. I was with him for a few minutes. Dinath was later brought in. He discussed this with me. He told me I would be given the details later that same day.

  I again went to the same ANC official who told me the prison official would meet me on a Saturday night and I was to hand over to him a deposit and then a getaway car was to stop at a certain corner. I was to be given a certain sign which meant my husband had left the prison and was on the way to the getaway car. Then I have to hand over the rest of the money. I was also told that my husband was to be provided with material to saw the bars of his cells. As this was related to me a telephone call came through.

  The call was for the person I was speaking to . . . the prison officer was on the phone. He had changed his mind, he wanted all the money in advance before my husband was handed over to me. I asked for time to go and think the matter over. I returned later in the day and was shown all the money wanted by the officer. I had made my decision then.

  I explained that I feared that it might be a plot to murder my husband as he might be shot dead after escaping, and the excuse would be he was found trying to escape from custody. I refused to carry out the scheme and so my husband was transferred to Pretoria Local Prison.

  Mrs Mandela was also interrogated about the funeral of her mother-in-law, who died on 26 September 1968 while Nelson Mandela was incarcerated on Robben Island. He was forbidden from attending her funeral. Winnie Mandela was granted a reprieve from her banning orders to leave Johannesburg to bury her mother-in-law.

  Her prison journal details not only the funeral but demonstrates how the act of burying a member of the family had become part of the police investigation against her. Here she writes about it for her own notes and for her attorney’s eyes after she had been questioned about it under security police interrogation.

  MY MOTHER-IN-LAW’S FUNERAL

  On the 6th of October I attended my mother-in-law’s funeral in the Transkei. My family and myself were transported to the Transkei by Sikosana who took us down ‘out of sympathy’. I did not have money to hire a car and was given four days. I furnished the Chief Magistrate with Sikosana’s name and address. I got him through Mrs Ndala who furnished me with his telephone number which I entered in my little green diary which was produced in court as having been found by Major Viktor.

  The following travelled together with me: Telia Mtirara,50 Edna Mandela,51 Olive Nomfundo Mandela, Tanduxolo Madikizela52 and my two daughters.

  At the funeral I met No. 2053 who approached me on his own. He was covering the funeral for the Daily Dispatch. We discussed the general political situation. He told me he had been abroad to the offices of the ANC and also said he was a bit distressed by the lack of political activities. I told him I would communicate with him. He gave the address I should u
se. I met several other people with whom I made similar arrangements. I addressed several meetings at night. Both the Matanzima54 Camp and the Dalindyebo55 Regions were well represented.

  I left Sikosana with my children at my father’s quarters, the Dept of Agriculture and Forestry where they had a royal time. They attended the funeral and returned immediately to the government quarters.

  Sikosana and my sister-in-law fetched me earlier than we had arranged from my mother-in-law’s place because my small daughter (9 yrs) started performing and rebelling against staying in a government house, she wanted to return to Johannesburg. When the big one joined her in the performance we drove back to Joburg. I paid for the petrol only.

  My children had to return to school which was already opened. We dropped Telia Mtirara at work. On our way to the Orlando Police Station where I had to report my return, my small daughter who is an embarrassing extrovert said to Sikosana, ‘Uncle Sikosana you know my mummy is going to start running around looking for a car to take us to school,56 you have a nice big car won’t you take us?’ I could not pinch her on time as I often do. And so Sikosana took them to school the following day after entering them in his travel document57 with ease. Again I paid just for petrol. From then Sikosana became very friendly with my children and they were very fond of him. When they were on holiday he used to take them on drives to Maud, Alexandra58 and places unknown to me.

  Under interrogation I did not understand when Swanepoel and others kept on saying I was ungrateful and if there was anybody the police have assisted with transport and children it was me. They also said they will see to it that I pay dearly for this and there was someone who would not like it at all on Robben Island.